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[/one_third]The Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF), in collaboration with Trees for the Future-USA, has transplanted 2,188,000 Acacia, Leucaena, and Prunus tree species in over 80 communities in the 15 Divisions in the Southwest, Northwest, West and Littoral Regions.
This inventory was recorded after visit paid to project sites by ERuDeF Agroforestry Coordinators last September 2017. This statistics according to ERuDeF’s Director of Agroforestry and Agricultural Development Director, Prudence Payong, constitute 73% of the organisation’s tree planting target for 2017. This target was to plant all together 3million trees in farms, water catchments and schools across the regions before the end of the year.
The Director said these trees (Acacia and Leucaena) are planted for the improvement of soil fertility, to serve as life fences, fodder for animals, pegs for beans and yams, nectar for bees, fuel wood and to secure water catchments while Prunus is to be used for medicinal purposes.
The planting of these over 2million trees, is a culmination of a number of activities
“We started by organising seventy one transplanting workshops across the regions. During these workshops, demonstration sites were put in place, with farmers and water catchment committees trained on the different technologies of agroforestry. Nurseries were also set up in all the communities and continuous monitoring trips paid to the sites. Few months after, the seedlings were ready for transplanting and that’s what we are doing now,” Ms Payong explained.
The Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF), in collaboration with Trees for the Future (TFTF), have been making great strides in the restoration of degraded agricultural landscape in four Regions of Cameroon. Since 2007, the agroforestry development programme has improved the soil quality of several hectares on land in the Southwest, Northwest, West, and Littoral Regions.