The NGO Friends of Usambara Society (FOU), based in the Usambara Mountains of northern Tanzania, is dedicated to tree planting, resource management, and other environmental conservation projects. FOU aims to conserve biodiversity in the Usambaras, reforest denuded lands to slow climate change globally and preserve soils and water locally, educate youth and provide them with improved nutrition from tree products, and help reduce poverty in the region. FOU’s goal is to plant at least 500,000 trees in 2016 -2017 for the rates of $0.1, and more if sufficient funding is available. Based on its success with school tree nurseries, FOU is developing the Green Schools Program to help advance its conservation goals. Tree nurseries at 4 rural schools will grow from seed a range of trees species including species native to the rainforest, fruit trees including avocado, apple, macadamia, and peach, the super tree Moringa, plus other trees used for fodder and windbreaks. Seedlings will be outplanted in the Magamba Nature Reserve to rebuild the forest cover. In addition, the project will plant trees to preserve the Lushoto Jegestal Water Catchment Basin, which supplies fresh water to over 20,000 people in the people in Lushoto Township and is important to the health of the Reserve. Fruit trees planted at the schools and on subsistence farms in agroforestry are a key element to the Green Schools Program. Besides providing much needed nutrition to the children and adults in the area, fruit tree cultivation protects fruit trees growing in the nature reserve. Trees will be planted along streams to prevent future stream bank erosion. Education is an important element of FOU’s work. Today’s children are tomorrow’s conservation leaders and this program creates youth development clubs where the students are put into leadership positions. The school tree nurseries serve as onsite science labs where the students can learn about and practice the scientific method by posing questions and answering them through experimentation. Kids learn from their supportive teachers, who integrate the Trees for the 21st Century curriculum into lessons about environmental conservation, botany, and horticulture, and then put the lessons into practice as they have fun growing and planting trees that beautify their school, their homes, and their region. This project will follow the community participation model and local residents will volunteer in the nurseries and provide other types of in kind support. FOU’s goal is also to educate subsistence farmers about agroforestry so they can increase land productivity. They want to educate the entire population about the importance of preserving and expanding the rainforest in the Magamba Nature Reserve, which is important to help achieve Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals. The Green Schools Program is designed to be a sustainable conservation project. Some of the trees will be sold to raise enough money to obtain inputs for the next “crop” of trees. The program has to make economic sense to the residents, which is why subsistence farmers are given seedlings to plant on their farms. As these trees grow to maturity, food from the fruit trees and Moringa will provide an additional income stream, helping people to graduate from extreme poverty. Let me know if there is anything we can do together with kids down here Thank you Kind regards Yassin Madiwa Project Leader Cell +255 787 094725