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Size of Wales

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Size of Wales Project

Here's Alice from Pontypridd, Wales and Juliet from Bubutu, Uganda promoting the size of Wales project. But what is the Size of Wales Project?

1,000,000 Trees for Uganda

John Griffiths AM Welsh Government Minister for the environment and sustainable development and Jon Townley from 'Wales for Africa' visited the tree nursery at the Salem orphanage in Nakaloke, Mbale in Eastern Uganda. Salem is one of four local groups in the region helping Wales to plant 1,000,000 trees.

As well as helping to reduce CO2 levels which helps fight global climate change the trees help to maintain reliable rains by transpiring water vapour into the atmosphere. The trees also help to protect the soil from erosion. Trees also provide valuable crops from fruit, to animal feed, to firewood and in the long term even building materials.

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Uganda

The 1,000,000 trees programme has been designed to maximise economic benefits by contributing to local farmers activities through agroforestry. The region has over 90,000 coffee farmers on the slopes of the extinct volcano Mount Elgon where the height made the climate cooler. The trees are desperately needed to shade the coffee bushes which have been damaged by increasing temperatures due to climate change.

The project has also provided many fruit trees for community groups and schools. Whilst there, John Griffiths planted some fruit trees in a school on the border with Kenya. Wales = small country but big impacts.

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Uganda

The success of the size of Wales project and the 1,000,000 trees for Uganda project has led to United Nations investment of an additional $2,000,000 and Wales for Africa being invited to explain to the Secretary General and the rest of the United Nations just how effective our project is!

TACC - Territorial Approach to Climate Change

The Welsh Government has been selected by the United Nations to run one of ten global pilot projects in overcoming the effects of climate change; not in Wales but in Africa! In December 2011 at the global climate change conference Jon Townley from Wales for Africa and his Ugandan colleagues gave feedback to Ban Ki Moon the UN Secretary General and other officials on progress. Unlike the other 9 projects where the pilot project budget was largely spent on training locals by accommodating and training them in expensive universities in countries like France the Welsh model was quite a bit different. University lecturers from The University of Glamorgan instead volunteered to go unpaid and train the workers in essential skills such as using G.I.S. on the ground in Uganda meaning far more of the budget can be spent on actually doing something about climate change in Africa.

In fact the world sat up when it realised that Wales for Africa is about people in Wales volunteering to help - not being paid! We really are doing something very different here.

In fact this year you can do something to help as well:

Activity

Read the different case studies on the Size of Africa website and design a PowerPoint to encourage fellow students to join the Size of Wales project. Either register as individuals, your family or get your school to join. Help to fill up the map on the website.

Related links

Could you register to plant one of a million trees which is one target of the Jubilee Woods Project or could you organise s tree planting event in your school or community.

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