Planting trees in Madagascar, 5-year assessment

Five years ago, the "Arbre de vie, coton solidaire" ("Tree of life, cotton for solidarity") reforestation programme was launched in Mali, and then moved to a location near the CEPOVETT Epsilon production site in Madagascar. This innovative environmental and socio-economic reforestation scheme involves employees in planting 20,000 trees a year. These employees have been able to benefit from additional income generated by the fruit trees.

Additionally, the "one tree, one child" reforestation operation launched in 2018 with the EPSILON teams and the participation of children from the Akamasoa association (created by Father Opeka) led to tens of thousands of trees being planted. The challenges of this programme lay in the supply of seedlings, technical support for planting and maintenance, and raising awareness of local biodiversity issues. In 2019, 25 000 pine and eucalyptus trees, and 3 080 fruit trees were planted, reaching a total of 53 080 new trees thanks to the employee-run company nursery, and creating a forest of almost 150 000 trees to date.