Committed to carbon offsets: Reforesting the Ferlo Desert
“We are proud to be one of many organisations that support WeForest's reforestation projects. Fighting climate change is a collective endeavour, and it is only by working together that we can make the most meaningful progress."
Lynn (Yun-Chen) Cheng, Senior Manager, Finance & Sustainability Transformation, CSR Coordinator at Deloitte Luxembourg
One effort to stopping climate change is through prevention. Another tactic is through restoration. To help realise the carbon offsetting targets of Deloitte Luxembourg and DCE member firms, we’ve helped fund WeForest’s transformative project, the "Great Green Wall."
Established in 2010 and based in Brussels, WeForest is an NGO dedicated to developing holistic and multi-stakeholder reforestation projects through forest and landscape restoration. Their mission focuses on conserving and restoring the ecological integrity of forest landscapes alongside local communities and preventing future deforestation.
The Great Green Wall is one such initiative and has the ambitious aim of growing 8,000 square kilometers of trees across East and West Africa. Deloitte Luxembourg’s contribution has specifically gone towards regreening the Ferlo Desert in Senegal with 20,492 trees across 81.97 hectares, to be exact.
In general, reforestation efforts can have multiple positive impacts for the environment, landscape and surrounding communities, including:
- Reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration through carbon sequestration
- Enhancing biodiversity by providing liveable habitats for animals • Increasing resiliency as a result of more enriched and structured soil
- Regulating temperature and humidity levels
- Facilitating water cycle via transpiration of absorbed ground water
Through various initiatives, WeForest has planted 100 million trees across 70k hectares (700-million square meters) over three continents so far.
