Planting Empowerment is dedicated to reducing deforestation by tackling its root cause: short term economic need. The individuals and communities that depend upon the rainforest for their livelihood are hardworking and industrious, but their practices are unsustainable. Unless there is a better way for them - an incentive not to degrade the environment - they must continue their current practices. You and I would do the same.
Plantation forestry in Panama typically involves the purchase of large tracts of degraded land from poor locals, resulting in their displacement and often, return to slash-and-burn way of life.
We created a more sustainable leasing model after witnessing other forestry businesses buy out local Panamanians and decrease the amount of arable land. Our lease payments offer an economic incentive to keep locals on their land by reducing their need to deforest and providing them steady income. Additionally, PE shares 20% or more of its profits with partnering farmers and their communities through community projects and scholarships.
By profiting from regeneration and conservation, local communities can now afford to become better stewards of their resources. Sustainability Planting Empowerment uses forestry as a mechanism to reduce rural poverty and slow tropical deforestation. PE's strategy is influenced by the grassroots development work of its founders, who have incorporated the principals of sustainable development into the business. As such, we compare ourselves not only to other forestry businesses in their position on ecological standards, but also development organizations whose work promotes social sustainability.
Unlike PE's competitors and other development projects, PE financed a base line study in the communities where it established its plantations. The baseline study was executed by a sociology professor at the University of Panama to measure the impact on incomes and self-planting of timber by individuals in the community of Nuevo Paraiso and the development of self-governance in the community of Arimae. Future surveys will be done to measure the impacts of Planting Empowerment against control communities to further guide PE's development theory and maximize impacts. Social Sustainability We define our social sustainability as the point at which a community can maximize the benefit from a new technology or practice with minimal outside involvement. Beyond simply providing local employment, PE involves its partners as much as possible in all aspects of the business. Ultimately, our goal is to turn over the day-to-day management of the plantations to trained employees from the local communities. After the initial 25-year leases end, partners and their communities will have the knowledge, financing, and experience to execute a new cycle of timber cultivation without the assistance of Planting Empowerment. |
