More Than Just Planting Trees: Every Order Helps Restore Nature with TreeSisters

Photo above of conservation work in Mbunga, Rwanda, courtesy of Alpha Women Empowerment Initiative and International Tree Foundation

Since 2021, through our partnership with TreeSisters, every order placed via our website has planted a tree. It’s a simple, satisfying idea: you place an order, they plant a tree. But planting saplings alone isn’t the best way to slow climate change, which is why TreeSisters are changing how they work, moving towards a more holistic approach to Nature restoration. We’re very happy to be continuing to support them, donating to their vital work every time you order through our site. Your order might not simply plant a tree anymore, but it will help restore Nature and change lives. Here’s how…

Why Are TreeSisters No Longer Just Planting Trees?

After five years of deep collaboration with global partners, TreeSisters believe that true impact goes far beyond just planting trees. The most transformative way to support communities and address climate change is through reforestation that restores forests and strengthens connections with Nature, empowers local communities, and honours their traditional knowledge. This approach also rebalances power, whilst continuing to place particular emphasis on the leadership and inclusion of women in forest restoration and protection.

TreeSisters’ projects now embrace the complexity of reforestation, recognising that true restoration means caring for the land, supporting biodiversity, and uplifting the voices of those who have lived in harmony with these forests for generations. Focusing on more than tree numbers, their projects aim to restore entire ecosystems, protect vital water sources, and preserve Indigenous cultural heritage. Each project is community-led and designed to meet local needs, often including agroforestry, leadership training, and gender awareness initiatives—making every effort to step toward a greener, more equal future. 

Why Women?

Women have always been at the heart of TreeSisters’ mission and most of the projects they support are either led by women or directly support women’s livelihood and wellbeing. Due to societal and systemic barriers, women are disproportionately affected by climate change. But women often have deep knowledge of their local area and its flora and fauna, especially when they rely on Nature for crucial resources such as water, food and firewood. Empowering women and involving them in key decision-making is vital in tackling climate change.

As Madeleine Scordellis, Restoration Partnerships Manager, from TreeSisters says: “Women are highly vulnerable to the impact of ecosystem damage and environmental harms, but they hold the keys to so many of the solutions we need on Earth right now.”

Read on to find out about some of the incredible work TreeSisters’ partners are doing around the world.

INRANGI FOREST, MOUNT KENYA, KENYA

Conservation work in the foothills of Mount Kenya, courtesy of International Tree Foundation

Only 7% of Kenya is covered by trees, and deforestation is rife. Forests there provide essential resources for humans and habitat for wildlife, including critically endangered elephants, leopards and black rhinos. In the foothills of Mount Kenya, the International Tree Foundation (ITF) and Meru Forest Environmental Conservation and Protection Community Forest Association (MEFECAP) work together to reforest and restore a crucial water catchment that provides approximately 40% of the entire country’s water.

Women in this area know their trees. They can spend up to four hours every day deep in the forest, collecting firewood. This wisdom enables them to earn income working for the project, identifying seeds and tending to saplings, as well as through growing their own fruit trees and selling produce.

The project also trains women to deliver gender equality workshops to men and women, which have helped reduce gender-based violence. And it has trained nine women to install eco-stoves in homes. These stoves, made from locally-sourced materials, drastically reduce the amount of wood needed to cook – meaning women save time, and less wood is taken from the forests.

Kasese, Rwenzori Mountains National Park, Uganda

Conservation work in Rukoki, Uganda, courtesy of Alpha Women Empowerment Initiative and International Tree Foundation

Here, TreeSisters support the work of Alpha Women Empowerment Initiative (AWEI), a non-profit, grassroots organisation run by members of the community. Women both lead the project and have hands-on involvement in protecting and restoring their beautiful, biodiverse locality. Their work increases soil fertility, reduces landslides and erosion, enhances resilience to climate change and provides fuel, food and income.

AWEI apply their understanding of local culture to tackle sensitive issues like gender inequality, early marriage and domestic abuse, with their trained gender champions holding radical listening meetings to help families live together in harmony. They also train women in eco-friendly stove installation, agroforestry and even beekeeping.

The initiative has even opened two tailoring centres, where women are taught to make reusable sanitary pads to sell. AWEI also distribute free pads to vulnerable women and schoolgirls, who often miss school during their periods. A local headteacher recently told AWEI that in the mid-term exams, girls’ achievement was markedly higher than boys’ for the first time – and attributed this to the pads.

Belén de los Andaquíes, Caquetá, Colombia

Children involved in conservation education in Belén de los Andaquíes, courtesy of Corporación para el Desarrollo Sustentable para el Piedemonte Andino-Amazónico (CORDESPA)

Belén de los Andaquíes is an ecologically important transitional zone between the Andean Massif and the Amazon jungle. Large parts of land have protected status, but locals need to prioritise their livelihoods – and many continue with unsustainable activities such as cattle farming.

TreeSisters’ partner, Corporación para el Desarrollo Sustentable para el Piedemonte Andino-Amazónico (CORDESPA), is an NGO run by local residents to work on land management and sustainable development. They teach residents the potential of the existing forest, training them in agroforestry to provide income, strengthen their connection with Nature and encourage pollination and seed dispersal. CORDESPA is working to boost biological corridors in the area, with a goal of planting 100,000 trees. Community members, including women, multigenerational families and schoolchildren all participate.

CORDESPA also work closely with the Ayakuna Association of Women Entrepreneurs (AAWE), whose focus is on biodiversity and whose members are mostly farmers. Alongside running seed swaps and biodiversity training, they work with CORDESPA to create agroforestry systems on cattle farming land, building biological corridors that reconnect the mountains to the Amazonian plain. Not only does this help to preserve the Amazon, but it also provides women with a source of crucial income.

Every Order Helps Restore Nature

While every order placed through our website doesn't simply plant a tree anymore, it does help restore Nature - and help change lives. Find out more about TreeSisters’ partners’ projects around the world here.