There are many ways to help the world, but one of the most important is to take action.
Didier Grossemy mission in life is quite simple; "I call it e-transformation and the “e” is for empowerment. I apply it for transforming individual and businesses by empowering them with knowledge and tools. Taking the same principle, I am now applying my mission in life by providing children and families the tools to build additional sustainability and save their lives".
Because it’s about taking action and action starts today! “I always thought that if we could create a simple micro economy bytraining, educating and empowering local communities to sustainably manage their environment, you would greatly participate in reducing poverty” says Didier Grossemy, CEO of X2 World.
Planting trees not only allow us to assist the world in Carbon Offset emissions, but most importantly creates work and saves lives in disadvantaged areas. With a simple task that benefits everyone, we can assist thousands of people’s wellbeing and transform their lives forever.
So when you join X2 you not only creating your future but you are also assisting families in Africa to survive and helping the world to breathe better.
Didier Grossemy committed to donating 5% of X2 gross revenues arising from the sale of X2 Business in A Box Package, X2 Partner Packages and the X2 Business Bootcamp. Every donated dollar by X2 is fully audited and goes towards the various X2 Forest Projects.
PROJECT 1 - Malawi Africa
X2 Vision of fighting poverty in Africa has a dual impact in the world
- Training, educating and empowering the local communities to sustainably manage their environment. Reduce poverty by planting trees and in the same time Carbon Offset the world emissions.
X2 Combating Poverty with Reforestation Projects
- To grow 200,000 per year by establishing a minimum of 20 community tree nurseries, each growing 10,000 trees per year to provide a sustainable source of wood for the future.
- To train, educate and empower the local communities to sustainably manage their environment to reduce poverty.
Deforestation in Malawi, Africa, and Land Degradation
Malawi is a poor country and 80% of the people live in rural areas. Wood is a necessary part of everyday life, and also there is tremendous pressure to clear forests for agriculture.
The present way of life is not sustainable. Wood has always been treated as a free resource, and vast areas of woodland have been cleared carelessly without any replanting for future generations.
This deforestation also leads to soil erosion, land degradation and ultimately climate change which is and will have a devastating effect.
What are the problems?
- Domestic firewood (only 2% of the population have access to mains electricity — just making a cup of tea uses several logs — and deforestation is worst near the main towns)
- Selling firewood (wood is sold to areas where all the trees have been cut down)
- Brick burning (to fire kilns to make bricks)
- Shifting cultivation (when the soil is exhausted, virgin forest is cleared for new farmland — this deforestation has had drastic effects on the environment)
- Bush burning (in the dry season, large areas of land are cleared by burning the bush)
- Building
- Tobacco drying (1 acre of tobacco requires up to 3 acres of woodland to cure the tobacco)
The Reforestation Project
- To establish 20 tree nurseries, each producing 10,000 tree seedlings per year. This will give a total of 200,000 trees per year.
- To carry out regular training and monitoring with all Forest Guards, Traditional Authorities, Chiefs and local Village Development Committees.
- To organise localised education programmes for all local communities and schools, illustrating the problems of deforestation and how reforestation will lead to conservation and better agricultural practices.
- Initially, there would be an emphasis on planting quick growing trees that do not destroy the soil. These trees could be used for firewood, brick burning and building in 4-5 years. From Year 2 onwards, there would be a greater emphasis on growing indigenous trees, fruit trees and agro forestry trees.
Beneficiaries
The project beneficiaries will be all members of the community, including Traditional Authorities, Chiefs, men, women and young people in the district, through the planting of trees and environmental education programmes.
With the local people managing their environment, this project will significantly contribute towards reducing poverty.
Goal
The overall goal of this project is to preserve the existing natural trees and replace the large number of indigenous trees that have already been felled in the Nkhata Bay District. This will be achieved by planting large numbers of trees which will provide sufficient wood for future activities, i.e. cooking, brick burning, etc.
The project will only work with the help and cooperation of the Chiefs and their local communities, and an ongoing training and education programme will be maintained to promote sustainable use of the natural resources for the future.
This programme will greatly benefit women in the area as they will be encouraged to work with and learn about tree nurseries. They will also ultimately benefit from abundant supplies of sustainable locally sourced wood.
In addition, agriculture in the area will benefit from the use of agroforestry trees which will help to improve the soil fertility.
Activities
- Meet all Traditional Authorities, Chiefs, and Forest Guards in the target area.
- Awareness training about deforestation, tree nursery training, compost training, etc.
- Supply of basic tree nursery equipment, polythene tubes and seeds.
- Establishment of tree nurseries.
- Setting up mbaula (fuel-efficient wood burning cooker) projects in various areas.
- Monitoring of tree nurseries and localised training.
- Helping to plan tree planting programme.
- Tree planting.
- Training and caring for the newly planted seedlings.
Conclusion
This project is designed to produce maximum results. The vast majority of the money will be used in the field for equipment and seeds, together with training and monitoring. The main office costs are kept to a minimum.
Managers of the project will be chosen on the basis of ability and a real passion for improving the environment in the Nkhata Bay District.
