This is more of an announcement rather than a discussion, but it can turn into one as people read it and leave their comments

At a small village in Putubiw, near Cape Coast in Ghana, the Putubiw Students Union (PUSU) have combined efforts with socialtours.com travels to launch a carbon offset tree plantation scheme. PUSU gets volunteers from United Planet in Boston, and now is planting ten trees for each volunteer who comes in.

So far, 67 trees have been planted so far. This could potentially be added in the counter in this website. In August 2007 there will be a total of four volunteers and two travellers, hence another 60 trees will be planted for sure.

The Chief of the village, Nana Bokyrewa Ekwambir III, has announced that he will make some land available for PUSU to start a real forest. This will make the PUSU forest the first ever village owned carbon offsetting project in Ghana.

The idea is to launch this project internationally via a website, so that travellers travelling to Ghana can utilise this forest to plant trees and offset their carbon emmissions. This will provide much needed financial income to the villagers, thereby allowing them to reach their own development priorities and goals.

PUSU is a model village level organisation developed by the students of Putubiw. As a student crosses Junior Secondary School to Senior Secondary School in Putubiw, he/she automatically becomes a member of this organisation, making the organisation a source of village level pride and encouraging students to study further. Their website is still being built

Read about volunteer opportunities into this project at www.unitedplanet.org.. PUSU is looking for foresters who have knowledge on Rain Forest Replantation Techniques, Bagasse Hand Paper Making, Alternative Energy for firing alchohol Distilleries and several other volunteers to contribute towards the development of these different programmes.

Read developments on this project also at the socialtours.com partner website www.socialtreks.com . socialtours.com has also been nominated this year as Best Tour Operator in the 2007 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards. It runs trips in Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and Ghana.