Jonas Philanthropies Announces Second Cycle of Funding for Trees for Climate Health

Jonas Philanthropies Contributes $200,000 to 11 New Projects 

(New York, NY) November 30, 2020 — Jonas Philanthropies, a nonprofit dedicated to investing where it matters most, announced today the second funding cycle of its $1M commitment to Trees for Climate Health, an initiative devoted to tree growing domestically and globally. A total of $200,000 in funding will be contributed to 11 projects from 11 organizations across 11 countries around the world. Fifty percent of these projects are led by people of color and all address the effects of climate change on vulnerable populations through tree growing. Each project has the capacity and potential for growth and remains open to additional funders, contact Trees for Climate Health Project Director, Erin Axelrod (erin [at] lifteconomy [dot] com) for more information on how to get involved in joining this initiative as a funder.

“Trees for Climate Health’s data-driven ‘Right Tree, Right Place, Right Community’ approach to reforestation ensures our tree-growing projects have real, sustainable impact on the communities they serve,” said Lendri Purcell, Vice President, Jonas Philanthropies and Founder, Trees for Climate Health. “We are thrilled with the progress of this initiative and look forward to continuing to make a difference around the globe with this second round of funding.” 

“There are few legacies as lasting and life-giving as the growing of trees,” said Donald Jonas, Co-Founder of Jonas Philanthropies. “Through these projects, we hope to create a greener, healthier, and more hopeful future for the world’s children and many generations to come.”

Projects funded in this second cycle include:

  • Forest Garden Approach (Uganda): This project from Trees for the Future, a female-led U.S. based nonprofit, tackles agroforestry in Uganda with the planting of 57,000 trees. The organization will work with 15,000 farmers to transform monocropped agricultural land into climate smart, agroforestry systems in an area of Uganda called Mt Elgon that is suffering from deforestation.
  • Forest of the Desert (India): Using the Miyawaki Method, a japanese method of growing dense plantings in a short time, to grow a forest of 1,600 trees in Jodhpur, India, Maruvan will mitigate deserts and encourage rainwater harvesting in India’s drylands.
  • Maya Nut Reforestation for Food Security and Carbon Offsets (Guatemala): The Maya Nut Institute will add 21,375 trees to native tree crops to uplift indigenous communities in Guatemala, creating employment opportunities for women, teaching youth about reforestation, and providing school lunches.
  • Native Multipurpose Trees for Silvopastoral Systems (Colombia): A project from Center for Research on Agricultural Production Systems (CIPAV) will grow 1,515 trees using a silvopasture technique, which integrates livestock with woodlands, providing an alternative to the detrimental practice of burning forests for cattle.
  • Native Tree Growing to Improve Ecology Through Biodiversity (Spain): Association AlVelAl will grow 6,173 native trees to mitigate desertification in Andalusian Spain. The reforestation project will protect vulnerable species, model restoration for the region, and promote water harvesting.
  • Reforesting Detroit to Improve Watershed Quality (United States): The black and latinx led organization, The Greening of Detroit, will plant 87 trees to expand canopy cover and watershed restoration in Detroit, directly combating the dangers of urban heat island effect.
  • Restoring Fruit and Nut Forests for Climate Change Resilience (Tajikistan): Fauna & Flora International will partner with Tajikistan’s government forestry services to grow 43,182 native fruit and nut trees. These crops play an important role in regional economic generation and erosion and landslide prevention.
  • Restoring Tropical Forests with Kichwa Communities (Ecuador): Aliados will partner with communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon to restore forests in biodiversity hotspots threatened by deforestation from oil, mining, cattle ranching, and mono-crop agriculture. Using an agroforestry technique, it will grow 9,500 new trees to improve the livelihood of the region.
  • Restoring Mangrove Forests for Community Climate Resilience (Tanzania): Community Forests Pemba will grow 16,000 Mangrove trees in Zanzibar, Tanzania as part of a long-term legally-binding Community Forest that will increase available drinking water for people affected by rising sea levels.
  • Trees4Trees (Indonesia): Yayasan Bumi Hijau Lestari (Sustainable Green Earth Foundation) will lead Trees4Trees to grow 14,250 trees in Indonesia. This project will empower local communities to create community forests and provide education on best forestry practices. Trees4Trees prides itself on a monitoring-focused technique which ensures high survival rates among trees.

Cycle two funding builds on the success of Trees for Climate Health’s first funding cycle of $100,00, which was disbursed in June 2020 to seven projects across five organizations around the world which you can read more about here.

About Trees for Climate Health

Trees for Climate Health is a powerful network of partner funders and collaborators who are working to address the impact of climate change by growing over 10 Million trees by 2025. This initiative from Jonas Philanthropies takes an evidence based and data-driven approach to tree growing, identifying the right trees, the right places, and the right communities to create maximum social, economic and ecological benefit.

About Jonas Philanthropies

Jonas Philanthropies is transforming our communities for the better by investing where it matters most, in solutions that can be scaled for the greatest impact. Its programs address high-need issues and audiences with high-impact solutions: promoting leadership in nursing and veterans healthcare, preventing and treating low vision and blindness, protecting our children’s environmental health, and taking care of our climate. For more information about Jonas Philanthropies, visit jonasphilanthropies.org, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.

Contact

To Get Involved:

Trees for Climate Health

Erin Axelrod, Project Director; erin@lifteconomy.com

For Press:

Jonas Philanthropies

Sharp Think: 212.829.0002

Lauren Cody, ext.155; Lauren.Cody@sharpthink.com