“How do we know the trees you plant won’t get cut down after you leave?”
It’s one of the most common—and most important—questions we get. The short version is this: we never “leave” because we never “arrive” in the first place. Our approach at ForestPlanet is not to swoop into a community, plant trees, and move on. Instead, we work with existing local initiatives—projects started and led by community members who have the most at stake in protecting their environment. We see our role as providing support, resources, and visibility to help them expand what they are already doing, and doing quite well.
For a project to receive support from ForestPlanet, the community must already have a plan in place (even if an informal one) to protect the trees they currently rely on. In fact, our partners often need to show that mature trees are already being protected before we’ll commit to funding new planting efforts. This ensures that the work is built on a strong foundation of stewardship, not dependency.
Local Watchfulness and Shared Responsibility
In most of the areas where we work, community-based forest watch groups are already active. These groups monitor land use, discourage reckless clear-cutting, and educate neighbors about sustainable practices. Collecting fallen branches or trimming a limb here and there is part of traditional use, and the forest can easily recover from that. What destroys ecosystems—and future opportunities—is large-scale, indiscriminate clear-cutting.
By creating a system of shared responsibility, local residents themselves become the guardians of their own environment. Their livelihoods, food sources, and cultural ties depend on these trees, so there are strong incentives to keep the forest intact.
The Daily Economic Reality
But good intentions alone are not enough. Protecting trees means addressing the economic pressures that drive people to cut them down in the first place. And the single biggest pressure is often energy.
Cooking and heating require fuel. In many of the regions where we work, natural gas is available but prohibitively expensive, and non-solar electricity is both rare and costly. The most accessible and affordable energy source for households is wood from nearby forests. Families face an impossible choice: feed their children today or protect the environment for tomorrow.
That’s where innovation and partnership come in.
A Case Study: Pangani, Tanzania
Near the ancient fishing village of Pangani on Tanzania’s coast, ForestPlanet has supported the planting of hundreds of thousands of mangrove seedlings. These trees are ecological powerhouses—they stabilize coastlines, protect fisheries, capture massive amounts of carbon, and provide long-term income opportunities for local people.
But we know that for mangrove forests to thrive, families must also have sustainable alternatives to cutting wood. That’s why, thanks to support from our individual donors, ongoing business partners, and the Palmer Foundation, we launched a pilot project to distribute 50 high-efficiency wood-burning cookstoves in Pangani.
We partnered with BURN Manufacturing, an Africa-based company with a proven track record in designing durable, safe, and energy-saving stoves. These stoves provide a very high level (51%) of thermal efficiency and reduce emissions by over 80% compared to a traditional 3-stone fire. These figures are consistent with the very positive feedback we are getting from the families to whom we provided the stoves (Learn more about their cookstoves here).
Real Stories, Real Impact
Meet Asha, a mother of five in Pangani who received her stove in March 2025. By June, she was already seeing dramatic changes. She used to buy 30 sticks of wood a day in the local market for cooking which cost her 5,000 Tanzanian Shillings. She now only buys 10 sticks, a 66% reduction in cost and effort. She is using the financial savings for books and uniforms for her three school-aged children.
Meet Msikitu, a mother of four who also received a stove. She has cut her need to buy or collect wood by 50%. She buys much less wood and no longer collects it which used to take about an hour a day. She has more time to spend running her small hair salon, the heart of the local community for women. But for her the biggest benefit is economic relief: a significant cut in weekly household expenses.
Why This Matters
These stoves check multiple boxes for sustainability:
- 🌱Less pressure on forests – by cutting wood use nearly in half.
- 💰Reduced household burden – freeing up money and time.
- 🕒Greater educational opportunity – children spend less time gathering firewood and more time in school.
- 💨 Better health and air quality – thanks to more complete combustion and reduced smoke exposure.
Each of these play a key role in ensuring that the trees we plant don’t get cut down when we leave.
Looking Ahead
We distributed 50 stoves in a town of more than 8,000 people. That’s a tiny start—but a powerful proof of concept. Every household equipped with a high-efficiency stove is one less household pulling unsustainably from the forest.
Scaling this up means protecting entire landscapes, improving health outcomes, and creating a virtuous cycle of sustainability.
And here’s where you come in: with your support, we can provide more families with these life-changing tools. Every contribution makes a difference.
👉 Click here to donate. Together, we can protect the trees, support communities, and ensure that the forests we plant today are still thriving tomorrow.