TCI: Beaches & Sandals Foundation Plants Native Trees For Earth Day 2018

#TurksandCaicos, April 28, 2018 – Providenciales – Sandals Foundation continued its commitment to alleviating climate change in the Turks & Caicos with a major tree planting project, when the charitable organization planted several young trees on Providenciales to commemorate the 18^th annual Earth Day environmental movement.

The foundation once again joined forces with the Turks & Caicos National Trust and the Clement Howell High School’s Environmental and Tourism Club to increase the greenery and enhance vegetation at the historical site to help reduce the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere.

“I am happy that we are able to collaborate with Beaches and the Sandals Foundation this year for Earth Day,” said Ethlyn Gibbs- Williams, Director of the National Trust, “Today is about showing appreciation for what we have inherited from Mother Nature, while education others on how to preserve our natural habitat.”

Enthusiastic volunteers planted several trees that were native to the surrounding area including Seagrapes, Silver Buttonwood, Green buttonwood, Ruellia and the beautiful Hibiscus flowers which also brought a nice visual appeal to the historical site.

“Earth Day is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s natural environment, so we found it fitting to host a native tree planting project at the one of our most cherish historical sites.” said Elanor Krzanowski, PR Manager for the resort and the Foundation.

“When it comes to environment and practices, we here in the Turks & Caicos and the Caribbean by extension is far from where we should be, we hope to foster stronger relationships with other organizations such as the National Trust to help us build greater awareness of the value and importance of our environmental impacts and find way to reduce our carbon foot print on the planet,” she said.

The National Trust was grateful to receive the gift of trees as the site has lost 30% of its trees as a result of the devastating effects of hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017.  Approximately two dozen native trees were added to the Cheshire Hall Plantation landscape, including four (4) Caribbean Caicos Pine saplings.  Caicos Pine is an endemic tree, regarded as the National Tree of the Turks & Caicos Islands, and is an important part of the country’s ecosystem. A recovery project is currently underway.

The resort and the foundation d has long been committed to preserving the natural beauty of its surroundings along with all of the Sandals and Beaches resorts  has been awarded the much coveted, EarthCheck Award for Environmental Stewardship.  The resort’s Earth Day celebration is the latest a long line of eco-initiatives that include a massive Community Clean-up effort in the Bight Community, Underwater Clean up and water bottle donations at the local schools here in Providenciales.

In addition to Turk and Caicos, the Sandals Foundation have planted over 1,500 trees across Caribbean for Earth day which includes Jamaica, St. Lucia, Barbados, Bahamas and Antigua. In Barbados, Sandals worked with Trees That Feed to plant fruit-bearing trees in 20 local schools.

Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22.  The movement was founded on the premise that all people, regardless of race, gender, income or geography, have a moral right to a healthy, sustainable environment.   It was first celebrated in 1970, and is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and celebrated in more than 192 countries including the Caribbean each year.

Release: Sandals Resort