HKUST Global Days of Changemaking 2020

Working with EcoMatcher, a social enterprise serving as a platform to connect tree planting organizations all around the world, we plant a forest of 1,000 trees in Peru via Plant Your Future (PYF). PYF works with disadvantaged smallholder farmers in the Peruvian Amazon and provide them with high quality seedlings; farmers plant the seedlings on their land. There will be 6 farmer families benefited from this campaign planting the 1,000 trees.

Watch this video to learn more about PYF's work in Peru.

Your contribution finances the growth of the seedlings, the transportation of the seedlings to the farmers and the livelihood and education of the farmers. The farmers who take care of the trees will own the trees, and your funding will also allow them to reap the benefits that the trees may offer to their community.

Each tree will be recorded with it’s individual photo, GPS location, date of planting, species and even the farmer which it was planted by. You can virtually travel to your trees, look at the trees and the trees’ farmer and you can even talk to your trees through EcoMatcher’s TreeTracker application, making sustainability fun and engaging.

No. The local farmers, carefully selected by the planting organization, have signed an agreement with the organization promising that they will take good care of the trees. This will also be in their best interest; as the trees will help improve the condition of their soil, which can be used to grow other crops they can sell. The organization will make it a point to regularly check upon the trees.

The planting organization works with smallholder farmers in Peruvian Amazon to plant trees in agroforestry system — planting a mixture of native fruit and timber trees, which will generate an income for the local farmers from the sale of fruit, timber and carbon credits. Improving the income and livelihoods of those at the grassroots increases our chances of fighting climate change effectively, as well as protecting habitats for the incredible biodiversity that calls the Amazon Rainforest home.

Agroforestry is an economically and ecologically sound practice that incorporates cultivation, conservation and tree planting alongside crops or livestock farming. It is an efficient method of land utilization by integrating unique relationships within a given ecosystem that embraces the benefits provided by trees into agriculturally productive landscapes, which can be adapted by both small as well as large-sized land-holders. The intentional combination of agriculture with forestry increases biodiversity and reduces erosion. Agroforestry also emphasizes on the utilization of various indigenous shrubs and trees to multiply output while protecting the resource base.