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About the Implementing organization
Acçao Integrada para o Desenvolvimento das Comunidades(AIDC)
Country: Angola
Year of establishment: 2006
Type of organization: Community-based association or organization, Legally recognized non-profit status
Description
AIDC is a National Angolan NGO, devoted to the sectors of Urban Tree Planting and Forestry Rehabilitation.The Organization was founded in Luena, on the 27th of April, 2006, by Angolans, ex-staff members of the UN and International NGOs, as well as active civil society members, most of whom with vast understanding and experience in agricultural sciences, ecology and social matters related to the humanitarian environment.This Non-Governmental Organization has been working for more than twelve years in Luanda province and neighborhoods, as well as in some of the most remote and poorest villages of Angola.Its mission is To promote tree planting, maintenance, protection and beauty, by helping the citizens to improve their knowledge, source of information and motivation, to proactively realise changes of relevance in their community.
Native tree landscape realizations have not traditionally been established in Angola as an ordinary activity. Therefore, the purpose of this Project is to develop and implement an urban tree landscape activity which, promotes and attempts to reconcile biodiversity conservation with the urban expansion, in way that it maintains a remarkable degree of naturalness. With this intervention we intend to optimize the multiple benefits that trees bring to people, biodiversity and the urban landscape, and contribute to the reduction of GHG emissions. This will be a comprehensive, medium term intervention with a community education approach, including inventory analysis and technical training.
One of the main intention of this initiative is to accelarate and promote community understanding and ownership of all activities related to tree planting, conservation and maintenance, by enabling the direct participation of schools, local authorities, families and the private sector. Through this platform the project expects to forge mutual beneficial partnerships between all these actors, through the establishment of explicit agreements in achieving biodiversity conservation, reduction of land degradation, and promotion of sustainable management of natural resources. All these components will ensure holding a rich diversity of niches and species in a balanced diversity.
With this Project, we aim to plant, protect and maintain, in a six years term, more than 50,000 trees of 50 Luanda’s native species, including those in the Ministry of Environment’s Red List.
To ensure a reduction in related costs, trees will be propagated mostly by seeds, in nurseries designed and established in the community in conjunction with the residents. In sporadic cases, we will use vegetative propagation, particularly through stems. However, we have chosen the seed propagation methods due to the need for producing the highest number of trees possible with fewer resources. This seeds are collected in deferent area of our city,with the help of the activists.There are more the 2,000 trees of deferent species such as Trichilia trees ,acacia trees ,palms trees ready to be planted on their definitive places.With enough resource this organization will be able plant trees in a whole neighbourhood.
As part of its policy, the Project will rely only on organic fertilizer as the only source of complementary nutrient for the trees, whether in the nursery or in the permanent sites. We intend to introduce a sanitary education component in this project, promoting the recycling of organic waste (food waste).Food waste is a unique as a compost agent; it is the main source of organic matter. Composting can bring various environmental benefits, including the reduction in water pollution; amount of garbage deposited in the streets/open spaces, spreading of odor, and contributes on keeping the area cleaned and organized. We undergo sensibilization and environmental education in the community,so that the neighbor understand that the unwanted food can be turned into organic fertilizer which can improve soil health,it is a good souce of nutrients for plant.
Nature Element
Forests
Type of Action
Ecosystem protection︱Ecosystem restoration
Sustainable Development Element
Education︱Sustainable communities and disaster risk reduction
Related Sustainable Development Goal(s)
Environmental Impacts
Before AIDC intervention, few days after a rain, a lot of stagnant water used to be observed along some streets, as compacted soil avoided the water to infiltrate. Presently, the existence of non-compacted planting sites is helping reduce the stagnant waters, the runoff water and the emergency of mosquito breeding sites.
There has been a higher return of birds and insects such as butterflies, towards the neighborhood. In the last five months we have observed the presence of three species of birds, which the children also defended not have seen before. Astonishingly, one of these species are scraping the leaves of certain palms trees that the project planted, seizing the cords to build their nest. The volume and mass of solid waste has reduced significantly. This has been achieved by nurturing the trees with compost produced from organic waste collected at the households. So, the community organic waste is recycled in the neighborhood itself.
