Seeds of Hope project help make a difference in Malawi

Nu Skin's Seeds of Hope project is making a difference as thousands of trees are being planted to help stop deforestation in Malawi Africa. In 2009, product purchases of Epoch Baobab Body Butter from dedicated distributors and customers surpassed the amount needed to purchase and plant 100,000 trees for villages in Malawi.

The need is great as reported by an article in a Malawi paper:

Malawi is grappling with deforestation, which is going at a faster rate than expected spelling even more doom in the world of changing climate.

"It is my wish to see that all the bare land especially on hills, slopes and along rivers and streams is forested throughout Malawi," declared Mutharika.

Ever since President Mutharika came to power in 2004, he has tried all the initiatives in the book to try to arrest the run-away deforestation problem by trying different approaches to the tree planting solution.

Initially, there only used to be national tree planting day started by the first President Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, which was continued by his successor Dr. Bakili Muluzi.

Mutharika first started with national forestry week, and then the following year it was national forestry month before he finally settled for the national forestry season.

Unlike in the other seasons, this season is characterized by a number of launches, starting with the one the President kick-started called national launch, then come regional, district, constituency, area and village levels.

"My government has intensified the afforestation program, hence the introduction of the forestry season to enable more individuals, institutions and organizations to plant as many trees as possible," he said.

Mwale said government has approached the tree-planting season this year in a unique way as it has also extended the exercise to schools.

"Tree planting is a very important exercise because it is clear that the situation is getting worse as hills continue getting bare," she said.

According to the Forestry Department, Malawi is losing 160 million trees against 60 million being planted per year (or losing 100 million trees per year).

It is clear therefore that while Malawi has to endure the deforestation headache, it also has to ensure that its re-planting efforts have all the attention needed to ensure that her forests are back with a thick vegetative cover.