SWIPE TO MAKE AN IMPACT
13 Years of Urban Greening, and counting..
Discover Greenpop’s mission to restore ecosystems and promote urban greening through their “Gardens for Good” project, creating vibrant green spaces in urban areas.
Since its inception, Greenpop has been on a mission to inspire an urban future where abundant green spaces are both accessible and co-managed by active and inspired citizens. In the last 13 years, they have planted 23,083 trees and 12,112 indigenous plants in urban areas, built 10 outdoor classrooms, and worked with over 30,000 community members to improve environmental literacy and stewardship.
In the words of Greenpop’s Urban Greening Project Manager, Deon Louw, “it is incredible to see what we’ve been able to achieve with the help of countless learners, teachers, sponsors, and volunteers. All these trees, plants and engagements have made a huge impact, not just in the minds of all the individuals who we had the privilege of working with, but also on the landscape itself. Not only have we expanded habitats and provided forage for a myriad of creatures, but we also planted many different types of endangered plants, which will help ensure the survival of these species a little further into the future than would otherwise have been the case.”
GARDENS FOR GOOD
Bringing together the most successful interventions from their previous Trees for Cape Town (2010-2017) and Fynbos for the Future (2018-2022) projects, Greenpop’s newest urban greening project, Gardens for Good, contributes towards their vision of Cape Town in which urban green space is equally distributed and valued in all communities.
Through Gardens for Good, they will work with schools, hospitals, and other community organisations to plant gardens including both indigenous trees and plants. We will also run engaging gardening days for corporates and communities, support teachers, and build the capacity of groundskeepers. Through these activities, they aim to increase green space and the ecosystem services it provides, improve green space maintenance and management, and increase nature appreciation and stewardship in urban areas.
Deon Louw shares what he is most looking forward to: “Through all the lessons we’ve learnt in our urban greening work over the past 13 years, we’ve come to realise how important it is to build strong, personal relationships with the people you are working with and to maintain a long-term presence at the sites you are planting at.
Therefore, Gardens for Good aims to be woven into the very fabric of school life and culture, from school assemblies to workshops for ground staff to sessions with teachers to increased contact time with learners. This increased human-centred approach is something I’m particularly excited about! Happy people = happy environment.”
Who is Greenpop?
The Greenpop Foundation NPC is an award-winning registered non-profit organisation. They work to restore ecosystems and empower environmental stewards through forest restoration, urban greening, food gardening, and environmental awareness projects across Sub-Saharan Africa. Greenpop was founded in 2010 and has since planted over 200,000 trees and inspired over 356,000 active citizens across South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania.
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