Nothing pleases us more than presenting our readers with fun events that benefit a great cause. For a fifth consecutive year, Roots & Shoots is holding their much-loved annual fundraiser, featuring an evening of musical delights. Not your average tree-hugging event, Million Tree Rock 2013 will see a forest of local acts shooting up at Mao Livehouse, including some of Shanghai’s best home-grown bands.
Behind it all is that rock star of environmentalism, Dr. Jane Goodall, famed for her work with chimpanzees in Tanzania. The preeminent primatologist first founded Roots & Shoots in 1991. Working from the ground up, the non-profit charity nurtures eco-conscious attitudes in today’s youth, so that future generations will be better informed, empowered and passionate about their capacity to change the world.
The Million Tree Project (MTP) is one of the key initiatives of the Roots & Shoots foundation in China, launched in 2007 as a result of the country’s disastrous desertification crisis. Caused by unsustainable human activities such as overgrazing, deforestation and excessive cultivation, desertification is estimated to have degraded about one-third of China’s total landmass, devastating the agricultural livelihood essential to much of the country’s population and causing sandstorms that ravage towns and cities.
Turning their green thumbs to the task, MTP and its volunteer ‘Forest of Superhumans’ initially planned to help halt and reverse the process of desertification by planting one million trees in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, an area greatly affected by the land degradation.
It’s safe to say that the project has been a great success – their one million goal was attained in 2012, two years ahead of schedule. Since then, the number of annual sandstorms has decreased, the earth is continuing to harden into fertile soil, wild shrubs are appearing and small animals are returning to the area.
Not content to rest on their laurels, MTP has already begun working towards their second bumper crop, with plans to raise enough money to plant another million trees by the year 2017.
Reaching out to old friends, Roots & Shoots is holding their yearly night of rock and roll on August 23, emceed by students from Shanghai American School and boasting the likes of Redic, Sonnet, Da Bei, Friend or Foe, Hu Jia Hu Wei and Death to Giants.
“It’s good because it engages the local populace and gives them a tool they can use to help preserve their livelihood,” says Ivan Belcic, drummer for Death to Giants, adding that it’s “tough to farm in a desert.”
In addition to gnarly tunes, the night will also include a raffle draw and other giveaways.
Proving how simple and easy it is to make a difference, a donation of just RMB25 is enough to purchase a tree in Mongolia and help reverse desertification, one sapling at a time.
// Aug 23, 7.30pm, RMB60 (includes a drink and one tree that will be planted in Inner Mongolia). Mao Livehouse, 3/F, 308 Chongqing Nan Lu, by Jianguo Zhong Lu 重庆南路308号3楼, 近建国中路(6445 0086, www.mtpchina.org)
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