WE PLANT TREES IN THE AMBOLESI NATIONAL PARK
Our non profit organization ‘ Free Spirit ’ created the “re-green the planet”, a reforestation program dedicated to restoring the forests all over the world. In Africa, we offered seedballs to the Lion Guardians foundation in order to promote coexistence between people and lions. A Seedball is a seed inside of a ball of charcoal dust mixed with some nutritious binders. The biochar coating of the ball helps protect the seed within from predators such as birds, rodents and insects and extremes of temperature until the rains arrive ! Once soaked, the seedball will help retain and prolong a moist environment around the seed to encourage germination. We offered seedballs to the Lion Guardians organization in the Amboseli national park.
PROMOTING COEXISTENCE
WE SUPPORT THE LION GUARDIANS PROJECT
Lion Guardians is a conservation organization dedicated to finding and enacting long-term solutions for people and lions to coexist. Founded in 2007, Lion Guardians began with five Guardians in one small area within the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem. Currently, there are Lion Guardians-based projects successfully running in several countries and in our core area of Amboseli, our operations span over close to a million acres. We are committed to workable solutions that are scientifically-driven and transferable across areas.
WE MADE A DONATION OF 61000 TREES TO LION GUARDIANS
In 2019, we made a concert in Paris to raise funds to plant trees in Kenya. We donated 11 000 seedballs to Lion Guardians.
« Dear Free Spirit team,
We are writing from Lion Guardians to thank you for your kind donation of 25kg of seedballs to our organization. Our program manager, Merishi, received the seedballs last week and was very appreciative of your generosity! Please see the attached photo.
Over the remainder of this year, we hope to use these seedballs for school programs in the communities across the ecosystem where we operate, a project which we initiated with great success last November. Our team has also developed an initiative that will involve our Guardians in seedball distribution. As a part of our Guardians’ duties to promote coexistence of communities with lions, they assist community members by reinforcing bomas (livestock enclosures) to keep livestock safe from predators overnight. They do this using branches from wait-a-bit trees (which have extremely sharp, hooked thorns) as fencing material. We would like the Guardians to take seedballs with them on their daily routines and throw the wait-a-bit seedballs in areas they take branches from, in order to replenish the trees in these areas and ensure future sustainability of these practices. We are very excited to begin this project, and will start handing out seedballs to Guardians at our upcoming team-building event, the Lion Guardians Games, next week. We will be sure to send you updates of these activities as they take place.
Thanks again for your generous support! It takes a community to conserve lions and preserve cultures, and we are thankful you are a part of ours.«
-Kate Yoshida
In 2021, in collaboration with the US Department of State and the US embassy Paris, we made a donation of 50,000 seedballs to Lion Guardians.