🌳 Man on a mission to plant five million trees

Adama Diémé, a 48 year old man from Senegal has set out on a mission to plant five million trees over the next five years. When he returned home to his village he found that only a few of the hundreds of big trees existing in the area when he grew up still remained. Diémé’s project is called Ununukolaal and means “Our Trees” in the local language Jola. Besides his project, he works as a project manager for a Spanish non-governmental organization in Casamance and he also volunteers as an agricultural trainer.

"In some villages, you can't find one tree. They cut them but they don't think about planting again," he told the BBC.

Diémé has begun to raise money for his mission and has used $5,000 from his own pocket in order to kick-start the project. Also, he has been working very hard to engage with other communities in the region and especially reach out to women he knew would be able to rise to the challenge of arranging the mass planting of the seedlings. According to the BBC, the women who plant the trees can harvest the fruits to sell.

"You go into a village and there's no women, it's a disaster," Diémé said.

"But if you go to a village with only women, it's paradise - they are hardworking and work all day every day.

"If you want to lead a good project start with women," Diémé added.

Diémé has paired his passion of planting trees with helping women gain skills to become small-scale farmers and also be able to sell their products at local markets.

"At first, we didn't know how to plant the seeds and what to do to grow the crops," one of the women, Safi Yetou, said.

"Now we have all sorts of fruits to sell at the market and we are not dependent on anyone. We all have an account in the bank now and no-one can tell me what I can and can't do. It's brilliant."

Twelve different kinds of trees are being planted and they range from palm trees to lemon trees. What species being planted depends on the needs of the community and the terrain. During the past three years, more than 142 000 seedlings have been planted and have taken root.

Diémé and his team still have a long way to go and projects like this one is what will make a brighter future come sooner.

Picture: Jo Hollis via BBC