CLIMATE IMPACTS
The Project transformed a dumping ground behind a school, into a nursery, now containing 2039 seedlings. A fourth of this area has been adapted for compost manufacturing, using organic waste from the neighborhood. All plantlets will be progressively planted in the municipality, particularly in the areas of visible requirements for vegetative coverage. So far, we have planted 117 trees, all of them nurtured with the compost produced locally. As they grow, the trees will sequestrate higher amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. In addition, the combined effect of all their canopies will reduce the heat island effect, runoff waters, sunburn, psychological stress, dust as well as the use of air conditioning.
All these processes are being implemented through a community education approach that includes practical activities on tree planting, conservation and maintenance, Institutional advocacy, and technical training, involving schools, residents, the private sector and the local authorities.
Sustainable Development Impacts
Ecosystem protection: So far, none of the trees planted has been damaged; and progressively, children and adolescents are eager to learn or protecting trees as a hobby. On the other hand, old plastic containers are being used as recipients for the growing media. This is reducing the rate that these materials pollute sewage waters, rivers and the sea.
Ecosystem restoration: By using varied native trees, selected according to their capacity to provide food, shelter and protection to wildlife, this project is effectively helping bringing back rare species of birds, butterflies, etc., to their original niche, and ensure that trees, human and animals coexist with a high degree of naturalness.
Sustainable management: The frequency of trips a truck performs to remove waste from a community is directly proportional to the amount of CO2 it releases. By recycling all its inoffensive organic waste, the mass of garbage will be reduced and consequently, the number of trips and related CO2.
RESILIENCE, ADAPTABILITY, AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY
The transformation of domestic organic waste into compost, to nurture the planted trees, is a bold argument that the Organization is using, on how we can smartly discard a great fraction of the garbage produced within the province, to reduce the associated costs related to the public waste management. We want to share countrywide, the idea that “a high proportion of your waste can be transformed into oxygen, leaves and shadows. It can make you breathe better!”
The increased availability of manufactured compost can provoke communities and even schools, to start small farming of vegetables for their own consumption or for business purposes.
In the last months, the number of people soliciting compost at AIDC Nursery, for their plants or courtyard has increased. Although AIDC offers it as a surplus of its production, most of them are willing to pay. So, poor families, and even the community in general can rely on it, whether as a coping mechanism or as a small business opportunity.As a Non Govenmental Organization, AIDC, ideals and commitments are grounded in the Charter of the United Nations and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). For such, we established effective rules and regulations that protects and benefits those groups, regions or individuals that are more vulnerable or potentially at risk of becoming vulnerable.
Most of the degrading conditions are observed within the poorest neighborhoods. Therefore, interventions design will be priority based, to ensure that no region or community is left behind. Therefore, Tree planting interventions will give priority to the sub-urban or peripheral neighborhoods or regions that show a high degree of vegetative dilapidation or decay, help transform landfills into nurseries and small forests; and convert sewage water courses into ecological corridors and/or leisure areas for walking.
Trainings, workshops, group discussions and similar sessions, will be more focused in CBOs, Churches, schools and residents located in the areas of less or poorer environmental protection awareness or education. Furthermore, the Organization will advocate at the various governmental, public or Civil Society level, to ensure that partnerships and the mobilization of resources cover effectively the basic needs of their local but also universal climate change conditions of those regions.
REDUCED INEQUALITIES
As a Non Govenmental Organization, AIDC, ideals and commitments are grounded in the Charter of the United Nations and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). For such, we established effective rules and regulations that protects and benefits those groups, regions or individuals that are more vulnerable or potentially at risk of becoming vulnerable.
Most of the degrading conditions are observed within the poorest neighborhoods. Therefore, interventions design will be priority based, to ensure that no region or community is left behind. Therefore, Tree planting interventions will give priority to the sub-urban or peripheral neighborhoods or regions that show a high degree of vegetative dilapidation or decay, help transform landfills into nurseries and small forests; and convert sewage water courses into ecological corridors and/or leisure areas for walking.
