Jeunesse Park

Biographical Information
"Jeunesse Park established Progreen in 1989 after extensive travel and diverse work experience in marketing, advertising and communications. Progreen, South Africa's first environmental communications and public relations company, promoted awareness of the importance of sustainable development, environmental issues and climate change and worked with local and international organisations, government and companies on a range of environmental projects and events." 

"Jeunesse Park created Food & Trees for Africa in 1990, the only national social enterprise in South Africa to work on climate change, greening and food security. FTFA has distributed over 4.2 million trees, has facilitated thousands of natural food gardens, bamboo bioenergy plantations and some organic farms for disadvantaged communities across South Africa.

"In 1991 Jeunesse brought the father of permaculture, Bill Mollison, to South Africa to introduce Permaculture as a viable development tool for food safety and security and sustainable land use management. For the next 16 years she organised Permaculture Design Courses that trained hundreds of people and many facilitators. In

"1999 Jeunesse was acknowledged for her efforts in environmental conservation when she won the Mail and Guardian Green Trust Award for Established Environmentalists of South Africa. She has since won the Mail and Guardian Chairman’s Award for Excellence, the Eskom Chairman’s Award, the International Chevron Conservation Award, the Nelson Mandela Forestry Award, the United Nations Environment Programme Sasakawa Award for Climate Change and the Caroline French Morton Arbor Foundation Award. As pioneers, FTFA established the Carbon Standard in 2006, now the Carbon Protocol, and initiated the first South African carbon calculator, which can be found on www.trees.co.za. FTFA also registered the first ever Bamboo for Africa carbon offset and Trees for Homes under the internationally recognised Verified Carbon Standard.

"Jeunesse joined the international advisory board of Ogilvyearth in 2009 and established the Climate Hero Awards (previously the Climate Change Leadership Awards). Jeunesse was selected as an Al Gore's Climate Reality Leader in 2011 and attended the training of 1 000 as a mentor in 2012. She lives and works towards healthier people on a healthier planet and knows that one can change the world!"