By Angel, Founder, Third Orbit Flora
We at Third Orbit Flora have a mission and a commitment to help our planet flourish while leaving a legacy for our own children in a time when it feels like the climate is changing faster than we can understand. We are utilizing a handy tool created by theGoodAPI company, called Sprout: Plant Trees app, to make donating to the cause of planting mangrove trees easy. This provides everyone with a chance to make a meaningful contribution towards combating climate change by addressing carbon emissions and the widespread issue of deforestation worldwide.
The app functions like a rain collection system, where one drop by itself doesn’t seem like much, but once combined with many other drops will fill the barrel to overflowing! This is the hope we carry, that our contribution of a tree for every order placed in our shop will inspire you to add more drops in the barrel.
Sprout: Plant Trees is how we donate to the Eden Reforestation Project (ERP), which has made significant strides in reforestation efforts. Through the app, they've planted 1,135,071 trees in Madagascar since November 2021. Globally, ERP operates in 10 countries, spanning over 241,150 hectares (595,895 acres) of planted and managed forest. This initiative employs over 6,070 individuals from underserved communities in regions like Mozambique, Nepal, The Philippines, and Brazil, to name a few. (To provide context, one hectare equates to approximately two and a half acres or just under two American professional football fields.) ERP is in their 20th year of reforestation efforts across the globe. Their overarching goal is to plant 50 Billion trees by 2030. In order to stop the devastation to the global climate, “The world needs a trillion trees planted by 2040.” says Dr. Stephen Fitch in their 2022 Annual Report.
The project site in Madagascar significantly contributes to stabilizing global climate temperatures through the planting of mangrove systems that effectively capture and store carbon emissions. “Globally, mangrove systems are estimated to hold an astounding 20 peta-grams of carbon. For a biome representing less than 5% of the world’s terrestrial area, this makes mangroves one of the most important carbon stocks, even more than many rainforests like the Amazon.”
This attribute of Mangroves is only one part of the picture. Mangrove forests and intertidal Mangrove forests in Madagascar are an essential ecosystem for nearly a thousand species of mammals, lemurs, birds and amphibians, many of which are endemic to Madagascar. They also provide sheltering nurseries for fish and other marine life along the coastal regions.
The Eden Reforestation project is helping communities to help themselves, empowering families to get out of poverty long-term, increasing the economic resources available to the regions where the planting and preservation is happening by providing jobs, food and resources for continued growth and success. Restoring forests and ecosystems not only benefits the environment but also aids communities by guarding villages and homes from tidal forces and storm surges.
Join the fight to save our home and help underserved communities across the globe. Whether it's through making a purchase from our shop here at Third Orbit Flora so that we can donate a tree to Sprout: Plant Trees at no additional cost to you, or donating to plant two more trees for an additional $1 (or as many increments of that as you would like). Be a part of the mission at Third Orbit Flora to reforest our planet and leave a legacy of a future for the inhabitants of our one Earth.
- Angel, Founder, Third Orbit Flora
Photo Credit: Art Exclusive to Third Orbit Flora; Generated with AI from our artists’ visions and concepts. Watercolor painted style of a broad canopied Mangrove tree with roots arching into water, the sun rising behind and the sky afire with morning colors. Logos for Third Orbit Flora, Sprout: Plant Trees, theGoodAPI, and the words Earth Day 2024 surround the Mangrove tree.
If you’re interested in a deeper understanding of Mangroves and their importance in stemming the tide, check out our science article for more information.
https://thirdorbitflora.com/blogs/plant-news-1/mangroves-importance-in-stemming-the-tide