Backsberg and Food and Trees for Africa launch the Earth Centre at Backsberg

Earth Centre Launch

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

Saturday saw the culmination of few hard, but exciting months of work. The day saw the launch of the Earth Centre at Backsberg. The centre is a collaboration between Backsberg and NGO Food and Trees for Africa.

The project started some time in June, when I spotted FTFA founder, Jeunesse Park, and my father sitting at a table at our restaurant, scheming. I was summoned over to the table with something of a nonchalant hand gesture- come hither dear child. FTFA is primarily based in Joburg, but they are doing more and more work in the Western Cape and as such required a base in the area. So, the Earth Centre was first rooted in the practical requirement for a home for FTFA in the Cape Town area. From there however, the concept developed tremendously. Back to my being summoned- I approached the table hesitantly, and sure enough Jeunesse and my dad had, in the course of lunch, conceptualised a whole new project, and had appointed yours truly as the ‘delagatee’, proceeding to rattle of a rather intimidating to-do list.

In broad terms, and I think it is important to emphasise that the centre is opening as a ‘work in progress’, the space is one meant to tackle environmental change in the Western Cape. The centre is to act as an information hub, workshop venue and learning centre. It will provide a space for sustainable development and climate change action, inspiration, education and solutions. Those are lofty goals, but we are confident that through pooling the collective passion and networks of Backsberg and Food and Trees for Africa, we can make a real difference in combatting climate change.

Symbolically, we opened the centre, a staw-bale building, on the 24th of October, which coincided with the International Day of Climate Action. The 350 wine bottle formation in the picture above denotes the critical level of C02 ppm in the atmosphere- for more information on the 350 campaign click here. You can see some of the pictures from the launch here, and the construction of the building here. SB

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This post was written by:

Simon Back- who has written 56 posts on the Back Chat Blog. After finishing up studying economics at UCT in 2007, Simon has joined his family wine farm, Backsberg. When he is not trying to figure out what marketing wine means, he is authoring his blog, Back Chat.

Author's web site: Backsberg