Pledge by Plant With Purpose
40M Trees: Empower Rural Farmers to Reverse Poverty
Total Trees Pledged: 40,000,000Supporting actions: Avoided Deforestation, Nursery Development, Science and Technical Assistance, Tree Protection through Management, Environmental Education, Economic Empowerment as a means to prevent deforestation,
Plant With Purpose currently plants 5 million trees each year in some of the most deforested and environmentally degraded parts of the world. We work with local teams in eight countries and partner with almost 50,000 smallholder farmers, teaching them to grow and plant trees using agroforestry systems which restore the land on which their livelihoods depend. Our unique approach focuses on watershed restoration and leads to dramatic reductions in poverty levels as communities are empowered to take ownership of their watershed and address the root causes of poverty and deforestation. Since our founding in 1984, we have planted over 40 million trees and from 2020 to 2025 will plant an additional 40 million. By 2025, we will be on track to plant over 10 million trees annually. We also partner with local schools, churches and governments to promote the social and spiritual importance of environmental stewardship.
Plant With Purpose has established local organizations in each of our eight country locations (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mexico, Tanzania, and Thailand) to implement all program activities, including tree planting. We collaborate with various branches of each country’s government at local, regional and/or national levels, including often the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and/or Forestry. As an example of our local collaborations, in Tanzania we partner with the Kilimanjaro National Parks Authority (KINAPA), the Tanzania Forest Service and Chome Nature Reserve. There are a variety of additional local entities we work with to achieve our tree planting goals including churches of various denominations as well as primary, secondary and post-secondary schools. Some other tree-planting partners include Arbor Day Foundation, Tentree, Trees That Feed, and Print Releaf.
All trees planted by Plant With Purpose are grown in local communities by local farmers who are motivated to plant trees to restore and improve their farms as part of agroforestry systems. Our partnering farmers are empowered to take ownership over their trees through our agroecology training and are actively leading every step of the tree planting process. Furthermore, our focus is the watershed level, not individual farms, and our partnering farmers receive training to understand the importance of watershed restoration and how their actions affect their neighbors. This motivates farmers to plant trees not only on their farms but in strategic communal areas and to protect native species and forests. We also work with local communities to better understand and address barriers to tree planting, such as lack of water and unrestricted grazing. When these barriers are understood and overcome, motivation to plant and care for trees increases. Our local staff in each country includes forestry and agriculture experts whose expertise in local ecology and culture is a critical component in the success of our programs.