“Future generations will pass harsh judgment on a generation that looked at the evidence on climate change, understood the consequences, then continued on a path that consigned millions of the world’s most vulnerable people to poverty, and exposed future generations to the risk of ecological disaster. If we value the well-being of our children and our grand-children, even small risks of catastrophic events merit a precautionary approach.”
From the UN’s One Planet One Chance Exhibit brochure.

When we decided to join the Buy One Give One program, we considered a wide range of charities. Working primarily with children, we naturally looked at a number of very worthwhile and emotive children’s charities, but finally decided to support an environmental charity - the above excerpt succinctly explains why.

So for every registration we now pay for a tree to be planted through Roots and Shoots’ Million Tree Program*. Through these donations and additional fundraising events, we hope to make a significant contribution to their target of planting 1,000,000 trees in Inner Mongolia by 2016.

Each tree costs 25RMB, which includes amongst other things the costs of irrigation, fencing, insurance and maintenance of the tree for 45 years.

Roots and Shoots and its Million Tree Program

Established in 1999, the Jane Goodall Institute-Shanghai is the first and only foreign affiliated non-profit organization registered with the Chinese government. JGI-Shanghai works with 171 schools from pre-school to university level, empowering young people to make a difference, through a program called Roots & Shoots. Roots & Shoots is a powerful, youth-driven, global network of more than 8,000 groups in almost 100 countries. Together, youth of all ages are taking action to improve our world through service learning projects that promote care and concern for the environment, animals, and the human community.
Their Million Tree Project in Inner Mongolia is a voluntary carbon offsetting program designed to help combat the growing problem of desertification in the region. In addition, the program contributes to poverty alleviation in one of China's poorest areas, and engages the local community by paying local farmers to plant and to maintain the trees, guaranteeing the trees to be alive for 45 years.   For more information on the charity and the program download their Program Description and Status Report or visit their website.

You can read the UN’s One Planet, One Chance Exhibit brochure, which was inspired by the Human Development Report 2007/2008 ‘Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world’, in full here. Roots and Shoots has also produced a simple Carbon Footprint brochure, with some facts and tips for energy saving download here.

*Registrations must be full paying for 10 weeks or more. Free, discounted or less than 10 week registrations will be given an opportunity to contribute towards this together with us.