Mango trees

31 January 2023

News

After all the festivities of the Ocean Race in Mindelo, we are now on our way for the 2nd island hopping trip in Cape Verde. Early in the night we arrived in Tarrafal (Santiago) where we dropped our anchor in the bay. After breakfast our guests enjoyed a tour of the island by our local guide Sayde. In the afternoon I have an appointment with one of the aldermen in Tarrafal to hand over a letter and a small mango tree. That needs some explanation:

almost every year the ‘Oosterschelde’ visits Cape Verde for a few weeks. Cape Verde is a fantastic destination, and we are happy that we always receive such a warm welcome here. That is why we are happy to be able to give something back every now and then.

In collaboration with the Cape Green Projects foundation, I offered 200 mango trees to the city of Tarrafal on behalf of the shipping company. Cape Verde has to deal with long periods of drought and heat. Planting trees is not only good for quality of life, but trees also provide coolness, store CO2 and – if there are enough of them – can even reduce drought. The Cape Green Projects foundation will ensure that the trees are planted and maintained. After the handover, we went with the alderman to the street where the first 100 trees will be planted. The remaining 100 trees will be planted throughout Tarrafal. It is expected that the first trees can be planted within one month. The alderman had another nice piece of information: the village used to be called Mangi, not Tarrafal. Because of the many mango trees that used to be here. Nice that there are now 200 mango trees are returning.