Blog posts on smallholder agroforestry, indigenous communities, and tropical timber.
In January we presented our Equitable Forestry model at the Yale International School of Tropical Foresters' annual conference. Thanks to the organizers for recording all of the conference sessions, which you can access on the iTunes website (we're #9).
Cocobolo saplings growing in Arimae's nursery
This morning I pulled my old hiking boots out of the closet and brushed off the residual clumps of dirt. After a few years of wearing them down to Panama, they’ve given in to the humidity and now require regular applications of Shoe Goo to keep the soles on. I should probably just get another pair, but I’m hoping they’ll make it through my next trip.
Next week we begin the planting of five hectares (12 acres) of mixed tropical hardwood trees in our partner community of Arimae. This is the first planting we’ll have done since 2008 and represents a big momentum boost for us as we continue to grow the business.
Besides bringing our planted area up to over 60 acres, this planting contributes to one of our main goals as a company: promoting community forestry as a sustainable economic alternative. As part of a UNDP-GEF Small Grants project in 2009, we helped Arimae set up a community-owned native tree nursery to sell saplings to forestry businesses like us. For this planting they’ve agreed to sell us spanish cedar, spiny cedar, zorro and cocobolo saplings raised from seed collected from their rainforest reserve and surrounding areas. It’s a positive development for the community, and we’re hopeful that the trees will meet or exceed the quality of the ones we’re buying from more established suppliers.
While we’re only buying about ⅓ of the stock from Arimae, they have the potential to become our biggest supplier of native tree saplings.
The land is prepped, the stakes are ready, we have the fertilizer, and the saplings are on their way. Now, all we need is steady rainfall and a couple weeks' worth of hard work to get them planted. In my opinion this is the most rewarding aspect of what we do. Growing the business here in the US is exciting and rewarding, but it doesn't provide the same tangible sense of accomplishment that I get from putting trees into the ground, getting the hands dirty and building relationships with our partners.
I'll capture as many photos and videos as I can during the planting and upload them to our Facebook and Twitter accounts. Not sure how often I’ll be able to do this—internet access tends to be spotty in the campo—but keep an eye out for updates!
We recently had the opportunity to do an interview with Shoestring Venture—The Startup Bible Blog. If you haven't heard of them, take some time to browse the website; they feature stories about startups and offer practical advice to entrepreneurs.
Last month we had the privilege of speaking at the annual Yale Forestry Conference on a panel that explored private sector engagement in forest restoration efforts. In the presentation we discussed the details of our sustainable business model, including lessons learned and recommendations for developing community forestry projects.
For a summary of the presentation, visit the Yale School of Forestry blog, or download the presentation slides below.
Yale Forestry Presentation (1 MB)
Parrucci stands with a spiny cedar tree in JanuaryIn early January Planting Empowerment hosted a group of investors in Panama for our fourth annual Panama trip. We spent a couple of days touring our planting sites, getting to know the communities we work with, discussing the issues that we’re at work to address, and exploring firsthand how our forest investments are impacting our partners.
The drive out to the Darien province of Panama is always an adventure. Besides the terrible drivers and wandering livestock, the gaping potholes usually take a toll on our rental car. Somehow we managed to escape this time with only minor vehicular damage. The Darien is different every time I go back – changed road patterns, new construction, more infrastructure, the kids are grown up – but the same environmental and economic problems persist.
Planting Empowerment is a sustainable agroforestry company working with indigenous communities and smallholders in Panama.
