2011-07 Planting the Future | Prism Magazine

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PRISMPlant a Tree, Save a LifeCaring for the poor by caringfor the earth

Farming forustice in the

inner city

Evangelicals rediscover their legacy of animal

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Electric!Solargrandmothersilluminate thedeveloping world

July/August 2011 PRISMmagazine.org



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PRISMVol. 18, No. 4

All contents © 2011 ESA/PRISM magazin

July-August 2011

Plant With Purpose, a Christian non-proft or-

ganization, breaks the vicious cycle o pov-erty and de orestation by trans orming it intoa victorious cycle o environmental restora-tion, economic empowerment, and spiritualrenewal.

WE TEACHpoor armers to solve their ownproblems through community development,emphasizing empowerment rather than hand-outs.

WE PLANTinnovative, mutually benefcial agro-orestry systems that restore the land while

providing armers with abundant harvests

WE CREATE healthier, sustainable economiesthrough savings based microfnance loans tohelp develop alternative sources income.

WE SHAREthe Gospel through long-term rela-tionships ocused on discipleship and servantleadership.

Learn more at: www.plantwithpurpose.org



Planting th

Reforestation addresse one tree at a time



11

e Fut ure

poverty at the roots, By Tim Høiland



12 PRISM Magazine

On the sur ace, it may appear that planting trees andcaring or the poor are two separate undertakings.But when you dig a little deeper, says Scott Sabin, theconnection becomes undeniable.

For Sabin, who serves as executive director o Plant With Purpose, a Christian, environmental non-pro t organization based in San Diego, choosing to

ocus on either the needs o the poor or the environ-ment is a alse choice—and one with tragic repercus-sions.

Take Haiti, a country mired in desperate povertylong be ore the devastating earthquake o early 2010.Once a tropical jungle, hillside slums now reveal a bar-ren landscape. In Haiti, Sabin says, “we see how ex-treme poverty results in environmental disaster, whichin turn eeds extreme poverty. I you address one in avacuum, the other will de eat you.”

“There are a lot o environmental programs outthere that ignore the needs o the poor,” he continues,

“and they ail or obvious reasons. At the same time,many o those working to address poverty issues ailbecause they have ignored environmental actors.”

Plant With Purpose, originally known as FlorestaUSA, got its start in 1984 in the Dominican Republic.Tom Woodard, its ounder, noticed that while count-less humanitarian organizations were doing noble workthere, none seemed to be addressing the inescapableconnection between the degradation o rural land andthe plight o the rural poor.

It was a startling conclusion to the puzzling ques-tion o why so many people were leaving their rural

arms and moving into urban slums where overcrowd-ing, violence, and substandard sanitation were thenorm. But in many cases, according to Sabin, “thesepeople were coming rom situations they consideredworse.”

Worse than a slum?The realities o environmental impacts in devel-

oping countries may be di cult or many o us tocomprehend, Sabin says, “because here in the USwe’re very divorced rom our environment. The im-pact o environmental degradation is real to us, butwe can insulate ourselves pretty easily because o ourafuence.”

The rural poor do not have that luxury. For them,many o whom are armers who daily depend on theirland or their very survival, the e ects can be devas-tating.

And at the crux o that grim scenario is the prob-lem o de orestation.

Trees are essential in replenishing the nutrientsin the soil and in preventing topsoil-depleting erosionand landslides capable o destroying entire communi-ties in one ell swoop. Trees help the soil retain itswater, which allows aqui ers to be recharged. They

Previous page: A community in the Dominican Republic plants tree seed-lings in a nursery, where they learn to care or them as well.

Top: This hillside is completely de orested on one side, allowing or serioussoil erosion on the other.

Middle: Contoured living barriers such as this one help mitigate soil erosion.

Bottom: This landscape in Oaxaca, Mexico, shows varying degrees o degradation and vegetation. Plant With Purpose partnered with local

armers to plant the saplings seen in the oreground.



also act as lters, naturally puri ying the water ound in riversand streams. Additionally, de orestation has been linked to lacko rain all, as God-ordained cycles o nature are disrupted.

The cumulative e ect o de orestation is that poor armersnd it increasingly di cult to produce the crops they depend

on. The widespread nature o the problem has a lot to do withwhy 80 percent o the chronically hungry in our world are therural poor and, subsequently, why urban slums continue to ab-sorb a growing stream o “environmental re ugees” desperate

or an alternative to the precarious lives they have come toknow.

An idea whose time has come Though hardly new, de orestation began to accelerate in the1800s at the height o the Industrial Revolution, a time whenagrarian societies were being replaced by industrial ones thatdemanded large quantities o natural resources. While rates o de orestation in developed countries have leveled o and theoverall pace in developing nations has slowed, it still remains asigni cant problem worldwide, experienced most acutely by therural poor but impacting all o us in one way or another.

