Celebrating 50 Years of Earth Day

Self Help AfricaClimate Change, featured, News

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to highlight environmental issues across the planet and demonstrate support for environmental protection.

First held in the United States on April 22nd, 1970, it has since become the biggest secular observation day in the world, and an opportunity to highlight the issues and environmental challenges affecting our world.

On Earth Day 2016, the landmark Paris Agreement was signed by the United States, China, and some 120 other countries, Ireland included. This signing satisfied a key requirement for the entry into force of the historic climate protection treaty adopted at the United Nations Climate Change Conference the previous year.

In conjunction with Earth Day 2021 President Joe Biden will host a global climate summit, with earthday.org staging a broad range of events to highlight climate and environmental literacy, climate restoration technologies, reforestation efforts, regenerative agriculture, citizen science and clean ups that are taking place around the globe.

At Self Help Africa we’re committed to the objectives of Earth Day 2021, with regenerative agriculture, climate smart farming practices and reforestation efforts at the core of much of our work with small-scale farming communities in Africa.

Watch our video from 2015 on the challenges of climate change in Africa

In conjunction with Earth Day 2021 we’re launching “Another One Million Trees”, a second successive year in which we are aiming to plant at least a million new trees in our programmes in Africa.

These trees are being planted in collaboration with local communities, farming cooperatives and an array of local partners, and will see large and small-scale tree planting activities taking place in Zambia, Malawi, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Kenya and Uganda.


To find out more about our work in response to the climate challenges faced in sub-Saharan Africa visit here or read about our Another One Million Trees campaign, and how you can get involved, click here.