We are confident that this reforestation project in Malawi, Africa, will have major and long-lasting benefits for the rural area of Nkhata Bay District, and that it will make a major contribution to poverty reduction.
Project - South Africa
X2 and PATT have the opportunity to partner with TMNP to be THE implementation partners in the process of rehabilitating and maintaining one of the most iconic Natural World Heritage sites soon to be named as one of the Modern 7 Wonders of Nature in the World.
We have been offered the opportunity to start a nursery and collect seed from this area, for the rehabilitation of the mountain, and sustainable preservation of this world site. The nursery will be divided into areas for trees for general reforestation, trees for medicinal purposes and bulbs.
We will teach the traditional healers from the communities how to grow the various plants sustainably, harvest correctly and provide mother stock and training to start their own areas for their own use.
Currently there are over 200 traditional healers in the immediate surrounding area, and we would cater for those that come from farther afield as well.
All staff and volunteers will be sourced from the local previously disadvantaged communities, and train the trainer programs will also be implemented.
Infrastructure to produce 500,000 seedlings through to 1m saplings.
This is an opportunity for X2 Partners to become one of the custodians of a WORLD HERITAGE SITE and a world Icon – Table Mountain while providing education and training for local communities to perpetuate their cultural practices, and provide much sought after plants and herbs for the empowerment of these communities.
Table Mountain National Park, South African jewel, international tourism icon and Natural World
Heritage Site
Situated at the south-western tip of Africa, the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) encompasses the incredibly scenic Table Mountain Chain stretching from Signal Hill in the north to Cape Point in the south and the seas and coastline of the peninsula. The narrow finger of land with its beautiful valleys, bays and beaches is surrounded by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in the west and the warmer waters of False Bay and has within its boundaries two world-renowned landmarks - majestic Table Mountain and the legendary Cape of Good Hope. The Park is recognised globally for its extraordinarily rich, diverse and unique fauna and flora - with rugged cliffs, steep slopes and sandy flats - is a truly remarkable natural, scenic, historical, cultural and recreational asset both locally and internationally. Nowhere else in the world does an area of such spectacular beauty and such rich bio-diversity exist almost entirely within a metropolitan area - the thriving and cosmopolitan city of Cape Town.
Cultural Heritage
The Cape Peninsula has a rich social history to compliment its natural wonders ranging from the Stone Age to more modern times such as the two World Wars. As custodians of the 25 000 hectare Table Mountain National Park that incorporates many of these historically significant sites, Park management is also tasked with protecting this valuable cultural heritage.
A Glance the Cultural History
Traces of early stone age tools give evidence that early hunter gatherers lived on the Cape Peninsula around 600 000 years ago. Later inhabitants – the San (hunter-gatherers) - harvested food from the seashore and evidence of their presence are the middens (prehistoric refuse heaps) that are found in a number of caves in the park and reveal a great deal about their lifestyle. About 2000 years ago the Khoi Khoi migrated from the north, displacing the San, bringing with them their herds of cattle and sheep. It was the Khoi Khoi who were the dominant tribe when the Europeans sailed into Table Bay. Other evidence of these early inhabitants is the rock art in Peer's Cave in the central section of the Park.
Early European Explorers
The first in a steady stream of Europeans to visit the Cape Peninsula was the explorer Bartholomew Dias who set sail from Portugal in 1487 to find a sea route to the riches of the East. And in 1488 they had unwittingly rounded the Cape of Good Hope. It was a full 10 years later that Vasco de Gama set sail from Portugal, rounded the Cape and reached India, making him the first person to open the sea route from Europe to the East and proving that rounding the Cape of Good Hope did indeed provide hope of reaching the riches of the East. Probably the most well known heritage site in the Park is Rhodes Estate. Cecil John Rhodes was a powerful and controversial character who could be called the father of conservation on the Cape Peninsula having acquired land spanning the eastern slopes of Table Mountain from Devils Peak to Constantia Nek. On his death this land was bequeathed to the people of Cape Town and protected from development. This land, with the exception of Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, is now managed by the TMNP.
Various different authorities previously managed these sites, and the many different authorities, have allowed many different practices to be conducted on the mountain including commercial forestry. However in the hand over the wood from the forest was also sold and is now being cut down without replacement as they are purely loggers, and the policy has been adopted to return the area to indigenous trees rather than aliens/exotics (pine).
Amongst many varied cultures there are traditional healers that use tree bark etc for their herbal potions. Because Table Mountain is seen as a very sacred place in terms of cultural importance and for that matter the world, these potions are deemed to be extra potent and thus more highly sort after (much like shark fin soup, highly poisonous snake blood etc) Unfortunately there have been some “entrepreneurs” that have seen this area of indigenous trees as an area to illegally obtain the various herbal materials – bark of trees, indigenous bulbs etc to sell to the traditional healers for profit. In 18 months about 1000 trees 150 years and older were stripped of their bark in an unsustainable way – killing these trees. Bulbs of 10 to 15 years old were harvested resulting in a setback of about 100 years to regenerate.
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