Nik


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Friday, June 24, 2011 @ 12:25 PM PERMALINK

Like many people, I've noticed that environmental conservation has become a very popular topic in recent years.

Many consumers are now looking to buy products that are organic, less synthetic and that are from companies that respect the environment they operate in.

Of course many companies have realized this new demand from consumers and many of them have developed and announced Corporate & Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. What is unfortunate about some of these programs (which I've found out both from my own reading and from my ethics classes in school) is that so many of them only exist to convince consumers to spend their money instead of because of genuine compassion and respect for the planet we live on. 

This is exactly why is why its really refreshing to read about Timberland's Earthkeepers.

The Earthkeepers have one mission and that is to protect the environment Timberland operates in. For a company like Timberland, a world without the great outdoors would be a nightmare and the Earthkeepers put their hearts and souls into doing whatever they can to preserve it.

One really exciting program the Earthkeepers run is the Horqin Desert Re-greening Programe.

This initiative has been running for 10 years (even before us consumers started wising up about the environment) and with the help of Japanese not for profit organization GreenNet, Timberland has been working tirelessly to reforest the Horqin Desert,

I'm sure many of you are wondering, why reforest a desert, aren't deserts already naturally dry and barren to begin with? That is exactly the problem, what we now call the Horqin Desert started out looking something like this:


However, what was lush picture perfect greenery now it looks like this:


Just like many of our natural landscapes, this area of Horqin has been devastated by overgrazing, deforestation and other harmful human activities.

Man made desertification poses many threats. Local farmers that depended on this land for grazing their animals or to grow crops are now unable to sustain their livelihood. Biodiversity is also killed by desertification and with as many as 200 species going extinct a day (source), this is obviously a serious problem. Another problem faced by local communities is that sand that is no longer held down by plant roots is easily whipped up by strong winds and this results in frequent and disruptive sandstorms.

EarthKeeper's re-greening project is all about helping to repair the damage sustained by one of the world's most beautiful landscapes. Earthkeepers also helps to educate local communities about sustainable irrigation and agriculture methods to ensure the longevity of their land.

Since 2001, Timberland Earthkeepers has grown 1 million trees in the desert and while that is an amazing feat, the Earthkeepers still face a huge challenge ; the Horqin Desert is growing at a rate of 10,000 sq km per year.

With so much destruction going on in our world, I think this is a great project to be part of. Personally, it will help expand my role backseat role in environmental conservation from things like switching off lights at home when they are not in use, buying from ethical companies and recycling to something real and large scale such desert re-greening. It will also undoubtedly open my eyes to what can be done to save the Earth. [ And maybe even put my Secondary 4 pure Geography knowledge to use ;) ]

**Apart from re-greening, the Earthkeepers also ensures that Timberland practices the most eco-friendly ways of product creation, packaging and energy usage (amongst many other things), you can find out more about these practices here.**

“Be a Timberland Earthkeeper and support desert greening in Horqin!”

Labels: enviroment, timberland

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