De orestation has gained more attention o late, coincidingwith a renewed recognition o the niteness o our planet and

the ubiquitous, multi aceted dangers o environmental degra-dation. In a resolution passed by the General Assembly, theUnited Nations named 2011 the International Year o Forests,recognizing the connection between de orestation and poverty,stating that “ orests and sustainable orest management cancontribute signi cantly to sustainable development, povertyeradication, and the achievement o internationally agreed de-velopment goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.”

But perhaps no one has done more to highlight the con-nection between de orestation and the poor than WangariMaathai. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 orher work with the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots orga-nization that engages women’s groups and others in plantingtrees “as an entry point or sel -determination, equity, improvedlivelihoods and security, and environmental conservation.”

Born in Kenya in 1940, Maathai saw the impact o de or-estation rsthand as a child. “As I was growing up,” she recalls,“I witnessed orests being cleared and replaced by commercialplantations, which destroyed local biodiversity and the capacityo orests to conserve water.”

Maathai became the rst woman in Kenya to earn a doc-toral degree, and she eventually held respected posts in bothgovernment and academia. The Green Belt Movement (GBM)

13

In Unbowed: A Memoir (Anchor, 2007), Wangari Maathai(pictured le t) tells her story o growing up in Kenya; be-coming an in uential pro essor, parliamentarian, and activ-ist; ounding the Green Belt Movement; and winning theNobel Peace Prize. It is an intimate look at a remarkablewoman who endured imprisonment and harassment orplanting trees, not only to improve the lives o the poor andto protect the environment, but also as a symbol o reedomand peace in Kenya and beyond.

For more on Maathai and the Green Belt Movement,please visit GreenBeltMovement.org. The movement hasspread into several A rican countries, and this site containsall the latest news, photos and vid-eos o the work that Maathai andothers are doing.

Scott Sabin (pictured, ar right, with Car-los Disla, executive director o Plant WithPurpose’s Dominican Republic operation) has

written a book called Tending to Eden: Envi-ronmental Stewardship for God’s People (Jud-son, 2010). In it he shares insights rom his ownexperiences, theological re ections on creationcare, and practical ways to “tend to Eden.” Thebook also eatures guest contributions by keyChristian thought leaders with unique perspec-tives on environmental stewardship. For moreon Plant With Purpose and how you and yourchurch can be involved, visit PlantWithPurpose.org.

Dig Deeper



14 PRISM Magazine

itsel grew out o work she pioneered with the National Councilo Women, where she rst began planting trees. In addition tothe obvious environmental bene ts, GBM also planted trees in

public places in Nairobi as a orm o protest, demanding therelease o political prisoners. In time, Maathai says, “the treebecame a symbol or the democratic struggle in Kenya.”

During her speech in Oslo, Norway, in December 2004,Maathai thanked the Nobel Committee or publicly acknowl-edging the connection between democracy and environmentalprotection. “Recognizing that sustainable development, democ-racy, and peace are indivisible,” she said, “is an idea whose timehas come.”

The decision to plant trees through women’s groups mayhave initially been circumstantial, but it was also clearly stra-tegic. A ter all, says Maathai, it is the women in A rica whogenerally take responsibility or arming the land and eedingtheir amilies, and they are naturally the rst to recognize de-

orestation and other orms o environmental destruction thatthreaten their livelihoods.

Understanding how the environment is connected to de-mocracy, sustainable development, and peace is crucial i therural poor are to have a hand in ensuring or themselves abetter uture. So GBM has established a “citizen educationprogram” designed to help people identi y the causes and pos-sible solutions to the problems their communities ace, enablingthem to pinpoint how their own actions contribute to whatthey observe in society and the environment. I the program

is success ul, Maathai says, the rural poor “come to recognizethat they are the primary custodians and bene ciaries o theenvironment that sustains them.” To date, over 40 million trees

have been planted in Kenya and throughout A rica as part o the movementIn her memoir, Unbowed (Anchor, 2007), Maathai re ects

on the signi cance o trees and how they have shaped her un-derstanding o our world. “Trees have been an essential part o my li e and have provided me with many lessons,” she writes.“Trees are living symbols o peace and hope. A tree has roots inthe soil yet reaches to the sky. It tells us that in order to aspirewe need to be grounded, and that no matter how high we goit is rom our roots that we draw sustenance. It is a reminderto all o us who have had success that we cannot orget wherewe came rom. It signi es that no matter how power ul webecome in government or how many awards we receive, ourpower and strength and our ability to reach our goals dependon the people, those whose work remains unseen, who are thesoil out o which we grow, the shoulders on which we stand.”

