Harrogate-based PR agency Cicada Communications is helping to protect the rainforest by supporting sustainable livelihoods in an African village.
As part of the firm’s 25th anniversary celebrations in 2012, Cicada worked with Yorkshire-based environmental charity, United Bank of Carbon (UBoC) to establish the ‘Bees for Trees’ project in Tanzania.
Run through the Tanzanian Forest Conservation Group (TFCG), the funding enabled TFCG to train 20 men and women in Digoma village in the South Nguru Mountains in beekeeping. They were also provided with protective clothing, bee hives, smokers and manual extractors.
The project aims to deter deforestation from destructive livelihood practices in the endangered and biodiversity rich Kilonga community rainforest by establishing sustainable livelihoods. The training took place in May and aims to help the villagers increase and diversify their household income.
Cicada’s managing director Di Burton said: “Cicada is passionate about the environment. Through our work with clients such as the Royal Entomological Society and Riverford Organic Farms, we understand many of the dangers facing the natural world. We were delighted to support the Bees for Trees project.”
Jonathan Wild, trustee of UBoC and former chairman and chief executive of Bettys and Taylors Group who introduced Cicada to the project, explains the UBoC vision:
The aim of the United Bank of Carbon is to bring together companies in Yorkshire and beyond to tackle one of the leading causes of climate change, deforestation. UBoC connects with rainforest protection projects from all over the world which have been verified by experts at the University of Leeds’ School of Earth and the Environment, enabling businesses to partner with a specific environmental project which has synergies with their own organisation.
It’s fantastic to see Yorkshire businesses playing their part in helping to protect the rainforests by supporting those in the developing world to diversify their livelihoods.
