The Million Tree Campaign, a regeneration project run by the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature, flagged “accessing land and the heightened violence directed at farmers by settlers” as their main challenges, according to Lisa Shahin, the organization’s advocacy and research officer. The campaign plants fruit, nut and olive trees across the West Bank and expanded in March 2024 to plant crops, rehabilitate greenhouses and help poultry farmers and fishers in Gaza. Their mission is to counteract “Israel’s deliberate confiscation of agricultural lands” and build farmers’ capacity to manage and sustain their land, their website says.
Despite the increased challenges of the past 17 months, “our determination only grew stronger,” Shahin said. The organization has planted 99,458 trees and 970 dunums of crops, helping to support more than 9,000 people dependent on farming livelihoods in the process. according to Shahin.
Shahin described settler aggression as playing “a major role” in the survival rate of trees planted, alongside Israel’s access and water restrictions causing losses.
Read more here: https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/gaza-and-west-bank-farmers-salvage-olive-harvest-amid-displacement-destruction-and-israeli-settler-violence/
Farmers over profits!