A lone figure walking a path through green rolling farmland at golden hour

Paulownia reforestation · The Gambia

Empowering
sustainable
communities.

We are planting 70 million fast-growing trees across degraded Gambian forest land — restoring the soil, sequestering carbon, and building livelihoods that outlast a single harvest.

Explore the project Read the investor brief

42,000
hectares: 70M
trees: 50,000+
livelihoods: 18%
IRR

00The mission

There is no reason improved living standards and a protected environment cannot go hand in hand. That belief is the whole of Greener Africa.

Two men smiling together in a cultivated field — Fig. iOutgrowers on a project intercropping plot

We think big, then take it ultra-local — tailoring solutions to specific regions and communities, working hand in hand with the people who know the land best, testing before we scale.

Greener Africa unites NGOs, government agencies, private enterprise and local communities in a single consortium. In The Gambia, that model is planting paulownia — a species that matures in five to seven years where conventional timber takes twenty — to fuel industry and create jobs without destroying the natural beauty of the land.

Aerial view of a winding river delta threading through green land — Fig. iiThe River Gambia threading through the plantation regions

Our story & approach

The opportunity

One tree does the work
of a generation.

Paulownia grows five metres in its first year, coppices after every harvest, and yields timber worth milling. It is the fastest route from degraded ground to standing forest.

Five metres in year one: Conventional species manage 20–30 centimetres. Paulownia reaches harvestable maturity in five to seven years against twenty or more.
It grows back: Vigorous coppicing from the cut stump gives four harvest rotations from a single planting — no replanting cost, no re-establishment year.
Timber worth milling: Straight-grained, light but strong, dimensionally stable and decay resistant. Furniture, millwork, veneer, mouldings, instruments.
A canopy you can farm under: Light shade and heavy leaf fall make alley cropping viable — maize, cassava, groundnuts, spices — so land earns from year one.

Inside the project

Close-up of the broad green leaves of a paulownia tree — Plate 1The broad, downy leaf of the paulownia

Fig. 1 — Height at year, metres

Fig. 2 — Planting geometry · 3m × 2m · 1,666 / ha

Women carrying loads on their heads, silhouetted against a low sun

This project will provide jobs for our youth and restore our degraded lands. Greener Africa has involved our community from the start — we support them fully.