PLANTING TREES FOR SUSTAINABLE INCOMES AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

Invest in the Planet, Invest in People

It’s a win-win. Planting trees is good for the planet and good for people. Reforestation not only grows trees, works to fight climate change and restores ecosystems but also generates sustainable incomes for local communities. Reforestation improves lives by creating livelihoods.

At JUST ONE Tree, we are committed to reforestation programs that enable economic empowerment. For example, many projects help smallholder farmers adopt or expand agroforestry (the practice of integrating trees with crops or livestock) or use gains from planting trees to make products and build businesses.

Planting trees and mangroves helps to fight climate change and heal our planet. But it also brings economic empowerment and positive social impact.

Picture of an older Peruvian lady in an Andean landscape

A focus on livelihoods

We invest in the planet, but there’s a secondary investment, in people. We’re planting trees and mangroves, but we are also helping to create sustainable systems so that the local communities and our forests, coastal areas and woodlands thrive in harmony with each other. The trees and mangroves are better served, the local communities become part of the solution, people gain economically, and, best of all, those solutions are long-term and often self-sustaining.

Picture of a woman in Peru in traditional dress, selling items outside of a tree planting nursery

This is exactly the finding of a broad study of South Africa’s restoration projects that proposes a “more inclusive approach towards achieving positive human outcome-driven restoration of degraded woodlands.”

Mangroves for Mexico

The iconic Laguna San Ignacio in the Baja area of western Mexico is the last undeveloped breeding lagoon and sanctuary of the Pacific gray whale. This wetland complex and blue carbon sink is surrounded by pristine desert, salt marshes and red mangrove forests.

Mangroves play a significant role in the Laguna San Ignacio local economy, as they provide nursery and feeding grounds for the fisheries on which most families from the coastal communities in the region depend. A study carried out by Wildcoast with the support of the United Nations Development Program identified 287 acres of potential mangrove restoration sites across Laguna San Ignacio that can store up to 129.8 tons of carbon per acre.

We’ve been working with Wildcoast to plant mangrove seedlings in the area, working in collaboration with local communities. The result: planting mangroves, restoring the lagoon, saving whales, and helping local fisheries to survive and thrive. The whales win; we win.

Tree planting team in a boat in Mexico, collecting mangrove propagules.

Tree planting team in a boat in Mexico, collecting mangrove propagules. One lady is standing up with a long pole and reaching for the propagule handing on a mangrove

4 members of the reforestation team in the water, chest deep and carrying out monitoring of the reforestation site.

Kenya's seeds for peace

In Kenya, we’re working with the International Tree Foundation on ecosystem restoration and livelihood improvement. This includes agroforestry, bee keeping, vertical gardens, zai pits and eco-stoves, creating measurable social impact and economic support for the local communities. These projects build nature-based enterprises and improve people’s health and lives.

A picture of a man tending to saplings in a tree nursery

A picture of a woman holding the fruit that's growing on her tree

Picture of a woman carrying a sapling to be planted

Close-up picture of two women planting a sapling

Picture of a man planting a tree in Kenya

Picture of men and a number of saplings ready to be planted

As a Kenyan activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai puts it, “When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope.”

The results are meaningful and measurable. Community-managed tree nurseries work to build self-sustaining nurseries. One investment, ongoing returns.

Zai pits are an eco-friendly, climate-resilient low-cost dryland farming technique that is having a great impact in Kenya and other parts of the world. And those eco-stoves are crafted from clay which is locally available, making them affordable and accessible for local communities. So, they improve air quality for homes and are also much more efficient than traditional stoves as they require one third of the firewood of the old stoves. Less firewood means less pressure on forest, and it also frees up time for women and girls, who mainly bear the burden of fetching firewood.

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A bundle of benefits

Sustainable reforestation + sustainable incomes = lasting benefits

We like reforestation that has a lasting positive impact on the specific place and the planet in general. One step better is to generate income associated with the restoration work itself. Restoration projects work really well when they improve lives, allowing local communities to bring money in from outside, for example, by making and selling products that would not have been possible without the reforestation efforts. That’s top tier sustainability — and a very worthy goal.

