![G4S Home Page [accesskey '0']](header_logo.gif){kind=logo}
Seeds of a great idea
How G4S is helping to create sustainable revenues in one of the world’s poorest countries
Just before the start of the rainy season in Malawi, late last year, a group of children began gathering seeds from acacia trees. It was a simple beginning for an ambitious G4S-sponsored community project that could in time develop into a large-scale, self-sustaining scheme.
 Having been carefully cultivated, 50,000 seedlings are ready for planting. | The 50,000 seeds collected were sown in plastic tubes and the seedlings they have produced are now planted and thriving. This is the first stage of a community tree-growing project, involving 20 families, which also includes the rotational cultivation of maize, cassava (whose edible roots are an important source of carbohydrates) and legumes (nutritious beans). |
So, whilst the wood from the acacias supplies energy – particularly when burnt as charcoal – the other crops provide food. The long-term rotation of these different plants, on 10,000 square metre plots of land hedged by jatropha trees, also helps rejuvenate the soil, ensuring yields higher than the average produced through farming methods using a mix of chemical and organic fertilizer.
Why did such an apparently straightforward project win the corporate support of G4S, as part of its global “giving back to community” philosophy that will see five schemes in different countries receiving financial support for the next six years?
Its impact, if adopted on a much larger scale, could make a significant contribution to solving some of the problems faced by this south-east African republic:
Tackling rural poverty
It is estimated that over 60 per cent of the population exist on less than the acceptable US $1 a day poverty eradication level. The acacia project will tackle this by uplifting local rural communities and, because it requires very little annual input once established, will take them well above this. Reducing deforestation
Malawe's low energy output results in timber being the main source of heating for firewood and charcoal. Around 94 per cent of the people use wood for energy and it is also used extensively in drying tobacco leaves – the crop which earns the country the most income. As a result, two-thirds of the one-and-a- half million trees that are cut down annually are converted into 150,000 tons of charcoal a year. Its forests are being stripped bare.The acacia project will help reduce deforestation, not only producing viable supplies of owngrown fuel for the families involved but also surplus timber that can be sold to registered companies for conversion into pulp chippings for export, earning Malawi much needed foreign exchange.
A boost for beekeeping
Since it has been found that acacia trees are a good source of nectar for bees to produce high volumes of quality honey, beekeeping will be introduced as an additional project.
Sustainable economic empowerment
If Malawi, which has a population of over 10 million, is to improve its position from one of the five poorest countries in the world, such empowerment to small farming communities is vital. With its struggling economy, an annual budget dependent largely on international aid, poor harvests due to drought and a high HIV infection rate, it needs all the help it can get. G4S agreed. After all, it employs almost 10,000 people in Malawi and, given the average size of a family in this African country, and their extended family, G4S Malawi has a direct influence in the lives of at least 100,000 people on a daily basis.
For the future, G4S Malawi – under the direction of Tienie Van Schalkwyk, managing director, G4S Security Services (Malawi) – is planning to introduce the concept to an additional 20 families each year as well as challenging major corporate institutions – all of them G4S customers – to contribute to the project’s further expansion.
.....
Download the full article:
Seeds of a great idea
