Zambia Forestry Program

Chief Simwatachela has recently granted SSAAP a piece of land in which to begin a tree-seedling project, which will eventually become a forest, in an effort to bring rainfall and more vegetation to an area rapidly becoming a desert.

To conserve the indigenous ecosystem, for every community group that participates in the project, we will plant two indigenous trees in the areas in which there is no erosion. The issue here is protecting the indigenous trees against the new imported trees, which have little to no indigenous inherent healing value to the medicine men (N’gangas) in the village. Planting indigenous trees will promote the work and health of the traditional healing methods of the N’gangas.

The Forestry Program will aid in the following ways:

  1. Soil conservation

  2. Elimination of erosion

  3. Provide the best antidote against global warming; global benefit is called “carbon sequestration.”

  4. The inherent indigenous benefit of keeping the culture intact through using bark, roots and leaves as medicine.

  5. The commercial value: trees can be used to make furniture and other household necessities, and for making arts and crafts.

With crop intensification, it will become possible to allow some of the area to revert to forest again. This is the best form of carbon sequestration.






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