$3 = 20 trees planted

Ski for Trees is an initiative with the goal of mitigating climate change and saving our icy mountain playgrounds by planting trees towards permanent reforestation in developing countries where it is needed most and lifts our poorest people out of extreme poverty.

After the success of Ski for Trees in 2020 Pete has started Ski for Trees 2021 designed to involve anyone and everyone.

Individuals, groups & businesses… anyone can get involved.

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Why Support Ski for Trees?

• Offset your carbon footprint for 25 years for around $150 USD (see how this works below).

• Give back to people and planet where the privilege of skiing or snowboarding is a world away - help lift our poorest people out of extreme poverty, this saves human lives.

• $3 = 20 trees. For $30 USD you can plant 200 trees and create 3 fair wage employment days for people in extreme poverty.

• Planting native species of Mangroves is one of the most effect ways to sequester carbon from the Earths atmosphere.

• Show other mountain enthusiasts that this is an effective way to protect the icy environments that we love.

• Madagascars need is greatest right now with less than 10% of the original forest remaining and 75% of all plant and animal species are endemic, many of these are threatened and the remaining eco-systems are near the point of collapse.

• You can make the biggest difference to climate change with the smallest $'s in developing countries like Madagascar.

• Proven success, see Ski for Trees 2020 - over 100,000 trees planted.
  

100% OF ALL DONATIONS GO TO THE REFORESTATION CHARITY TO PLANT TREES

SEE HOW IT WORKS

Mailout Updates

Read an Article on Ski for Trees 2020

Why Madagascar?
Madagascar is where we can make the biggest impact for the investment, the need there is far greater than here.

90% of Madagascars forest is gone, the remaining 10% hangs by a thread, the native animal and plant species, 75% of which are endemic, rely on these last stands of forest to avoid extinction. The local Malagasy human population also needs these last stands of forest to avoid environmental collapse and starvation. Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in Africa and the world, urgently needs help right now to avoid eco logical collapse, mass extinction of species and widespread famine.

Madagascar is also one the hotspots where we, in the developed world, can make the biggest impact on climate change.

Planting trees towards permanent reforestation in Madagascar has the following affects:

• sequesters carbon per $ investment extremely efficiently,

• provides habitat for endangered species,

• restores ecosystems,

• average annual rainfall increases and returns to consistent levels

• land becomes more fertile,

• life returns to the shallow coastal seas as the silt deposits from rivers decrease,

• food stocks are replenished

• people are lift out of poverty giving them dignity, independence and access to medicine and education.

• The need to cut trees down to survive is eliminated

Soph and I have used the reforestation charity, Eden, since 2015 with our business, Little Difference, and planted over 100,000 trees. We have been there to Madagascar and seen it for ourselves.

Why use Skiing/Snowboarding to plant the trees?
Freeskiing, for me, has been an exhilarating and rewarding journey but it is also a very privileged existence. Over the years I have gained an audience and now have a bit of influence. So I want to give some purpose to my time in skiing, I can see a way to use the audience and influence I have gained to make a real positive difference to climate change where it is needed most by reforesting Madagascar and breaking the cycle of extreme poverty that has caused the deforestation in a country that could not be further removed from the privilege world of freeride skiing.

• I have an audience of climate minded people (mountain lovers) who genuinely seem to want to take action.

• Soph and I are connected to a place that desperately needs that action taken.

• We are in partnership with an extremely effective reforestation charity that can enable that action to be taken.

So I want to convert my privileged skiing into positive change for global issues of people and planet where it is need the most.

Going skiing or making trips to the mountains just for jollies is something only the very privileged people of the world get to do. On our trip to see the tree planting sites in Madagascar Sophie and I saw that many people in the world are just desperately trying to survive and lack the choice to do much else. It dawned on me that we as privileged people who get to go skiing are among the few people of the world that have a choice to try mitigate climate change and help places like Madagascar.

