Plant A Tree Today Foundation

Plant A Tree Today Foundation (PATT)
Founded 2 November 2005
Founder Andrew Steel
Type UK Registered Charity
Thai Foundation
Focus Environment, Climate Change, Ending poverty
Location
Area served
 Global
Method Donations and Grants
Mission "To restore biologically diverse forest in areas where deforestation or habitat degradation has taken place"
Website www.pattfoundation.org

The Plant A Tree Today Foundation (PATT) is a non-governmental environmental organization with primary operations in Thailand and Indonesia. Established in 2005, PATT attempts to raise environmental awareness and foster better practices in less developed nations around the world, planting trees as a means to combat deforestation and climate change.

Organisational history

Establishment and purpose

The Plant A Tree Today Foundation (PATT) was organised in November 2005 by Andrew "Andy" Steel.[1] Steel (born 1970), a native of Hull, England,[2] established the organization as a means of combating ongoing deforestation in less-developed nations around the world through public education and tree-planting campaigns.[3] The group is a registered charitable organisation in the United Kingdom since 2006.[4]

Shortly after its launch PATT began to work with UK fundraising consultant The Midas Partnership, which assisted in the generation of initial capitalisation of the group.[3] Fundraising activities were conducted both in the UK and in Thailand, a nation of primary concern to the organisation.[3]

It is also a registered foundation in Thailand. Steel remains the Managing Director of the foundation, assisted by Director Charlotte Whalley.

PATT works to raise awareness of global environmental issues, campaign for better environmental practices and take action against deforestation and climate change by planting trees. It implements tree planting projects and carbon offsetting with environmentally conscious businesses, provides environmental education to schools in developing countries, and funds community development projects in rural communities centered on tree planting and reforestation.

Reforestation projects sponsored by PATT attempt to generate broad participation among the affected communities. For example, a 2008 reforestation project in Phetchaburi, Thailand, brought together school children, monks, governmental officers, and local villagers with forestation staff in planting over 2500 trees.[5] Native tree species were replanted in a forest degraded by selective logging in an effort to restore animal habitat.[5] The restored lowland deciduous tropical forest was to be used in the future as a tool for future environmental education.[5]

Carbon Bank and Village Development Project

In 2009 the Carbon Bank and Village Development Project sponsored by PATT was awarded a 2009 United Nations SEED Award.[6] The SEED Initiative, founded by the United Nations Environmental Programme and the United Nations Development Programme, identifies and supports promising locally-oriented enterprises in developing countries which are working to improve livelihoods and manage natural resources sustainably.[7]

The group's Carbon Bank and Village Development Project targeted 48 rural villages in Thailand, helping to establish community forests and a micro-finance system in each, managed by the local communities themselves.[1] Ultimately it is hoped that degraded land in these communities will be reforested and climate change lessened through the project, while at the same time village economies are enhanced.[1]

UK Educational Programme

In 2012, PATT launched a programme to join with almost 600 primary schools in the UK to provide educational materials, including online lesson plans and activities to be downloaded by teachers and used in classes. The educational materials are linked with the national curriculum, allowing the future generation to become aware of climate change and the problems which come with global warming.

The programme includes an intranet site for students and teachers to communicate and view lesson plans, as well as being able to interact with others in the programme. Facts are supported by resources, such as live webcam and video sessions from the wildlife from the middle of the forests, showing the reforestation projects being carried out by PATT. Maps are also available to pin point on-going and future projects.

Programs

The Plant A Tree Today Foundation operates a number of projects across the globe:[8]

Thailand

Indonesia

India

South Africa

Malaysia

The organisation states that it intends to plant 1 million trees in Thailand in 2011.[2]

Timeline

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Bazaar of Ideas," United Nations ESCAP Environmental and Development News, vol. 9, no. 4 (December 2009), pg. 4.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Angus Young, "Campaign Branches Out," Hull Daily Mail, March 2, 2011.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Howard Lake, "Midas Attends The Plant A Tree Today Foundation 2nd Birthday Dinner, Bangkok, Thailand," UK Fundraising, 12 November 2007.
  4. ↑ Registration Number 1117158.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Bangkok Buzz," Hua Hin Observer, Issue 152 (August 2008).
  6. ↑ "Carbon Bank and Village Development Project," SEED Initiative, www.seedinit.org/
  7. ↑ "What is SEED?" Seed Initiative homepage, www.seedinit.org/
  8. ↑ PATT Foundation website PATT Project List, Plant A Tree Foundation website, www.pattfoundation.org/

External links