Plant With Purpose Partners with Taking Root to Accelerate Forest Restoration

The partnership between Taking Root and Plant With Purpose has resulted in 500,000 trees being planted in the Dominican Republic with the help of 237 farmers.

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, USA, December 14, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — The world’s forests are disappearing at an alarming rate with efforts to restore them needing to move faster. To address this urgent global challenge, Canadian project developer Taking Root and U.S. nonprofit Plant With Purpose have formed a strategic partnership to accelerate the restoration of the world’s forests while improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

The greatest area suitable for forest restoration is on agricultural land owned and managed by 570 million small-scale farmers around the globe. Many of these farmers are from communities most vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis. 

If farmers could be incentivized to grow trees alongside their existing agricultural practices, they could play a pivotal role in climate change mitigation while restoring local ecosystems and building livelihood resilience. However, many farmers face barriers when making land use choices in favor of growing trees. The global carbon market’s demand for high-quality carbon removals represents an opportunity. Farmers could grow trees and get paid for the carbon they remove from the atmosphere, creating necessary incentives for them to restore their land. Traditionally, it has been too costly and complex for farmers to access the carbon market which drives farmers to pursue land use opportunities that are unsustainable in the long-term.

Plant With Purpose and Taking Root are breaking down barriers so that farmers can access the carbon market with the shared goal of accelerating global forest restoration and improving their lives. 

“By combining our unique strengths and resources, we are poised to drive meaningful change,” said Kahlil Baker PhD, Taking Root CEO. “Our combined efforts will restore forests at scale in partnership with smallholder farmers.”

Taking Root’s sentiment was shared by Plant With Purpose.

“Our partner farmers are driving the change towards restored ecosystems and climate change mitigation,” said Milmer Martinez Vergara, Plant With Purpose vice president of international programs. “As direct users of biodiversity and ecosystems, they are in a strategic position to advance a solution. Their access to carbon credit markets creates the opportunity to scale this process and adds a layer of resilience to their lives by being paid for their contributions.”

Plant with Purpose has a network of projects spanning nine different countries. The organization focuses on partnering with farming communities to address two of the world’s most critical challenges – global poverty and environmental degradation. These projects are already generating an incredible impact on a local and global scale by significantly reducing poverty and environmental damage. They now seek additional financing to further expand their impact. 

Taking Root enables small farmers to access the carbon market with a proven track record of developing and managing large-scale smallholder forest carbon projects. Taking Root provides a combined set of services and cutting-edge technology platform for Plant With Purpose to successfully develop, operate and bring to market the next generation of high integrity forest carbon removal projects with smallholder farmers. 

Through this partnership, the two organizations aim to identify opportunities for high-quality carbon removal projects that simultaneously improve farmer livelihoods, remove carbon from the atmosphere and restore local ecosystems. The collaboration, already underway in the Dominican Republic, serves as a replicable model for how Taking Root and Plant With Purpose plan to develop and scale forest restoration programs with smallholder farmers around the world. 

“Our pilot project in the Dominican Republic demonstrates the viability and scalability of this approach and its benefits for our local program and partner farmers,” said Martinez Vergara. “With continued success, we will look to expand the program, potentially supporting our partners in other countries as well.”

With a half-million trees planted, the benefit is certainly noticeable.

“Our partnership in the Dominican Republic has already brought about 500,000 trees planted, with 237 farmers contributing to the restoration of essential watersheds,” said Meredith Karazin, Taking Root chief growth officer. “The ground team has a great understanding of the local community and agroforestry practices which provides a strong foundation to further explore the carbon potential to benefit more farmers in the future.”

Plant With Purpose and Taking Root are currently working with philanthropic funders, carbon retailers and climate financiers to accelerate the development of new projects. If you are interested in learning more, please contact [email protected].

For more information about Plant With Purpose, please visit www.plantwithpurpose.org.

About Plant With Purpose

Founded in 1984, Plant With Purpose is a leading Christian environmental organization, based in San Diego, California. Now operating in nine countries, Plant With Purpose spearheads initiatives for environmental restoration, poverty alleviation and spiritual renewal. The group’s holistic model focuses on community-led innovation and leadership that helps global communities reverse structural and environmental causes of rural poverty. Plant With Purpose’s integrated solutions have resulted in more than a half-million people reversing poverty, more than 60 million trees being planted, and 2.7 million acres of land being restored or protected. With local programs in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Haiti, Malawi, Mexico, Tanzania and Thailand, Plant With Purpose has a global team of more than 500 people. To learn more, visit www.plantwithpurpose.org.

About Taking Root

Taking Root’s purpose is to accelerate the restoration of the world’s forests. The company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, enables smallholder farmers to grow trees and earn money from the carbon they remove from the atmosphere. Their technology and support make it simple for reforestation partners to create transparent and robust forest carbon removals. From registering farmers and recruiting land to monitoring trees grown and the carbon stored over time, Taking Root provides tools every step of the way to help their partners successfully manage and scale carbon projects. Recognized for its best practices by the UN, EU and World Economic Forum, Taking Root connects thousands of farmers to the carbon market and improves their livelihoods by restoring forests around the world. To learn more, visit www.takingroot.org.

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Patrick Pierce
Oster and Associates
+1 619-906-5540
[email protected]