Dear Guest,
Join us in creating a personalised forest at Fairfield!
How does it work? You express your interest and the price of the tree you would like to plant, we buy it from a local nursery, we dig a hole, we provide the bone meal and the spade, and you just plant it! (except if you prefer us to plant the tree as well, or if you and your kids prefer to do the digging and planting yourselves).
How did this idea originate? Well, it grew from quite a few areas. In the first place, we wanted to create an opportunity for our guests to offset their carbon credits for the trip they made here from Cape Town (or wherever they have come from). (For an explanation of carbon credits, see the box below).
Secondly, we visited a farm in the Koue Bokkeveld and had a community picnic in the shade of a magnificent forest. It was clear that the local farmers had planted this forest three or four generations ago. It made us realise that what we do in our lifetime, will create the world that our children will live in. And what better to leave them than a forest?!
In the third place, we also realised that Klipspringer Cottage has a wonderful advantage with the towering pines that provide such wonderful shade around it. And even though the pines there are not indigenous, someone also planted them – and today we are the lucky ones to enjoy beautiful days in their shade.
So we decided to create a kind of corridor connecting all the cottages at the foot of the mountain. The idea is to start thickening up the areas around each cottage and then expand the planted area until the cottages connect to each other via a “stroll through the forest”. We will take care to plant indigenous trees, and in such a way that they will not impede the magnificent views of the mountain from each cottage – even when they are fully grown.
If you would like to join us in greening up the future and “Driving a Forest”, we will tag you and your family’s name to your tree(s). And as so many of our guests return every year, you can take pride in how much it has grown every time you return!
To order your trees, please contact:
Lizanne Malherbe 083 274 8063 or Erika Theart 023 3155 840
CARBON CREDITS: “A carbon offset is a financial instrument aimed at a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases. These greenhouse gases are the major contributing factor to Global Warming and Climate Change.
There are two markets for carbon offsets. In the larger compliance market, companies, governments, or other entities buy carbon offsets in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit. In 2006, about $5.5 billion of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market, representing about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO2e reductions.
In the much smaller voluntary market, individuals, companies, or governments purchase carbon offsets to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, electricity use, and other sources. For example, an individual might purchase carbon offsets to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions caused by personal air travel. In 2006, about $91 million of carbon offsets were purchased in the voluntary market, representing about 24 million metric tons of CO2e reductions.
Offsets are typically achieved through financial support of projects that reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in the short- or long-term. The most common project type is renewable energy, such as wind farms, biomass energy, or hydroelectric dams. Others include energy efficiency projects, the destruction of industrial pollutants or agricultural byproducts, destruction of landfill methane, and forestry projects.”
THE FUTURE FOREST @ FAIRFIELD IS NOT A FORMAL CARBON OFFSET INSTRUMENT, AND NO FORMULA IS USED TO CALCULATE EXACT CREDITS FOR GUESTS’ TRANSPORTATION. The project is however inspired by the same ideals.