SRO News | Updates: Runners at Race Against Global Warming get Tree Planted in their name

Runners at Race Against Global Warming get Tree Planted in their name

Published Sunday, September 16, 2007 by SROmgmt | E-mail this post

taking care of the nursery. Photo: M. Arnoldus

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Runners at the Race Against Global Warming get Tree Planted in their name

September 14, 2007 (Santa Cruz, CA): At the Race Against Global Warming this September 29th in Santa Cruz, CA, registered participants will get a special gift in their name: an indigenous African hardwood planted at the Mezimbite Forest Center in Mozambique.

Allan Schwarz, Ashoka Fellow and designer of the Mozambican-based line a.d. schwarz, set up the Sofala Initiative to begin a woodcraft cooperative of high-end design as well as a nursery and tree management program to help re-forest and provide sustainable income in the local African communities. "This is a great opportunity to connect The Race participants to global warming and how it relates to the issues in Africa," comments Schwarz.

Schwarz, a native South African and former teaching fellow at M.I.T., moved to Mozambique in 1994 to confront the deforestation issues. “Environmentalism and sustainable economic development are the same thing in different clothes. We can give back what we take out so that everybody wins.”

Planting season in Mozambique will commence after the Race Against Global Warming in October and November, depending on the first rain. Keynote speaker, Summer Rayne Oakes, will head to Mozambique in November to see the planting site. "Each participant will get a new Mahogany, Panga Panga, Chanfuta, Pau Preto, or other indigenous tree planted to absorb the carbon dioxide from their travels," she says.

Adschwarz.com
Raceagainstglobalwarming.org