Baobab Guardians Celebrate Baobab Success!

Written by on December 4, 2020. Posted in BAOBAB FOUNDATION

Zwigodini Village Baobab Guardians with their certificates

This November, 18 Baobab Guardians from 3 different Venda villages received certificates of achievement to celebrate the successful growing of 19 baobab trees to a height of 3 metres. This is when baobabs can fend for themselves in the wild and no longer need watering and protection from livestock and other foraging animals.

Cressie Rantsana receiving her certificate

The growing process can take anything from 2 – 6 years depending on weather conditions.

We began our Baobab Guardian program 6 years ago in 2014 in Zwigodini Village and those villagers were the first to receive certificates in 2016.  There are still a number of growing baobabs being cared for Baobab Guardians and they are hoping to get their certificates in a few years time.

We held our celebration in Tsdeza Community Pre-School, one of the pre-schools we have supported through generous funding from donors (see the blog).  Two officials from the Limpopo Economic Development for Environment & Tourism (LEDET) attended the ceremony:  Shavhani Neluvhola and his colleague Shonisani Sadiki.  Rerani Ramaano from the Vhemba Biosphere Reserve (VBR) also attended.

Muswodi Dipendi Village Baobab Guardians with their certificates

The VBR supports and endorses what are known as Demonstration Projects; these are businesses which incorporate social, community and environmental investment as an integral part of their business model.  We’re pleased and proud that EcoProducts and the Baobab Foundation is considered to be an excellent example of such a business.

Takalani Tseisi with her certificate

Dambali Village is one of the last villages where we will plant our final 8 trees.   We invited villagers from Dambali to attend our ceremony and they left feeling so inspired!  Our aim is to inspire people to want to care for our environmental heritage. We’ll be planting our 100th baobab tree in December. Look out for the blog!

To find out more about Baobab Guardians, click here or email Sarah Venter sarah(at)ecoproducts.co.za.

Continue reading....

Find more interesting articles below

Dung Beetles and Baobabs

Dung Beetles and Baobabs

Baobab seeds are relatively large,but it’s not an impossibility that that germinating Baobab seedlings could use the manure buried by dung beetles to boost the growth of its first few shoots!

Read more
Where did that baobab come from?

Where did that baobab come from?

There are 8 different species of Baobab trees 6 of which are native to Madagascar, one in Africa and one in Australia. There’s a lot of controversy about where the Baobab tree originated  as it’s often been assumed that Madagascar is the centre of origin because it has the most different species. This implies that […]

Read more
Look How We’ve Grown!

Look How We’ve Grown!

After the completion of the Tshikuyu Preschool classrooms in February 2019.  We started to plan for Phase 2 of the project.  The preschool still needed a kitchen and eating area, swing and climbing frame for the children, a water tank and equipment for the classrooms. Here’s what happened…

Read more