With the climate emergency making headlines across the UK, the reality of global warming is becoming ever more prominent. July 22nd was declared the hottest day on record by NASA and as each day passes, we see growing evidence of our changing climate, and how it is reshaping the world we know and love. 

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. There are a multitude of people across the planet, doing all they can to ensure our world remains a wonderful place to live in, from ocean cleanups, to tree planting initiatives and rewilding projects to name a few.

We sat down with Tracey West, CEO of international reforestation charity Word Forest, and the ambitious mind behind the Word Forest Bring & Share Vegan Lunch initiative. Ranked as one of the top 100 Positive Influencers by The Ecologist, Tracey is also a passionate vegan environmentalist, author, broadcaster, and patron of Dorset Women supporting women and girls in crisis. 

Tracey believes that every positive change we make as individuals can be amplified if we encourage others to give it a try too. . . and with climate change an undeniable reality, what better time to share how anyone, anywhere, can make a positive impact on our planet.

V-Land UK (V-L): Please share with our readers how the Word Forest journey began.

Tracey West (TW): I love going back to the start, it’s an eco-feelgood story! My soulmate and husband Simon and I got married in 2012, we were second-time-arounders and we didn’t want any material ‘stuff.’ Instead, we asked our friends to plant a wedding forest in Kenya, because there, trees grow up to ten times faster than here in the UK. We knew they’d be great for drawing down and locking in CO₂ at a pace and they’d create amazing habitats for wildlife and humans too. 

A couple of years later, we boosted the forest by creating an international writing contest called the Magic Oxygen Literary Prize (MOLP). It was £5 to enter and there was a £3,000 prize fund, but the best part was that we planted a tree for every entry. 

Simon emailed every entrant a Certificate of Planting which had the species and the GPS coordinates of their tree too. We also had a little money left over once the planting was paid for, and after consulting with the Kenyan community we were working with, they decided it was best used to build a much-needed brick-constructed classroom. 

We ran MOLP for five years and by year three, we knew we needed to formalise as a charity so we could scale up reforesting Kenya and combating the climate emergency. 

V-L: Word Forest has four pillars: Planting Trees, Women’s Empowerment, Building Classrooms, and Facilitating Education, what was the reason behind this?

TW: These are the four secret ingredients to successfully reforesting Kenya. We realised early on that seriously joined-up, ambitious thinking was needed to get the job done properly. We needed trees planted, but people needed a raft of supportive initiatives in place to get that done well. 

We predominantly plant food-, fruit-, nut-, and medicine-bearing trees. They drawdown a lot of CO2 as trees in the tropics grow up to ten times faster than here in the northern latitudes. 

A mango tree for example, at five years old is around twelve feet tall and laden with food. So not only is that tree good for carbon absorption (it’ll lock in about a ¼ of a tonne of CO2 in a handful of years) the commodities from them can also be consumed or sold, putting a dent in malnutrition, hunger, and poverty. That’s a total win-win for the planet, humans, and wildlife!

It’s women that get most of the planting done and they desperately need empowering in a variety of ways. We created a women’s empowerment group called the Mothers of the Forest. They take part in many educational programmes and we pay them to plant and care for the saplings. Arming them with Kenyan-led education about the best ways to rear seeds to saplings, then grow them on to maturity, is paramount. Tree planting is relatively easy. Tree growing is another matter and it’s the vital component needed to help humans, wildlife, biodiversity, and our planet.

To strengthen education for the whole community, we build solid stone classrooms (far safer and cooler to be in than mud huts, I can tell you). Rural schools are all too often overlooked by the central government. They have nowhere near enough classrooms, in fact, for way too many rural schools, the learning has to happen under the shade of trees, which is ridiculous. So the classrooms help kids during school hours. Beyond that, they provide a perfect venue for community learning: everyone benefits.

We also facilitate education for adults and youngsters. We offer workshops on a variety of topics from basic literacy and numeracy for adult women (many of whom never had an opportunity to go to school at all as youngsters) to environmental and climate education for all. 

We collaborated with an amazing plant-based advocacy charity in Kenya some years back and they’ve helped spread the word about growing and cooking vegan food. 

Some of the most important topics we’re focussed on right now are permaculture, and syntropic agroforestry (in short, that’s growing crops amid the protection of trees). Kenyan permaculture educators play a vital role in unlocking the secrets that’ll enable rural communities to increase their water and food security. Building our first Permaculture Teaching Centre in Coast Province has given us a fabulous base to do just that.

V-L: Since the journey began, how have the communities you’ve worked with grown?

TW: Oh my, in so many ways! We’ve interacted with thousands of people across Kenya, of course, that’s not taking into account the ‘pebble in the pond’ effect, you never really know how far out the ripples of good actions go. 

We know women who couldn’t read, write or do basic maths, but now can. As a result of that, they’re able to sell things and count out proper money exchanges. They’ve set up businesses. They’ve generated income streams that would have been impossible without knowledge about permaculture. We’ve seen reductions in domestic violence rates as a result of them being able to secure more income. 

Prostitution (especially with young boys and girls) is rife in East Africa and in short, people aren’t having to make those kinds of decisions because they have an income stream. There are fewer child pregnancies and fewer child marriages. 