Valuing the land While outside orces like multinational corporations are some-times to blame or widespread de orestation in vast areas likethe Amazon basin, Scott Sabin is quick to point out that, orthe most part, the poor themselves are the ones depleting theirown small plots o land.

“A lot o people are surprised to learn that o ten it’s the

by Tim Høiland

There are all sorts o things you and I take or granted every day o our lives, butew are as basic or undamental to our very existence as dirt. This is the core prem-

ise o DIRT! The Movie , an 80-minute documentary exploring the pro ound impacto soil on every sphere o society.

The lm eatures interviews with Indian environmental activist Vandana Shiva,Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, a wine connoisseur, an Aus-trian-born physicist, a pro essor o agroecology, and an array o others, all o eringtheir unique perspectives on the irreplaceable signi cance o soil in our lives.

To Christians this should come as no surprise. In the second chapter o Genesiswe read, “God ormed Man out o dirt rom the ground and blew into his nostrils thebreath o li e. The Man came alive—a living soul!” ( The Message ); indeed, even thename Adam means “dust.” Yet too o ten we consider this as mere poetry, thinkingo dirt and dust as nuisances to be avoided rather than the elemental sources o li eour creator God intended them to be.

Given the long-standing indi erence and neglect dirt has endured in the publicmind, one might expect a documentary o this sort to be, well, dry. It’s anythingbut. While the interviewees have impressive credentials on their own merits, thecreators o the lm went to great lengths—at times rather goo ly so—to make the

lm accessible and interesting.

I DIRT! The Movie makes one core contribution to the environmental conver-sation, it is in highlighting the symbiotic relationship between people and the land.In doing so, it makes clear that, or better or worse, even the smallest o actions on this nite planet have cosmicconsequences.

“The earth is the Lord’s,” says the psalmist, “and everything in it.” Meditating on the truth o those words, withthe arguments o DIRT! in mind, may help us as stewards to cultivate and value dirt or what it is, rather than simplytreading it under oot.

Dirt! The Movie Dr. Vandana Shiva is the ounder o Navdanya, a network o seed keep-ers and organic producers in Indiathat seeks to preserve agriculturalbiodiversity.



15

desperation o the poor that in act creates environ-mental degradation,” he says, adding that their pov-erty can drive them to use marginalized, less resilientland or agriculture or to cut down trees or timber,

rewood, or charcoal, either or personal use or to sellor a small pro t. When any o this occurs, “the poor

are in act causing the de orestation that is makingthem poorer.”

For this reason, in the six countries where the or-ganization works, Plant With Purpose staf are trainedto help identi y these vicious cycles and, in partnershipwith local communities, to nd ways to create li e-giving cycles in their place. One o the primary wayso doing this is by planting trees. In act, Plant WithPurpose calls re orestation “sustainable developmentin its most sustainable orm.”

“It’s getting at the oundation issues leading tosituations o underdevelopment and degradation o theenvironment, the li e support system that the commu-

nity depends on,” Sabin explains. “Just as de orestationrobs people o their health and livelihood, re orestationand sustainable arming practices can begin to returnit.”

For people whose poverty has seemingly orcedthem to think only o their immediate needs, the long,slow process o planting trees as a orm o communitydevelopment might seem like a hard sell. That’s notnecessarily the case.

Sabin argues that in some ways the rural poor un-derstand the value o re orestation and environmentalstewardship intrinsically. He recalls that on more than

one occasion armers who never nished elementaryschool have explained to him in detail how watershedswork—a eat the majority o the well-educated amongus are incapable o .

But in any community there are skeptics, so it isimportant to demonstrate immediate results in addi-tion to long-term promise. The ideal medium or thisis agro- orestry, an approach that mixes re orestationwith basic agriculture. The beauty o this methodis that trees naturally release nutrients into the soil,helping crops to grow. The trees also prevent erosion,ensuring that the precious topsoil remains in place,which means that robust crop yields can be enjoyed

or generations.In most cases, Sabin says, there are one or two

armers in a community who latch onto the agro- or-estry approach early on. These positive deviants, as hecalls them, “tend to become noticeably more prosper-ous, and that gets the attention o others. Then itspreads.”

Un ortunately, however, in some countries the lawails to provide the incentive to invest in the long-term

health o the land. Sabin has met armers who werereluctant to give agro- orestry a try, not because they

While industrial logging, mostly by oreign companies, continues at analarming rate in many o the world’s rain orests (above), it is o ten the

poor, like this Haitian armer (below, le t), who, in desperation, cutdown trees or timber, rewood, or charcoal (below right).

Below: Members o the Musongeti arming association in Burundiplant cassava or themselves and or sale at the market.



thought it would ail but because they eared losing their land

once it started to ourish, as it would begin to appear morevaluable to o cials and greedy neighbors. In response, PlantWith Purpose helps armers with land mapping so they canestablish legal rights to their land.

