Mangrove planting in Madagascar. Where most of our trees have gone.

Why Madagascar

Madagascar lies in the Indian Ocean, about 400 kilometres off the coast of East Africa. It is the second largest island country in the world, and one of the most remarkable places on Earth for wildlife: it is counted as a biodiversity hotspot, and more than 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else.

It has also lost vast areas of its original forest in recent years. That has pushed animals out of their habitats and made it harder for local people to farm and live on the land. On the coast, whole mangrove estuaries have gone, leaving bare earth to wash into the sea.

Why mangroves

Mangroves are small trees that grow along tropical and subtropical coasts, with their roots in salt water. They do three jobs at once.

• They store carbon. Coastal wetlands can hold around five times as much carbon as tropical forests over the long term, most of it locked in deep, waterlogged soil.
• They shelter sea life. The tangle of roots in the shallows is a nursery for fish and other marine species.
• They protect the coast. A band of mangrove forest takes the force out of floods and storms before they reach the land behind it.

Who does the planting

The project is run by Eden Reforestation Projects, a non-profit organisation. Eden hires people from local villages to grow the seedlings, plant them and guard them until they are established. It calls the approach “Employ to Plant”.

So the project restores forest and provides paid, steady work in the same place. People who depend on the coast have a reason to look after the trees that protect it.

The project on record

This project is complete. Ecologi began funding it in 2019 and now lists it as “previously funded”, which means new contributions go to its current projects. The figures below are the ones Ecologi published while planting was under way. The last counted update is from April 2020, so the final total will be higher than these.

Ecologi puts the area planted with its members’ funding at around 600 hectares of degraded coast in the north-west of the island, near Mahajanga.

1. 2019The first site opens near Marotaola, with a plan to start with two million mangroves and then move along the coast.
2. May 2019Half a million trees planted.
3. January 20201.3 million trees planted, and 11,818 paid working days provided for local planters.
4. April 2020Eden reports 1,888,483 mangrove trees planted with Ecologi’s support, and 35 full-time staff employed.

1,888,483mangrove trees planted by April 2020, the last figure Ecologi published for this project.

How the project is checked

We do not choose or run the projects ourselves. They are selected and monitored by Ecologi, which assesses its nature projects against its own published framework before they are approved. This project carries Ecologi’s “Nature Project Approved” mark.

Ecologi also keeps a public record of what each of its members has funded, so our contribution can be checked by anyone. The link is in the project details below.

What Printlogik has funded here

Through the Print A Tree Project, Printlogik orders have funded 6,463 trees at Marotaola. That is the largest share of all the trees we have funded, and the reason this project comes first on our list.

Because the project is now complete, that figure is our final count here. Every order we print still funds planting: the contribution is made for you through Ecologi and goes to the projects it is funding today.

How your order gets here

1. You order printAny order, of any size. There is nothing to tick and nothing extra to pay.
2. We make a contributionEach invoice triggers a contribution from Printlogik to Ecologi.
3. Trees go in the groundEcologi funds projects like this one, and records what we have funded in public.

The UN global goals it supports

The United Nations has set 17 Sustainable Development Goals for a fairer, healthier planet by 2030. Ecologi records this project as supporting 10 of them.

• 1No poverty
• 2Zero hunger
• 3Good health and well-being
• 5Gender equality
• 8Decent work and economic growth
• 10Reduced inequalities
• 13Climate action
• 14Life below water
• 15Life on land
• 17Partnerships for the goals

Where it is

Marotaola, Madagascar · 15.9°S, 45.6°E

Location	Marotaola, Madagascar
Type of project	Reforestation
Run by	Eden Reforestation Projects
Status	Completed. Ecologi funded it from 2019 and lists it as previously funded
Funded by Printlogik	6,463 trees
Full record	See it on Ecologi