Customers buying Christmas firs in Buckingham are helping plant trees in Africa

Buckingham Garden Centre is working with the Buckingham-based charity Ripple Africa to help raise money and awareness of tree planting in Malawi.

Even with stretched budgets this year, households around the country will be pulling out all the stops to enjoy a traditional Christmas, complete with a cut Christmas tree.

It is estimated some eight million real trees - including Nordmann fir, Norway spruce and Scots pine - are sold during November and early December as families prepare for the big day.

For the third year running, Buckingham Garden Centre will be pledging 50p to the charity for every Christmas tree sold – and every 50p donated means two trees can be planted in Malawi.

Ripple Africa plants two million trees each year with tree planting farmers and their families in Malawi, and to date over 19 million trees have been planted.

Charity co-founder Geoffrey Furber said: “We are very grateful to Buckingham Garden Centre for supporting our tree planting in Malawi again this year.

"This has been another successful year with farmers, communities and schools planting trees.

"A total of over two million trees will be planted out in the coming rainy season in December and then we will be registering more farmers to plant trees for the next year.”

To donate to Ripple Africa’s Plant a Tree campaign, visit www.rippleafrica.org/xmastree where there are phone numbers you can text to donate to plant 12, 20 or 40 trees.

To find out more about Ripple Africa visit www.rippleafrica.org