JoJo Tanks is a proud partner of the Wildlands Conservation Trust’s Indigenous Trees for Life programme – an initiative that trains people in need in rural and township communities to grow trees from seed in order to barter them for goods once they reach a certain height.
To date, JoJo Tanks has donated almost 500 tanks to the initiative and the tanks have proven to be a hot favourite in the ‘Green Futures Stores’.  ‘Tree-preneurs’ receive credit for trees they have grown and redeem their credit at the stores for essentials such as food, clothes, education support, JoJo water tanks, building material, solar water heaters, solar powered lighting and bicycles.
Wildlands ensures the trees are planted back into the community or used in reforestation projects.   JoJo tanks have been distributed in many rural villages to harvest rainwater. Explains Wildlands CEO Andrew Venter, “Rainwater harvesting tanks were identified as highly desirable items for the Green Future stores where credit for trees is traded for goods, as water supply in rural areas especially is often lacking. A 2500Lt JoJo tank is exchanged for 500 trees grown. Wildlands depends on donations such as these to provide products for trade to the tree-preneurs, many of whom are unemployed and depend on the project for their livelihood.”
Khanyisile Mafuleka is fifty two years old and provides for her five children as none of them have work. She grows indigenous trees from seed and has traded them back for goods such as groceries, clothing, bicycles and now her own JoJo tank. Mrs Mafuleka said “I'm so happy that now I've got a JoJo tank because of trees, this project is really helpful to my life.”
The provision of storage for water that can be used for drinking and cooking has a significant impact in an area like KwaJobe, as people are dependent on water from Muzi Pan, a few kilometres’ walk for most of the villagers. Cattle graze and drink on the banks of the pan making the water unsuitable for drinking.


Rod Cairns, managing director of JoJo Tanks, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Wildlands (through Indigenous Trees for Life) for a second year to provide JoJo water tanks to tree-preneurs. At JoJo we are passionate about the role we should play in conserving our planet’s limited resources.  Our association with Wildlands gives us an excellent opportunity to make a real difference and to contribute to the global effort to raise awareness of the need to save water. Through the JoJo Tanks partnership, JoJo is able to improve the quality of the lives of many tree-preneurs who now have convenient access to water through rainwater harvesting, for both personal consumption and for watering their trees. The JoJo tanks we donate save women much time and effort, providing a source of water right at their home and they no longer have to walk miles to and from the nearest water supply,” he said.