Join us in celebrating Mother Earth Day this 22nd April by supporting four inspiring community projects that combat climate change and empower people to build sustainable livelihoods.
Our Power, Our Planet
2025 marks 55 years of Mother Earth Day and this year the theme is ‘Our Power, Our Planet’ highlighting the need to speed up the renewable energy transition for a sustainable future. By showing the value of Solar, Wind and Geothermal power, Earth Day highlights how individuals, businesses and governments can work together to grow the climate solutions that already exist.
Four sustainable projects you can support
The Great Green Wall of Africa
The effects of the Sahara’s expansion are severe: food insecurity, displacement of communities and loss of biodiversity. The effects of Saharan winds cause soil erosion of fertile lands and leads to drought, with the desertification of the Sahel region posing an existential threat to the livelihoods of millions across the continent who depend on the land to grow crops.
The Great Green Wall aims to plant a barrier of trees 8,000 km long and 15 km wide, stretching across the African continent to reforest areas of the Sahel region most at risk from desertification. Trees play an essential role in ecosystems, with their roots holding moisture in the soil to support Fauna, Flora & ‘Funga’ (a term coined by the Fungi Foundation to campaign for the inclusion of collective Fungi life in legal and policy decisions).
Artwork by Ezequiel Cruz, licensed by Creative Commons.
The trees offer shade and humidity to help crops grow, while leaves add compost to the soil. The investment in the project brings economic benefits to the communities, which are passed on to support further local investment. Since the Great Green Wall reforestation program began over 28 million trees have been planted (supported by Tree Aid), similar to the work of the Green Belt Movement which planted over 50 million trees, founded by Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai – the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Moringa; The Miracle Tree
Known as ‘The Miracle Tree’ due its high vitamin and mineral properties, Moringa is a tree often cultivated and eaten across African countries. It contains: seven times more vitamin C than oranges, four times more calcium than milk and three times more potassium than bananas. Moringa leaves can be harvested 6 to 8 weeks after planting, and as a perennial tree it can be harvested year on year to provide a regular income for local communities.
The Community Revolution’s Moringa Initiative with partners in Ghana aims to address challenges facing rural communities, especially women, youths and small farmers. It helps to build technical capacity (training in sustainable agriculture practices), processing capacity (through value-addition experience) and access to international markets (by developing market-ready products).
Beyond the support it offers local communities, moringa trees offer many environmental benefits. Being a drought resistant tree, it can thrive in harsh and dry climates to help reverse deforestation, with deep roots that improve soil fertility.
Ghana Permaculture Initiative
One of The Community Revolution’s partners is the Ghana Permaculture Institute, an organisation working to create sustainable opportunities for farmers and local businesses based on permaculture principles.
While encompassing many ideas on nature, systems and sustainability, Permaculture was defined by one of its co-creators Bill Mollison as “a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labour; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system”, created in 1978 alongside David Holmgren.
CERC-DL/Africa SCENe
Our CERC-DL (Community Energy Resource Centre for Digital Learning) initiative seeks to establish sustainable community energy hubs in communities facing challenges in accessing clean, affordable energy. The intended purpose of the energy is to facilitate high impact community learning, especially in the area of digital literacy.
The African SCENe (Sustainable Community Energy Networks) is one project that falls under this initiative.
In partnership with The University of Nottingham we carried out a feasibility study that identified schools within low-income, informal settlement communities in Nairobi, Kenya, that have the potential to become clean energy hubs. With a mission to generate, store and distribute renewable energy to increase access to affordable, reliable light in the evenings.
With a long term ambition to analyse how renewable energy projects could be scaled up across Kenya and the wider East-Africa region, the project aimed to help students, school leaders, local government and the wider community, connecting deeply to this year’s Earth Day theme of ‘Our Power, Our Planet’.
Join our community
Join our community dedicated to sustainable transitions, community growth and environmental stewardship on this Earth Day 2025. Follow us on social media for updates and inspiring stories.
Participate in live community engagement sessions and sign up for our email newsletter to stay informed and inspired. Let’s work together to protect our planet and promote sustainable development. Together, let’s make a difference to celebrate the beauty and resilience of our planet. Happy Mother Earth Day!
Reference information
- International Mother Earth Day 2025 (UNEP) – https://www.unep.org/events/un-day/international-mother-earth-day-2025
- Earth Day – https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2025/
- International Mother Earth Day 2025 (UN) – https://www.un.org/en/observances/earth-day