22nd February 2016; Caesars Entertainment UK have announced that they will co-fund the One Child One Tree project in Mamfe, Southwest Cameroon, which will plant 10,000 trees, transforming the lives of over 500 local children.

Since 2010 Caesars Entertainment UK has worked in partnership with Green Earth Appeal, one the United Nations Environment Programme’s global tree planting partners; by cultivating grass-roots support the international entertainment group is helping to solve some of the world’s most urgent development needs.

Through a series of acts of corporate philanthropy and by offering diners in each of its eight in-house restaurants throughout the UK an opportunity to include the planting of a tree, for 99p, with their bill, the international casino and entertainment group has helped to plant more than 120,000 fruit trees in some of the world’s poorest places, as part of its commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility.

Since 2009 Green Earth Appeal has been working in partnership with global businesses to plant trees on a massive scale in developing countries such as Haiti. Their latest project, One Child One Tree, will plant 10,000 in trees in Mamfe, on the Manyu river, by working in collaboration with the United Action for Children, a community focused NGO which works on the ground in the region.

In the Manyu Region of Southwest Cameroon, 51% of the population live well below the poverty line and many are forced to resort to deforestation as a means of survival; this desperate, short-term approach to the Earth’s resources has severe implications for both the long-term economic development in the region and for global carbon emissions.

Many parents are subsistence growers and rely on their children to work the land, which in turn deprives them of an education. The money raised through the One Child One Tree initiative will pay for agricultural tools, such as spades and wheelbarrows, and will enable more than 500 of Mamfe’s school children, aged between 6 and 11, to receive practical training and education about the importance of good environmental stewardship and the long term economic benefits it offers.

Caesars Entertainment UK Chief Marketing Officer (EMEA), Sarah Sculpher, reported her delight with the initiative’s progress:

“Everyone at Caesars Entertainment UK is thrilled to have been involved in this latest push to support the Green Earth Appeal. As an international company we’re acutely aware of the importance of doing our bit to make the world a safer, more prosperous place. We understand that helping the most vulnerable get on in life is the first port of call for any responsible organisation and we’re so pleased that we’re able to tackle the problems of the future head on, by working to improve the lives of Mamfe’s children.”