We as regular mountain goers are more aware of climate change than most, many of use have noticed it in our life time. Our icy mountain playgrounds that we love, depend on us, who have the choice… choosing to do something about it.

How Does It Work?
Your donation will plant native trees towards permanent reforestation where they are needed most. $3 USD = 20 TREES PLANTED. Local Malagasy people are employed at a fair living wage to plant the trees, alleviating and breaking the cycle of extreme poverty, allowing them feed their families and send their children to school to raise a new generation of Malagasy who are educated in managing the environment and the importance of reforesting Madagascar.

The tree planting is enabled by the reforestation charity Eden. Sophie and I have partnered with Eden for over 5 years with our business Little Difference with which we have planted over 130,000 trees. We have been to the planting sites in Madagascar, meet the people employed to plant the trees and seen first had the incredible effect the tree planting is having on the environment and local people. It is a holistic approach aimed at permanent reforestation and fixing the problem as its roots, which is really working. We have seen it.

Why US dollars?
This is the currency that the Reforestation Charity, Eden Projects, works in. $3 USD means 20 trees will be planted. This fundraiser is designed to connect the donator to the direct effect of their donation - a defined number of trees planted and fair wage employment days created. USD was chosen for the base currency of this project so donors can easily convert their donation to the affect they will have. Donations are open to anyone and any currency. Anyone with a debit card or credit card from any bank in any currency can make donations on the Eden website here.

The Trees:
75% are various native coastal mangrove species, some of the highest carbon sequestering tree species in the world. The other 25% are various native dry deciduous tree species that make up the forest of inland Madagascar. The trees are protected to maturity by Eden employees.

Mangroves the super trees:
1 mangrove tree sequesters 12.3 kg of CO2 per year over its average life of 25 years. Studies have shown that mangroves “sequester carbon at a rate two to four times greater than mature tropical forests”, and contain “the highest carbon density of all terrestrial ecosystems.” - source https://ourworldindata.org/per-capita-co2.

How many trees do I need to plant with Ski for Trees to offset my footprint?
The average footprint of the average person worldwide is 4.8 metric tonnes of CO2 per year. 1 mangrove tree sequesters on average 12.3 kg/year, 390 mangrove trees would be needed to off set the global average of 1 persons emissions. But if you are like me and live in a developed country, your footprint is probably higher. 

Below is a table of CO2 emitted by country per capita, I have also put the number trees needed to plant with Ski for Trees which will offset your emissions each year for the life of your mangrove trees (25 years), and what that will cost you:

C02 emissions by country per capita & cost of tree planted to offset with Ski for Trees

Note: the price of planting the trees was raised by the charity on 1st of February 2022 from 10c USD to 15c USD.

Madagascar - more info and current situation

Madagascar is one of the poorest nations in Africa. It is not the lush, green, plentiful place that you may have seen on the animated movie. More than 90% of Madagascar has been deforested. The deforestation has happened over the last 2000 years since the first humans arrived but most of it in the last 50 years. Now it is at a critical point. With the forests gone, rain is less frequent, rain that does fall washes fertile soil to the ocean were it fills the shallow waters killing off sea life. The land grows little food and the sea has little food stock. Deforestation in Madagascar is often done unsustainably out of pure desperation by individuals to feed ones family.

The cycle of poverty and ecological destruction is intrinsically linked and it’s a devastating downward spiral.

On top of this, the Malagasy are often dealing with out breaks of diseases like dengue fever and now also COVID19.

Many of the Malagasy people have already lost their jobs due to the global pandemic impact, employment in Madagascar can often mean, life or death, feeding ones family or starvation.

Fair wage employment is essential to breaking the poverty and deforestation cycle. The people suddenly have dignity and purpose, they have education on how to manage seed stocks and grow the forests for their future. Instead of cutting trees to survive day to day they depend on the forests for their long-term future and a source of seeds for their employment and livelihood.

Please help us make this incredible transformation happen in a desperate time of need.

More about Madagascar and reforestation: Eden Reforestation Projects.

Thank you so much!