Magna Canvas was meant to be a business that does good in the world from the moment we came up with the concept. Planting trees is one of the most effective and cost-efficient methods of fighting global warming, deforestation and other issues. Our (first) goal is to plant 1 million trees. From every sale we make, we donate 5% to Trees.org.
They do so much more than just planting trees, they are changing lives. Below is just a short summary of the awesome things they do:
Impacting People & Planet
Ending Hunger
Our latest data indicates that the Forest Garden Approach ends hunger for most families after the first year. Only 13% of our project participants were food secure when they joined the program, and after just 12 months of planting Forest Gardens, 86% of our farmers are food secure.
Ending Poverty
Through the Forest Garden Approach, we are impacting the lives of their farmers and children, resulting in positive impacts for over 26,000 people so far. A total of 82% of our farmers have seen significant income increases and more than 92% now feeling capable to brace for any unforeseen circumstances the future may bring.
Ending Deforestation
By decreasing the use of destructive farming practices such as burning, clearing and plowing, Forest Gardens reduce deforestation by eliminating farmers' dependence on forests for food, timber, and many other non-timber forest products. The positive environmental impacts of a Forest Garden are endless.
The Approach
The First Year:
Technical support and training on forest garden planning, nursery establishment, planting design and maintenance materials such as seeds, nursery bags, shovels, watering cans and wheelbarrows oversight when seedlings are planted at the onset of the rainy season and farm visits throughout the first dry season to ensure seedlings survive.
Skilled Technicians:
Tailored training to the needs of communities help farmers diversify their planting sites with fruit and nut trees and hardwoods train farmers on sustainable harvesting methods and more difficult topics such as pruning, grafting and seed storage.
Participants learn:
To independently and sustainably harvest leaves, vegetables, fruits and timber from the established forest garden techniques to grow beneficial trees which to add to their forest gardens without further provision of nursery supplies.
Locations
West Africa
For communities living in the arid Sahel the effects of conventional farming and over-grazing have degraded the soils on which families depend for subsistence. Towns along a thousand-kilometre trade corridor that cuts through the countries of Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso serve as mini-trade hubs for large clusters of villages. The programme aims to train communities to establish forest gardens that will create a green barrier to the encroaching Sahara Desert, while at the same time generate livelihoods for people living on less than a dollar per day.
East Africa
The countries of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Burundi are comprised of hundreds of distinct ethnic groups who practice subsistence and cash crop farming, often raising livestock to generate additional income. Along major regional trade routes there is intense population pressure on natural resources, making this region a high priority for implementing the forest garden approach. The goal is to alleviate poverty in the rural and peri-urban farming communities that border these routes. The focus is on the northern Tanzania corridor from Dar-es-Salaam to Arusha where communities will plant forest gardens that provide lucrative market opportunities, improve household access to fruit and vegetables, and produce fodder for livestock and bees.
Central America
Bare mountains across Honduras and Nicaragua have little capacity to trap and store water, leaving them vulnerable to storms and hurricanes. Vital springs on the sides of these mountains dry up each year, plaguing the region with water shortages. Through farmer associations and networks of communities, the organisation works to return tree cover to the degraded mountainsides of these two countries by adding shade and diversity to coffee and cocoa plantations. Trees for the Future also trains smallholder livestock farmers to apply the forest garden approach in producing animal forage; and trains large livestock owners to grow higher-quality forage and protect pastures and waterways from further degradation.
In addition to these three regional programmes, the organisation supports tree planting in seven other countries: Ghana, India, Cameroon, Haiti, the Philippines, Ethiopia and Brazil. Although the factors leading to deforestation, food insecurity and poverty are similar in each of these countries, the design and scale of the forest gardens differ. Each forest garden is designed to achieve maximum social, health and environmental benefits based on the community’s culture, market needs, land availability and severity of land degradation.