The positive benefits are multi-layered for humans and we’ve also seen improvements in wildlife populations and less human/wildlife conflict. The list goes on and on. Of course, the other real biggie is more canopy cover and great CO2 absorption! Over the years, we’ve shared loads of heartwarming stories and updates from the frontline of climate change. 

V-L: What is your dream achievement for Word Forest, and what has been your most memorable experience during your time as Co-Founder & CEO so far?

TW: I guess the dream would be having secured enough income and staff that we’ll have reforested Kenya and we could cross the border into a neighbouring country. I get requests all the time from Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and more. They want us to replicate our model there. 

Unfortunately, businesses in the UK - and across the world for that matter - are still struggling with the concept of squaring up their CO2 bill with Mother Nature for what they’re releasing into the atmosphere, today. Believe me, it’s ridiculously hard to get them to consider the stuff they’ve emitted historically and that needs to happen or the meteorological consequences will be truly dire! 

That deeply worrying blanket of greenhouse gases up there needs to be drawn down and locked into trees in the tropics, ASAP! There are other carbon capture inventions in the pipeline but planting trees is the cheapest, easiest to implement mitigating option that we have right now. 

On top of that, women’s empowerment and environmental education is helping communities unlock routes to becoming more water and food secure whilst also generating an income. If they’re able to continue doing that, they won’t be looking to leave. Climate migrants are going to bring chaos the likes of which have never been seen. 

As for my most memorable experience, I’d say interviewing a bunch of amazingly hard-working women in Kenya back in 2018 on our first monitoring and evaluation trip. I learned that many of them have the same struggles that we do in the UK: social isolation, depression, domestic violence, an abject lack of opportunities to thrive, and more. That led to the foundation of the Mothers of the Forest and that has the potential to be implemented all over the country - we just need the funds.

V-L: What challenges does the charity face and in what ways can readers get involved or help?

TW: That’s easy - securing funding; it has been since COVID kicked in. So many small charities closed down and I honestly don't know how we kept afloat. 

Thankfully, we were buoyed by kind generosity and belief in what we were doing by our awesome supporters. Unfortunately, as time went on, security about their finances kicked in too and our income slowed right down. I don’t blame anyone - I get it! My situation was the same! I’m a low earner (there are no fat cat salaries at our charity, take a look at our Moral Compass to see what I mean). 

To help us complete our mission (and to spread the cheeky chickpea love) I’m proud to announce we’ve launched the Word Forest Bring & Share Vegan Lunch as a national initiative. Simon and I have been running a monthly vegan bring & share in East Devon since the back end of last year - they are the mouthwatering highlight of my month! 

They bring together a great bunch of people who are vegan, some who are veggie and curious, and others who are omni, and really interested to find out more about plant-based food. 

Basically, everyone brings along a delicious dish of something plant-based, they pay £2.50 entry (the cost to plant a tree in Kenya) and we lay all the food out buffet style, then they fill their plate with a rainbow-coloured array of incredible food. Any funds over and above the hall hire are used to reforest Kenya. So far, as a result of the gigs we’ve put on, plus a few others, we’ve planted 164 trees. 

What we really need now is for people to say, yeah, I could host one of those - I’ve written a Step By Step Hosting Guide which you can download and print out - please get involved! Believe me, every stone has been turned to help you put on a great event and help us combat the climate crisis.

Aside from launching the lunches into the stratosphere, my sights are set on increasing our Corporate Partnerships. All businesses (and comfortably wealthy philanthropists) need to answer the call to reduce the CO2 in the atmosphere. Of course, individuals have a responsibility too, but way too many businesses are doing business as usual - and there is no business to be had on a dead planet.

I’m proud to say that Word Forest is run by a solid vegan core team. I would be thrilled to bits if we could secure more relationships with plant-based businesses who want to donate to the cause and strengthen the sustainable pillars of their business by collaborating with a proper ethical and environmental charity that talks the talk and walks the walk - we do, with bells on!

V-L: The documentary Trees Are The Key narrated by Kate Winslet, is both a moving and motivational watch. Do you have any other educational resources in the pipeline?

TW: We have stacks of inspirational footage and news about the difference our work is making on the ground in Kenya, but having it high enough resolution to put into a film is the challenge. We’ve no funding to be able to commission a new film sadly. That’s several thousand pounds, and truthfully, if we had that kind of money in the coffers, we’d probably use it to pay people to plant more trees: the climate crisis is dire.

That said, it would be amazing to do an update, particularly if we could spotlight our work teaching permaculture, organic growing, and learning more about growing and eating a wider variety of plant-based foods, but it all boils down to cash. If there are any talented filmmakers out there who want to help us pro bono, please get in touch. 

Likewise, if you’re a green PR firm that’s willing to take us under your wing pro bono, I’d be overjoyed to hear from you to help us get those all-important trees planted in the tropics! As we say in Kenya, asante sana (thanks!).

If you think you could help Word Forest on their mission to create a more ethical and green world, their team would love to hear from you. For more inspirational vegans changing the world, read about Juliet Gellatley and her crusade to end factory farming and Peter Egan’s call for compassion.