In January 2015, the ARC visited the Udzungwa Mountains with Francis Fanuel, the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG) Project Coordinator for the Udzungwa Scarp Forest Reserves (USFR), and discussed the dire lack of funds and the rampant illegal logging, hunting, and wildfires.

In May of 2015, the ARC partnered with Cliffton Dry, the alcohol sponsor of the 24th Annual Artists for Africa gala, to raise urgently needed additional resources to halt the further loss of forest and biodiversity in the Udzungwa Mountains!

Our first goal is to raise $14,700 to achieve the following in 6 months:

• Train 31 primary school teachers from 11 different schools on environmental education
• Teach environmental education to 2,500 primary school students
• Establish 5 tree nurseries at the primary schools
• Plant 5,000 trees at the primary schools

See the full proposal and budget on our website to learn more about the project and see why environmental education is crucial and will eventually lead to the support of alternative enterprises to illegal logging and charcoal production.

In order to raise the funds needed, we have created a “Coffee Fund”, where we are encouraging people to donate $5 a day for 20 days, instead of buying that latte every morning. All we need is 147 people to do this for us to reach our goal, so spread the word!

We will be ramping up the blogs and social media posts on the “Coffee Fund” campaign until Tuesday, December 1st, which is #GivingTuesday. #GivingTuesday is the global day of giving fueled by the power of social media that raised $45.7 million last year alone for different causes!

This year the ARC will join in on this amazing online social movement and encourage people to give to causes they care about rather than only spending their money on shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We hope you choose the ARC this #GivingTuesday!

So when spreading the word on social media please use the following hashtags: #GivingTuesday, #SaveUdzungwaScarp, and #ClifftonDrySocialResponsibility.