Experts provide guidance
on selecting, planting, and raising tree species that benefit the local
environment and sequester carbon.
TIST
provides training and incentives to farmers to plant trees on available
land. TIST is encouraging development of tree nurseries that collect,
and then germinate, seeds at the end of the rainy season.
Certain
small groups are interested in running nurseries that serve other TIST
groups. Local species are grown from seeds collected at the end of the
rainy season. These trees have proven their ability to survive in the
harsh drought conditions of recent years.
Tree
planting provides shade for dwellings, windbreaks, and reduced soil erosion
while raising the local water table. Trees that produce nuts, fruit, medicines,
and pesticides will also be used in order to maximize the benefits to
the participants.
Although
TIST will initially encourage mixed groves of trees planted near villages,
around houses and along farm borders, later efforts may include introduction
of fruit and nut species that may be successful in certain micro-climates
in Tanzania . “factory forests” or “factory farms” are
not part of the TIST effort.
TIST
tree planting creates a brand new market opportunity for the local subsistence
farmer, sequestration of Carbon and the sale of Carbon Dioxide credits
on the international market.
With
commercial scale implementation of reforestation, TIST expects to have
planted nearly 6 million trees of assorted local species, just in one
single region of Tanzania . With replications, the program could grow
far greater. Each million trees translate roughly into 250,000 tons of
carbon dioxide sequestration.
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