Food Trees - For Climate and Communities

HELPING PEOPLE AND PLANET

With our customers' support, Yogo has helped plant tens of thousands of "forest garden" trees through our one-for-one Food Trees program. For every product you purchase, Yogo donates a food-bearing tree plus farming supplies and five years of agroforestry training to a low-income family in Africa.

Through her work in climate change, founder Jessica knew that the roots of deforestation are often in poverty, causing locals to deforest land for survival. So when she set up a give-back tree planting program in 2014, she was keen to create one that addresses not just growing trees but also supporting good livelihoods. Our community-based agroforestry program provides multiple benefits to African families and the planet: community income, agriculture skills, business training, food, education, land restoration and climate stabilization.

WHERE WE WORK

We work with our award winning partner NGO, Trees for the Future, which has completed 32 years of community forestry and is currently working alongside local staff in African countries: Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, and Tanzania. They work to ensure that each family can independently and permanently feed themselves while enriching the earth and addressing climate. This supports independent long term thriving, not dependency.

WHY "FOOD TREES"?

Food trees are amazing! “Forest gardens” are mixed agricultural systems starting with trees which provide shade for the other food- and herb-bearing plants. Instead of export-based mono-cropping, the agroforestry species diversity helps boost yields, restore soil, revitalize degraded land, and produce a complete set of nutrition.

And this approach has environmental upsides! Each tree planted may sequester about one ton of carbon as well as restoring soil and improving watersheds. In the degraded land settings where Food Trees program works, agroforestry systems repair and restore barren land and water systems, bringing them to life.

Food Trees helps farmers to:

Produce food and manage land sustainably
Restore the environment and biodiversity
Create marketable goods and long-term income
Strengthen families and communities, especially women and children

When you plant trees, you also:

Improve family nutrition and provide sustainable fuel and fodder
Expand education and employment opportunities
Protect forests and reverse environmental degradation
Capture carbon and build resilient communities