In Brief

E: The Environmental Magazine, Jan, 2001

PLANTING TREES FOR THE FUTURE

In an ideal world, sustainable tourism adds value to nature, thus helping avert the kind of development that spews greenhouse gases into the air. Unfortunately, just stepping on an airplane to begin your trip can contribute to the problem.

On average, for each mile flown en route to your destination, one pound of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere. But until non-fossil fuel options become a more realistic choice, the nonprofit Trees for the Future can help offset your negative effect.

Each tree planted through the organization's Trees for Travel program absorbs about 50 pounds of carbon dioxide for each of the first 30 years of the tree's active growth. "Since 1989, we have helped plant over 20 million trees in some of the most environmentally degraded parts of the world," says Bill Ligon, executive director of Trees For The Future. The organization has helped rejuvenate denuded landscapes in more than 60 countries.

Working cooperatively through the local community, Trees for the Future initiates projects that help restore watersheds, reduce soil erosion, provide wildlife habitat, enhance wood used as fuel and building material, and cultivate livelihoods in agroforestry that reduce pressure on forested lands.

In Cameroon, for example, the organization has partnered with the community-based Lun Women's Cooperative in a tree planting program to address soil erosion, low soil fertility and shortages of firewood. "Less than five years later, the Lun Cooperative has become self-sufficient," says Scott Bode, African program director, "Now the Cooperative, using money from tree seedling sales, is moving into other sustainable development activities."

Because humid tropic and sub-tropic areas sustain tree growth at a rate three times that of temperate zones--thus tripling the carbon dioxide-sequestering effect--many projects are initiated in these regions. Since 1998 when Hurricane Mitch first devastated Honduras, Trees For The Future has distributed over four million trees there to help mitigate the effect of future catastrophic storms, and to mobilize communities around alternatives to more damaging land-use practices.

Independent travelers can purchase a $30 Tree Planting Certificate that pays for 200 trees in developing countries such as Honduras, Cameroon, Ethiopia and the Philippines. Some tour groups and agencies also make donations on the behalf of ecotravelers: Ecotour operator Tread Lightly Ltd. automatically contributes $1 (seven trees) for every long distance airline ticket it sells; agencies Escape Artists Travel in San Francisco and Skyward Travel in Takoma Park, Maryland make similar contributions.

While it won't solve global warming single-handedly, Trees For The Future may help delay the consequences, at least until "flying the friendly skies" truly becomes more eco-friendly. CONTACT: Trees For The Future, (800)643-0001, www.treesftf.org.

--John Ivanko

FOR MALARIA: THE COCONUT CURE

The World Health Organization estimates that malaria kills about 2.7 million people annually, about twice as many as AIDS. Half a billion more suffer fever, chills, muscle pain and other symptoms of the disease.

It's no secret that Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis H-14 (Bti) can be used to wipe out the insects that spread malaria. The spore-forming bacterium provides an environmental alternative to highly toxic insecticides like DDT, which is banned in the U.S. But until Peruvian scientist Palmira Ventosilla and a team of researchers developed a cheap and easy incubation method, it might as well have been.

A coconut becomes the only lab necessary when a cotton swab containing Bti is placed inside and sealed. After fermenting for two to three days, the coconuts are split open and left in mosquito-breeding ponds. Mosquito larvae ingest the Bti toxin, which is lethal for them but safe for other life forms and the environment.

"This is the first project of its kind where the community is directly involved in malaria prevention," says Ventosilla who, in 1998, completed a successful seven-year pilot project on Peru's northern coast. Now her research team has been asked to bring the project to the Peruvian Amazon, where researchers found that tea made from the cheap and abundant yuca plant could replace the coconut. The U.S.-based Rivers of the World (ROW) funded a laboratory, and the first applications began last December. The only ingredient not found locally are the Bti swabs, which the health ministry has agreed to provide.

Ventosilla has already trained a team of Mexican scientists, and ROW has expressed interest in transferring the technology to Africa, where many countries still use DDT to combat malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

"The conservative wing of the scientific community has been slow to accept the possibilities for transforming agriculture with ecological production," says Luis Gomero of Peru's Action Network for Alternatives to Agrochemicals. Economic power wielded by large pesticide manufacturers poses a further stumbling block, along with fears from nations with high malaria rates.