The Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for EMEA (MCF for EMEA)

Since 2017, the MCFEA has been supporting an international non-profit organization, Rainforest Alliance, which works with partners to protect forests, improve the livelihoods of farmers and forest communities, promote their human rights, and help them mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. The organization aims to drive more sustainable agricultural production and responsible supply chains by certifying key agricultural commodities such as coffee, cocoa, tea and bananas and they have sustainable projects and/or certified farmers in around 70 countries. The MCFEA has supported their projects in Côte d'Ivoire and Kenya and the FY2023 project aims to help community forest associations and residents restore a sustainable and healthy landscape in the Mt. Kenya region.

From FY2009 to FY2015 and continuously from FY2021, the MCFEA has been supporting Farm Africa, an international NGO with the mission of building a resilient rural Africa where people and the environment thrive. Specifically, they are working to reduce poverty by helping smallholder farmers in eastern Africa to regenerate their land, build climate-resilient businesses and grow more food. They promote a holistic approach that boosts yields, protects the environment and connects smallholder farmers to thriving markets. In FY2023, the MCFEA is supporting a project that aims to improve livelihoods through biodiversity conservation and support for local coffee farmers in the Bale-Eco region in Ethiopia. This project supports farmers to promote coffee production and agroforestry techniques and provides post-harvest management and coffee marketing training.

Since FY2022, the MCFEA has been supporting the African Leadership Academy, an educational institution for students aged between 16-19 years old, which seeks to transform Africa by developing a network of young leaders who will address Africa’s greatest challenges. The MCFEA’s donation in FY2023 is supporting both their scholarship programme and their Design & Innovation Challenge, which encourages the students in the ALA network to study and propose solutions to tackle urgent challenges faced by the corporate sector. This year, MC staff members based in Africa are mentoring the students to come up with solutions to tackle climate related issues, and specifically how to maximize carbon storage in the soil while considering factors such as yield, nutrition, and biodiversity.