marginalised individuals who are
excluded from the formal economy
in impoverished communities to
grow indigenous trees in exchange
for essential goods. Currently we
are working in nine communities
with 100 Tree-preneurs who are
provided with all the materials required to grow trees. Spier has provided land, facilities and a full-time
manager to drive this initiative in
the Western Cape. Tree-preneurs is
also an enabler for the SRC river
rehabilitation programme, creating
direct employment and furthering
the footprint of the Tree-preneurs
into more communities.
Spier in conjunction with Wildlands
and the SRC have furthered the
impact of the programme by donating 10,000 trees to the Stellenbosch Municipality’s Million Trees
Programme with a specific requirement that all trees grown in this
model are planted back into disadvantaged communities and support
efforts to clean the river catchment
areas that
serve all communities in our region.
In April a Spier team joined others
in planting a 1 000 of our Treepreneur trees along the Plankenbrug.
In December 2014, Spier arranged
for 170 river custodians (including
other SRC members) to spend a day
collecting waste from the river.
919.83kg of rubbish was cleared
(13% of this was recycled). This
collective action inspired some of
the SRC members upstream and we
have participated in a clean up in
the Plankenbrug together with
schools and other businesses during World Water Week in April
2015.
This model of business, local communities and various government
departments working closely together to address the many complex issues in poverty alleviation
and natural resource conservation
has the potential to make a significant and enduring difference in our
region.