EMAUA Joins OFP, Aims to Plant 1 Million Trees Per Year
EMAUA is a Swiss-Kenyan non-profit project that plants indigenous trees in a tropical region of Kenya to store CO2 and preserve native biodiversity. The project’s aim is to reach 1 million trees planted per year by 2025.
Julien Kauer founded the organization back in 2015 as a self-sufficiency project in a Kenyan Primary School. Initially, the project sought to plant native trees for agroforestry purposes. In 2019, the organization successfully crowdfunded and adapted its business model from a humanitarian organization to a tree-planting one that reinvests its surpluses into community support activities.
EMAUA’s community-driven and holistic approach to forestation means, for instance, each tree planted contributes to building improved cooking stoves free of charge, which reduces firewood use by 66% in Kenyan households and institutions. They also sensitize primary schools on the need to plant trees and use local resources for organic farming.
In 2021, the organization worked with over 300 small-scale farmers to plant trees covering a total land area of 54 hectares. This year, EMAUA plans to double its operations under the goal to plant 1 million trees per year by 2025. With the support of its monthly donors, the organization is confident of achieving these goals. However, as a community-oriented non-profit, they are mindful of the importance of transparency to boost donor confidence.
EMAUA’s operations are funded by small monthly donors. In that regard, transparency is key. OFP offers the exact tools that will bring us closer to our donor community by further enhancing our transparency.
- Julien Kauer, founder of EMAUA
With OFP’s resources, the organization’s donors will track and verify each forestation project by EMAUA, boosting their confidence and prompting them to invest in similar projects in the future.
