Ulster Rugby’s Rob Herring digs in to help charity

Self Help Africa said the threat of climate change is “still real and frightening”, adding one of the best hopes our planet has is trees, to “provide effective ways to remove harmful carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”

The charity said trees need to be planted urgently, and at scale.

With the public’s help in planting 100,000 trees across Ireland, Self Help Africa aims to plant one million trees in sub-Saharan Africa, as for every tree planted here it will plant 10 new trees in Africa.

Denny Elliott, head of Self Help Africa in Northern Ireland, said: “The message of this campaign is while no-one can do everything to combat climate change, everybody can do something.

“In Africa, trees not only help remove harmful greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, they also provide an important source of food, income, shade and shelter for rural poor households. I know the public in Northern Ireland are renowned for being extremely generous with charitable giving and this campaign provides a real win win for Self Help Africa as we’re helping the environment at home as well as abroad.”

The campaign is affiliated to a wider UN backed initiative ‘One Trillion Trees’, one of the biggest global reforestation initiatives in history, and the native Irish trees will be planted by the cross-border organisation Trees on the Land, which will organise tree planting days with farmers, smallholders, community groups, councils, schools, colleges and many other landowners as lockdown eases.

The tree planting initiative is supported by Irish dairy brand, Glenisk and will be supported through their Bio Organic Yogurt range. SuperValu is the official retail partner to the campaign, working with Glenisk to support in-store fundraising promotions throughout the year.

Glenisk managing director, Vincent Cleary said: “I travelled to Ethiopia and Kenya recently and saw first-hand some of the damaging effects of climate change. This initiative is a practical response to a challenge that confronts us all and will see Irish households and schoolchildren working alongside African families to plant more trees and help to reduce the effects of global warming.”

*You can get involved by donating as little as £5 which will plant a tree here while that donation will also plant 10 African trees. To find out how you can get involved with ‘One Million Trees in 2020’ and to make a donation, please visit selfhelpafrica.org/onemilliontrees