How ten years of search has powered Ecosia’s mission
Our favourite search engine – Ecosia – is celebrating 10 years of powering tree planting projects around the world with our internet searches.
And with 16 million monthly users, that’s a lot of trees – 76 million in fact since they started in 2009.
Ecosia’s mission is ‘to plant a billion trees and inspire a global reforestation movement’. They do this by partnering with local communities around the world to integrate tree planting and forests into their livelihoods.
The trees that Ecosia plants have by-products like nuts, shea butter and baobab powder. By harvesting these products and selling them on, the local communities gain a valuable source of income.
This reliance on the forests means local people will protect and nurture the forests instead of clearing the land for animal agriculture or intensive mono-crops.
A healthy forest increases the quality and fertility of the soil. It can bring back water to a barren land and it creates a micro-climate that encourages bio-diversity.
Here are a few of our favourite Ecosia projects
Reforestation in Madagascar
Turning the desert green in Burkina Faso
Bringing water back to Uganda
Ready to get involved?
> Head over to Ecosia.org and start searching the internet
> Add their browser extension and make Ecosia your default search engine
> Download their mobile app to search Ecosia on the go
> Search ads generate income from Ecosia and they use this money to plant trees around the world
Happy birthday to our friends at Ecosia!