Trainings, workshops, group discussions and similar sessions, will be more focused in CBOs, Churches, schools and residents located in the areas of less or poorer environmental protection awareness or education. Furthermore, the Organization will advocate at the various governmental, public or Civil Society level, to ensure that partnerships and the mobilization of resources cover effectively the basic needs of their local but also universal climate change conditions of those regions.
GENDER EQUALITY
For AIDC, gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. So, the Project will strive to providing women and girls with equal access to all benefits available during the whole project implementation. Advertised posts and activities, decent representation in decision-making processes, participation in national and international forums, access to relevant scientific, technical and operational data or information, are some of the element where gender equity will be seriously considered.
Taking into consideration that the UN has released various legal frameworks and related guiding documents addressing female equality in the workplace, in the community or in the schools and the eradication of harmful practices targeted at women; AIDC will permanently use these documents as guiding tools during implementation, trainings, planning or project design, to ensure that its actions are in harmony with the Sustainable Development Goals that all member states jointly agreed.At the Organization level, AIDC will strive to guarantee that at least fifty percent of its staff or activists are women, who occupy relevant positions within the Institution. AIDC will conduct systematic promotional and advocacy activities to improve the level of awareness linked to gender equity and equality when addressing environmental protection or climate change issues, not only at the Institutional level but also at community.
SOCIAL INCLUSION
Whether within its staff, voluntaries, activists, or other groups or individuals, AIDC policies and regulations ensure that all persons involved in any activity feel the freedom to express and perform to the maximum of their physical, psychological or social capabilities, without any premeditated external restriction. For fulfilling these values, the Organization not only advocate and promotes for the protection of the marginalized or potential relegated groups, but also tries to be permanently in the vanguard of this process. During the recruitment of staff, activists, or voluntaries, AIDC formally encourages the participation of albinos, deficient, people living with HIV/AIDS or handicapped individuals. Thus, AIDC always ensures that in any small or large project under implementation, there should be at least two or more individuals belonging to these groups. Also, AIDC rules and regulations are very severe with direct or dissimulated behaviors that may discourage or affect the self-esteem or respect of any person as a human being, as described in the UN Declaration of Human Rights. To guarantee that its values, on this matter, are spread throughout the country and shared within the staff and voluntaries or activists, AIDC has been conducting a serious of workshops and seminars, with the participation of different invited specialists, including physicians, psychologists, sociologists, lawyers, governmental officials and relevant members of the Civil Society.
Scalability
AIDC has advanced contacts with the Ministries of Education, Environment and Agriculture, to progressively replicate these activities in other provinces, using the primary and secondary schools as well as the universities as the pivotal stakes to promote and lead this process.
Pupils and students are eager to learn. We want to grasp this opportunity, for introducing thematic tree planting and environmental protection teachings as extracurricular activities and stimulus to encourage increased participation.
In this March 2019, everybody is complaining about the high temperatures and extreme heat observed during the day, particularly from 11 a.m. to 3:30 pm. With this scenario, the willingness of the citizens and Institution to do something to attenuate it is visible. Sensitazation through the radio, TV, newspapers, sportive and cultural events, churches, schools, and similar, will surely have a high degree of adhesion.
Replicability
By sharing information and participating in national and Internacional forums on climate change events, the Project will have the opportunity no only to inform on experiences and lessons learned but also to have the opportunity to learn the good practices performed by other actors for the same kind of activities but in different climatic, cultural and geographic scenarios.
Mutual field visits between AIDC staff and activists, with members of other NGO’s or governmental bodies working in different provinces, regions or countries, will ensure that both groups improve their scientific knowledge, new technics, methodologies and practical abilities, that will progressively propitiate the conditions and readiness to replicate the project into other areas.
Last, before starting designing a replication of this Project in other countries or regions, AIDC will approach investigation bodies related to agricultural, ecosystem and climate change, universities whose curricula cover these themes.
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