Think and Do project volunteers gathered to plant trees at the Castle Road estate on Saturday
SUCKING pollution from the air around us, providing shade from the summer sun, hosting a huge variety of animals and looking beautiful – increasing the number of trees in Camden has been shown to have multiple benefits.
And now the world-famous venue Koko, in Camden Town, has bankrolled a project by eco-campaigners Think and Do to plant more than 2,000 trees across the borough.
On Saturday, volunteers gathered with wellies and spades on the Castle Road estate in Camden Town to plant 12 new trees.
A mix of maple – which boasts extraordinary colours every autumn – to the Japanese pagoda tree, with beautiful spring blossoms, as well as cherries and crab apples, the estate is one of eight which have gained new mini-woods and copses.
And part of the project includes employing young people on the estates with new trees to be “Koko Foresters” – a paid job where they are tasked with caring for the new plantations.
The Camden Town venue – which reopened last year after a £60m refit – includes the Koko Foundation, a charitable wing of the business that distributes 5 per cent of the firm’s profits to good.
The venue has offered young people special memberships, access to music production, performance spaces and broadcast facilities at their new, state of the art home.
Think and Do member and tree project organiser Sarah Nicholl told the New Journal: “This is the project’s 70th tree on estates, and we have provided hundreds more to individuals and groups to increase tree cover in Camden.”
Koko Foundation CEO Sophia Pasetti said: “This is such a unique project. We have worked with a range of groups to help plant 2,225 trees in the past year.
“We are working with 25 schools, and funded a new garden outside Kentish Town fire station as a thank-you for their work to save Koko when it caught fire.”
Camden has been the first borough to benefit from the scheme and its success is such that the foundation now hopes to roll the scheme out across 20 more London boroughs.
Koko Foresters Simba Martins and Tito Castello live on the Castle Road estate and have been appointed to look after them.
Simba said: “We saw a poster and my mum loved the idea because she loves trees. The pandemic meant a lot of young people were stuck inside. This is helping us rewild ourselves, spend time outside, as well as rewilding our environment.
“The community should take care of the trees we enjoy and doing this teaches young people new skills too.”
Tito, 13, added: “One of the trees is right outside our window so we can watch it grow.”
The new trees have taken root across the borough, including sites in Holborn, Kilburn, Maitland Park and Regent’s Park.
Ms Pasetti added: “A crucial part of this project is to provide young people with an opportunity while bringing benefits for the community. Employing young people to care for the trees helps connect them to what to look at through the seasons and watch it grow.”
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