Blog posts on smallholder agroforestry, indigenous communities, and tropical timber.
Mission Markets, an online platform for socially responsible investments, recently facilitated its first deal.
Planting Empowerment is particularly excited about this news because we recently launched our ForestBond 2019 product on Mission Markets' platform. The ForestBond 2019 will finance 100 hectares of mixed species timber cultivations based on PE's equitable forestry model.
We’re happy to report that our January visit to Panama was successful, and lacked any (major) accidents. The main purpose of this trip was to introduce two members of our Advisory Board to Planting Empowerment’s work on the local level.
I flew down with one of Planting Empowerment's advisors, Grace Goodell. As a distinguished anthropologist and one of our earliest advocates, Grace brings years of experience to the business, providing guidance on everything from our social and environmental programs to the best channels to offer our investment products.
The UNDP recently released a report entitled Latin America and the Carribean: A Biodiversity Superpower.
The report aims to "... assess and communicate the economic contribution of biodiversity and ecosystems services to development and equity in the region."
One of the UNDP's case studies features Planting Empowerment's innovative tenure model for forestry and development.
As part of its "Global Sustainability: Central America" series, Green Living Project was in Washington, DC last Wednesday to share the videos they produced during their recent expedition through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama.
We're excited that ours was voted audience favorite!
Many thanks to everyone who came out to support us, and to Green Living Project for a great job telling our story.
Field report from Chris, from a recent visit to the plantations.
Planting Empowerment employee Liriano Opua with an 18' tall yellow-wood treeThe trees are growing well. Our Forester Jose Deago made a small change in managing the trees that has paid big dividends: allowing the lower branches on the the trees to develop more before pruning them. In the past, we pruned the saplings a bit too early, which we now understand can slow their development. The effectiveness of this approach is apparent because we see second years trees that are surpassing three year old trees which were pruned under the old system.
Planting Empowerment is a sustainable agroforestry company working with indigenous communities and smallholders in Panama.
