Most commonly used for musical instruments and furniture, the wood of the African blackwood tree is some of the most expensive in the world.

That means that the “tree of music,” as it is known in Tanzania, gets a lot of attention.

That’s not necessarily a good thing.

Sebastian Chuwa, who on Saturday received the National Arbor Day Foundation’s J. Sterling Morton Award in Nebraska City, is hoping his efforts will teach people to appreciate the tree’s nonmaterial value.

“It gets me worried that if we are not educating people, the tree will end up like the black rhino,” Chuwa said. The West African black rhinoceros is likely extinct, the World Conservation Union reported last year.

That fate is what Chuwa, a volunteer tree planter from Moshi, Tanzania, is furiously working to help the tree avoid.

A botanist, safari tour guide and counselor for his local government, Chuwa encourages youths, women and community groups to plant blackwoods in the northern  area of Tanzania near Mount Kilimanjaro, where he lives.

With help from volunteers, Chuwa reached the 1 million tree-planting mark in 2004.

It took Chuwa 15 years to attain that goal. Now he hopes to get another million trees planted in just five years with the help of international organizations and the Tanzanian government, which recently banned the export of the tree.

Even with the ban, Chuwa says, struggles remain.

Poverty-stricken farmers indiscriminately clear land for subsistence farming, and a lucrative black market for the wood is emerging.

“It is a very serious problem,” he said.

The 50-year-old says he continually collects seeds, which take three months to mature enough for planting. The seedlings won’t reach full maturity for another 50 years.

That’s why he focuses his grass-roots efforts on children in school. It is they, he says, who “hold the key to the tree’s future.”

The Arbor Day Foundation award, given for notable work on the national or international level, is a big motivation, Chuwa said.

“I didn’t know I could be recognized,” he said by telephone from Nebraska City. “It makes me want to work harder and to help other people to see what we are doing.”

On his first trip to Nebraska, Chuwa said he was taking notes on the Arbor Day Foundation in hopes of starting chapters in Tanzania.

“I will never give up,” he said.

Reach Drew Kerr at (402) 473-7223 or dkerr@journalstar.com.