Climate Action Costa Rica Project #14868

Plant 30,000 native trees Costa Rican owned farms

by Community Carbon Trees- Costa RIca

Plant 30,000 native trees Costa Rican owned farms

Project Report | May 3, 2019
Educating about the Trees with Friends doing Green Business Entrepreneurship

By Jennifer Smith | Project leader

Earth X in Dallas

We believe in the power of collaboration! Whether planting trees, maintaining them or raising money and awareness, it's part of our Mission to include everyone in ways that speak to them so that they too can feel the reward of giving back to our Planet and helping to empower people in empoverished equatorial countries to regenerate their land and their livelihoods. We do not spend lots of money on marketing or piblic relations campaigns. Rather, our organization depends on Tree Friends to help us raise awareness about the effectiveness of planting trees on the Equaator. We hold space for individuals and businesses alike to use to their own efforts and products to voluntarily share our work and encourage their networks to carbon offset.

Recently, we were invited to attend the Earth X event in Dallas Texas! We are collaborating with an electric compost product that is giving 1% of its profits back to the Earth by sponsoring rainforest trees with us. While we only received 1 tree sponsorship at the event itself, we did make some amazing contacts for potential larger business collaborations joining in the concept of giving back for the environment and social resiliency building in the developing world.

We are thrilled to be working with friends from all over the world and especially this collaboration speaks to us because the product being sold is keeping organic waste out of the locals landfills. After all, we have to act globally as well as locally if we are going to solve the climate crises for future generations.

It was invigorating to speak with so many people who were not aware of all the special ways rainforest trees help us to live! After all, trees are the answer! The trees we plant and grow into new forests on the Equator with fair pay are extra special!

Tree Friends help us market Give Back Rain Trees

We love Trees

Trees are the Answer!

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Feb 5, 2019
Yale Tropical Forestry Conference with Tree Jenny

By Jennifer Smith | Project Leader

Yale International Tropical Forestry School

The International Tropical Forestry Conference at Yale University was inspiring and educational as ever. This year Tree Jenny our founder and tireless leader attended the Yale ISTF 2019 as a Breakout Session educator giving a 2 hour interactive talk about transgression and disturbance of the forest and how we can create resilient forest communities in the face of these destructive times. With real time videos documenting conversations of people both in Costa Rica and Kenya discussing the drivers of deforestation, it is clear that poverty is the leading cause of deforestation. Our model of fair pay resolves this issue and inspires regeneration not only of local landscapes and ecosystems, but also of the family itself with income for both men and women being paid from the tree production, compost building and tree planting and maintenance activities.

It is such a great experience when people managing small groups in other Equatorial countries ask us about our model and how they can use it too. More and more, people and institutions are recognizing that the answer to forest conservation and regeneration lies in empowering local communities and investing them with effective tools of self management. People from Nigeria ( Melechie and Marshall) and Malaysia ( Sitti) and even the Phillipines like Marta are ready to replicate our fair pay programs in their seriously threatened landscapes and communities. We met people from Kenya like Milka who are working to help their communities of Indigenous peoples stay in their lands and resist evictions for "conservation" reasons. We met other researchers from Kenya who are seriously excited to connect with us and learn from our program recently begun with the Maasai Center for Regenerative Pastoralism.

The Costa Rican project continues to be the premier example of high growth rates for maximum carbon dioxide sequestration. We showed many videos of all the labor necessary to actually grow a tree to strong maturity approximately 4 years old and ready to brave the elements and give us all the benefits trees in the equatorial rainforest are so cherished for giving. Realizing that we can all give back to Mother earth and play a role in being part of effective solutions to climate change and land degradation and to flooding and droughts is incredibly heart warming.

For now, it is unfortunately clear that international funding for tree planters is still a revolutionary idea and still tree planters are treated like slaves who have to work for free simply because they are so vulnerable and poor. When the internatioanal funding institutions realize that paying tree planters is basically tantamount to stopping deforestation, perhaps large scale change and regeneration will be easier. For now, it is still up to all of us to keep funding this endeavor while we continue to apply for grant funding with our paradigm changing model of fair pay for biodiverse community reforestation including men and women across the Equator. Thank you our generous Tree Sponsors!!!

Welcome to Yale ISTF 2019

New Tree friends from Nigeria

Marta from the Phillipines

Malaysia wants our fair pay tree planting model

Milka from Kenya Sengwer Community

Breakout Sessions shared fascinating info

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Nov 7, 2018
Replicating Maasai Community Carbon Trees! We are going to Kenya, Africa!!

By Jennifer Leigh Smith | Project Leader

Yeah The Tree Team has their VISAS in hand and we depart for Kenya Africa in 3 days....

We are replicating our community empowerment reforestation model with the MAASAI clans by golden invitation from Dalmas Tiampati Director of Maasai Center for Regenerative Pastoralism. We are honored and humbled and ready to work. Our model is redy to replicate and innovate with pastoral grazing and solar water and cooking solutions to address the specific needs in an area plagued by drought and desertification. Having worked in Costa Rica for over 20 years, and after learnign many lessons and staying the course of dedication, we wanted to share our good news with our donors in Costa Rica nad draw your attention to our new project in Kenya.

To donate to this visionary and pioneering project through Global Giving and receive a full US tax deduction, here is the link!

https://globalgiving.org/projects/pay-maasai-clans-produce-plant-diverse-trees-kenya

Lots of special people are involved both in Costa Ric anad beyond to make this dream a reality. Thank you Elena Vargas Fonseca my Costa Rican collegue who has been pivotal in relicating the model to new communities and seeking international funding for our work in Costa Rica. Thank you to Franck St. Loubert for funding support and team support as we embark on this mission in Kenya! Thank you Jessica Manley, Eduardo Hidalgo Cruz, Teresa Badilla, Alvaro Cerdas, Cristian Mena, Diana Saborio, Yedier Gamboa and all the workers who will continue with the work in Costa Rica while we are away....Thank you to Gabriel Hidlago our cinematographer who will be joing us the last two weeks to document our progress laying the foundations for solid ongoing work in Kenya and Costa Rica.

Jenny and Elena are packed and ready to go!!

Our goals include: LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN and respond adequately with respect for cultural ways. Build resilience in an area often visited but usually forgotten in terms of long term community empowerment and afforestation. Engage with youth and elders who love trees. We will teach compost production as we always do right from the start... the secret is in the soil.... we will build a community tree nursery for production of biodiverse native species important to the area. We will go on a seed safari and establish seed collection networks and figure out where to plant the trees and who to plant them with fair pay... we will teach and build accounting and administration foundations for transparent and exact reporting about how we spend the money you so kindly and generously donate.

May I remind you... planting and growing trees is hard work. People should be paid to do it. Your donation is not "charity" in the typical sense... everyone will be working very diligently and many many of us work countless hours without being "paid" ... Together, we will connect with NGO's and the Kenya Forestry Service and become a positive FORCE for silvo pastoral afforestation in the region in such desperate need.

In all these things...TRUST is our mantra ... Listen and Respond... good boundaries and clear direct non violent communication.

Stay in alignment...

What about you? Who can hear us?

WE LOVE TREES!!!\

https://globalgiving.org/projects/pay-maasai-clans-produce-plant-diverse-trees-kenya

Links:

Sponsor Our Kenya seed safari foundation building Maasai mission

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