Arbor Month – Greening South Africa by planting 1810 trees with Konica Minolta South Africa
JOHANNESBURG – September 01, 2017 – In September, Konica Minolta South Africa (KMSA), a division of Bidvest Office (Pty) Ltd., and Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA), committed to plant 1810 trees in three different provinces across South Africa. Trees will be planted at schools, clinics and community centres in Johannesburg, Newcastle and Polokwane. Johannesburg will see the planting of 900 trees – both Newcastle and Polokwane have been allocated 455 trees each, to be planted at identified beneficiaries.
Staff volunteers from KMSA’s Polokwane and Newcastle branches will join FTFA to plant trees at selected schools, in their respective areas. Says Emily Jones, Trees and Carbon Manager for FTFA, “These contributions make a significant difference to our greening programmes. It is great to work with such a dedicated sponsor as KMSA who enable FTFA to plant trees right across South Africa.”
“Our branch managers realise the importance of Arbor Month and are thrilled to be planting in this most relevant month,” says Ritchi Smith, National Marketing Co-ordinator for Konica Minolta South Africa.
Arbor Day and Arbor Week is a time for all South Africans to celebrate trees and reflect on the benefits they yield in terms of our environment, and our society. Not only do they offset carbon emissions, they significantly improve quality of life. Trees have been shown to decrease flooding, increase biodiversity and indigenous shade trees significantly improve soil fertility. It’s clear that a green environment is a better environment for all.
Food & Trees for Africa concentrates its tree planting programmes at beneficiaries in under-resourced communities and townships across South Africa. These areas tend to have fewer trees and less of a means to plant trees. These beneficiaries apply to the organisation for trees, and if they meet a set of sustainability criteria they are matched with relevant sponsors. In its 27 years of existence FTFA has developed robust support, monitoring and evaluation systems to ensure that the tree survival rate is well over 85 percent.
These 1810 planted trees will offset 667 tonnes of carbon dioxide in their lifetime. The allocation of 1810 trees to the above mentioned areas, brings Konica Minolta South Africa’s total trees donated since 2008 to 32,100 to date.
