Introduction TreesRU- Review Report TreesRU We chose the social problem of deforestation, specifically, bushfire caused deforestation. We chose this issue as the loss of vegetation and forestry as a result of fires has devastating social, environmental and economic effects. For example, each year due to bushfires, we lose millions of square kilometres of forestry and therefore lose copious amounts of vital natural wildlife and damage our land in a way that can cause desertification and flooding. These effects can therefore lead to the significant reduction of areas suitable for farming and therefore lead to food shortage, upset ecosystems and major agriculture based economic upset .Not only this, but as bushfires threaten our ecosystems, we can put multiple species and the food chain at risk. Therefore, bushfire prevention is vital to the longevity of our planet. Furthermore, as demonstrated in the 2019-2020 NSW bushfires, we can significantly damage our air quality. Heavy smog covered almost the entire east coast of Australia and many faced significant breathing difficulties and major respiratory illness'. Therefore, for the sake of the health of society, and the protection of our most vulnerable such as children and the elderly, we must prevent and manage bushfires. Finally, we can face massive economic upset due to lost infrastructure. Costing billions to rebuild, the loss of homes, schools, business' and community facilities causes huge economic and social devastation. Our team, Lachlan, Deepinder, Safar, Jerome and Cassie are highly empathetic individuals who care about the environment deeply. We chose this issue as it is one of the best means of easily preventing deforestation in a community-based way. As opposed to tackling deforestation, our solution works to mitigate bushfire effects through having communities take grassroot action. We ask that people ask themselves what little things
they can do to stop the start and spread of bushfires and replant the vegetation lost. Hence, we wish to empower people to take responsibility for deforestation and not just view it as an issue too far removed for action. When people merely view deforestation as just through commercial paper farming and land clearing they can feel as though their efforts are too minimal to promote real change. TreesRU seeks to combat this, as we highlight the ways communities can easily spark change. We will employ the use of numerous projects, including tree-planting projects and school based information sessions. We hope to significantly alter community awareness and act to tackle climate change, specifically through informing and empowering the next generation. We are at a point now where we have the most information ever about the environment and impacts of deforestation, but are damaging the planet more than ever. Our solution seeks donations in order to hold community information and tree planting projects as well as facilitate large scale vegetation management and planned burning projects.Our crowdfunding campaign can be found at .https://swinburne-ibp.crowdicity.com/post/3281220 Crowdfunding Campaign Outcomes and Learning The overall outcome of our test campaign was a success, with people reacting positively to our efforts to bring about change