Picture of villagers and tree planters in Ecuador

Picture of workers in the tree nursery caring for seedlings

Addressing biodiversity and climate change and local peoples’ incomes and financial stability holistically will help us take advantage of synergistic solutions and avoid unintended consequences of treating them separately. It leads to longer term solutions and a larger connect array of positive consequences. Win-win.

Embedded microfinance

Borrowing from the world of fintech, we see this as “embedded microfinance.” Embedded finance is the integration of financial services — such as lending, payments, insurance, or banking — into non-financial platforms, like apps or websites

Embedded microfinance, then, is the integration of microfinance into restoration projects. These projects work to build sustainable incomes, reduce poverty, and, at the same time, reduce environmental degradation, restore ecosystems and absorb carbon.

One of the main causes of deforestation is poverty, so addressing livelihoods is almost more important than the reforestation itself. We ensure across all our projects that the communities will have a sustainable income that is created with and by the thriving forest, which will help ensure the forests are protected in perpetuity. Creating a thriving community that works hand in hand with a thriving ecosystem — that’s what builds a better future.

Lives and Livelihoods

There are many other positive projects around the globe where we are doing powerful environmental and economic empowerment work. Here are just a few examples:

Brazil: Local communities in Brazil have created a brand selling soaps and other toiletries made from the forest in a sustainable way.
Madagascar, Haiti and Indonesia: Increasing mangrove forests means an increase in fish supplies, so local communities have more food and fish to sell; also, they are thriving habitats ideal for eco-tourism.
The Andes and Kenya: Reforestation projects are spawning tree nurseries where the communities sell saplings to others.
Zambia: Bee hives are provided for honey production. The bee hives promote sustainable income and forest conservation, and have led to an increase in honey production of over 700% in five years.

Synergies not traps

In all of these projects, we’re seeing a lot of synergies in our projects between the right way to plant trees (or kelp or mangroves) and the right way to empower people on those lands.

Two men in Bolivia holding up polylepis saplings

A lady at a reforestation site in Argentina, holding up polylepis saplings, ready for planting.

A team in Zambia on the ground looking at planting maps and discussing reforestation plans. 3 male team members and one woman are involved in the discussions

A reforestation team in the Cerrado, Brazil holding saplings as they're about to be planted.

We want to avoid situations where people are forced to give up some of their rights or degrade land in order to maintain their livelihoods. For example, granting permission for mono-culture crops such as cocoa, palm oil or soy. Why? It’s a trap of twin evils. Not only are those mono-cultures causes of land degradation but they also hijack the locals’ livelihoods. When the mono-culture agriculture ends, locals are left with no income and no healthy ecosystem.

Measurement and the long term

We measure the number of trees planted and the cost of trees. But we also look at human metrics, such the number of people trained (plus what skills they gain), number of people employed, number of working hours/days, number of jobs created. We also look at qualitative information, including the type of activities, the variety of activities, how these activities are synergistic with the restored ecosystem (i.e. they not only address the sources of degradation but the conservation of the ecosystem is required for the continuation of the activity, and vice-versa). Ultimately, we need to see evidence that the maintenance of the restored ecosystem can be sustained long after external funding ends. That’s the long-term win-win.

A room full of people learning about planting and caring for trees and ecosystem conservation in Bolivia.

Educational workshops taking place in Zambia. A woman teacher and five women sat learning, one woman holds a baby in her arms.

reforestation planning meeting. Team members sat in an office around a table.

Training is taking place in a reforestation nursery in the Andes. 10 people are stood watching as training is being delivered inside the nursery, amongst crates of soil and seeds

With increased income, families can also diversify and create their own micro-enterprises, which, in turn, generates more income for healthcare, education and building homes.

So, for us at JUST ONE Tree, the social impact is a vitally important part of effective reforestation. We’re looking for reforestation, carbon storage and clean water… plus economic empowerment and the longevity of our projects.

EMPOWER COMMUNITIES HERE