What We Do
Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA) is a leading Section 21 Non-Profit Organisation that addresses food security, environmental sustainability, and greening. Our core purpose is to improve lives and landscapes towards healthy people on a healthier planet. We have a large and diverse programme portfolio with programmes active across South Africa since 1990.
Our ethos is one of efficiency, transparency, and accountability. We run our non-profit like a business / social enterprise and continue to innovate in the space. This approach has resulted in us being one of the best social development organisations on the continent.
After more than thirty years of experience, we understand what it takes to achieve real, long-term sustainability which makes a positive difference to the lives of all South Africans.
Founding Objectives
Contribute to food security, greening, natural resource management, and sustainable business.
Educate and train learners, teachers, and communities of Southern Africa.
Promote environmental activities within all sectors of society.
Promote sustainable economic development and enhance livelihoods.
Build capacity and skills within agriculture, urban forestry, and climate change adaptation.
Trees & Carbon
Trees
Trees give us two of the most important elements for life on our planet: oxygen and food. They also provide us with habitat and shade, and support biodiversity. Trees clean our air, and supply us with timber, fire wood, medicines, and so much more.
Whether benefits are environmental, social, commercial, or even spiritual, looking after our forests and trees is very important. Unfortunately, mankind has not prioritised the protection of forests over the last few centuries. If we are going to restore this balance, we need to plant trees! — and lots of them.
When it comes to planting trees within any development context, FTFA has been doing it since 1990. Our methodologies focus on sustainability and tree survival and have impacted a wide range of beneficiaries from communities and homes to farmers.
Carbon
FTFA has two Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) registered carbon programmes as well as a carbon enterprise which is supported through Enterprise Supplier Development (ESD) budgets. We believe we can restore what was once one of our greatest treasures and you can help us make a difference.
Food Security
Food security — particularly in the context of global climate change — is one of the most important issues of our time. The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet the dietary needs for a productive and healthy life. A lack of food security, within any tier of our society, leads to instability and impacts everyone. Therefore, it is a collective act of social justice that we work towards making food insecurity a thing of the past.
At Food & Trees for Africa, we take a broad view of food security. Our approach includes both income and non-income producing agriculture, small and large scale projects, as well as additional elements of the water-energy-food security nexus. We practice bio-intensive agriculture (in its many forms) including agro-ecology, permaculture, conservation and rehabilitation agriculture, and natural farming. This doesn’t mean we farm without science or practicality — in fact, quite the opposite. We just have a longer-term view on soil health, improving the energy of a system, and maximising its productivity with bio-inputs. It’s all the rage these days — but we’ve been doing it since the 90s.
Climate Action
African Climate Reality Project
The African Climate Reality Project (ACRP) is the African chapter of the US-based Climate Reality Project. It was established to support African Climate Reality Leaders in their efforts to combat climate change in Africa, a continent disproportionately affected by this global crisis.
In 2014, Al Gore (former US Vice President and Nobel Laureate) trained hundreds of Africans from across the continent at The Climate Reality Project‘s Leadership Corps training in South Africa. To date, over 650 Africans have attended one of these trainings and now volunteer as Climate Reality Leaders in over thirty countries in Africa.These leaders come from government, NGOs, youth, media, and science.