Counterintuitively perhaps, Sabin believes it is essential orsmall landowners to maintain the rights to cut down their owntrees. “It’s not so much about preservation as about valuation,”he explains. What matters is that armers value their land andunderstand how they can best cultivate it and make it pro t-able or the long term, rather than telling them what they canand cannot do with it. “Otherwise, you’re taking away poten-tially productive land. A tree that you can’t bene t rom and

have no rights over is an intrusion.”Ensuring that rural armers have ull use o their land, withthe con dence that it will remain in their hands, is crucial orsustainable development. “Squatters, sharecroppers, renters,and people who cannot gain legal title to their property have nolong-term stake in the land,” he explains, “so they are unlikely toinvest much in its uture.”

Despite the act that the actions o the poor o ten cause

the de orestation that contributes to their own long-term pov-erty, it is more than just a problem by and or them.

“We cannot lay the responsibility or the environmentalcrisis at the eet o the poor,” Sabin writes in his book, Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God’s People (Judson,2010). The rural poor “are orced by desperation, oppression,and lack o opportunities to abuse the environment. This is avicious cycle in which they have little choice. Greed, exploita-tion, and carelessness on the part o governments, multina-tional corporations, businesses, and wealthy individuals are ma-

jor contributors to the environmental crisis. And these peopleand organizations do have a choice.”

Complete transformation While many communities have now experienced the trans-

ormative impact o environmental stewardship thanks to thework o Plant With Purpose, Sabin says this sort o trans or-mation is not enough.

“Early on in the Dominican Republic, our re orestation and

agro- orestry programs were working,” he says, “but we sawthat new ound wealth didn’t always lead people in good direc-tions. We noticed a progression: more alcohol consumption, aTV, a mistress. And that’s just not good, sustainable develop-ment.”

So in addition to environmental stewardship, Plant WithPurpose incorporates discipleship into its programs, at timesthrough loan groups and a savings-led credit model. This ap-proach is intended to help meet the community’s deepestneeds while empowering them to care or the environment bythemselves.

“I have always wanted to help the poor, motivated by the

love o Jesus,” Sabin says. “But the more I’ve learned aboutGod’s heart or the world, the more I’ve wanted to give peoplethe very best that Jesus has to o er.”

Sabin continues, “To the woman at the well, Jesus o ered,‘I can give you living water and you’ll never thirst again.’ I werestore a watershed, great. But i Jesus has living water to o -

er, who are we to withhold that? It’s just so easy to lurch romone to the other, considering one or the other a distraction.

Plant With Purpose recently launched the “Trees Please” campaign, aimedat getting trees into the hands o poor armers—the people who need themmost. Donors have the option o planting a tree, an orchard, a hillside, agrove, or even a orest. At $1 per tree, the campaign provides not just theseedling (which may cost 10-15 cents), but the coaching and oversight bycommunity agronomists who can ensure the program’s long term success.

“Getting trees in the ground is the easy part,” Sabin says. “Making surethe community learns how to maintain the trees, to water them, to keep thegoats out—those are the things that make all the di erence.”

Last year, the “Trees Please” campaign enabled Plant With Purpose toplant one million trees. To learn more about the campaign and to get involved,visit PlantWithPurpose.org/trees-please.

Do Your Part: Opt out of Yellow Pages, catalogs A mid-sized city like Seattle, Wash.,collects an average o 35 millionpounds o paper to recycle eachyear. It’s a lot cheaper, and easier on

the environment, to stop the waste at the source. Goto YellowPagesOptOut.com to decline unwanted phone

books, which are today unnecessary thanks to the inter-net. Then go to CatalogChoice.org to have your nameremoved rom retailers’ catalog lists. According to theNatural Resources De ense Council, the catalog indus-try mails more than 19 billion catalogs a year in theUS, 95 percent o which are made rom virgin orests,consuming, on an annual basis: 53 million trees, enoughenergy to power 1.2 million homes, and enough waterto ll 81,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Yet theindustry’s own research shows that less than 2 percento the catalogs result in a purchase. Opt out today!

16 PRISM Magazine

Trees Please



The future One o the areas where Plant WithPurpose works is Oaxaca, Mexico.Because it looks like a desert, Sabinsays, it is natural to assume that ishow it has always been. But it tooonce had lush orests. Now, morethan 80 percent o its original orestcover has been lost, making Oaxacaone o the most de orested parts o the world.

A key driving actor in this casehas been the production o char-coal, which the poor o Oaxacasell or kitchen use to wealthierMexicans whose afuence insulatesthem rom the immediate e ects o environmental degradation. Thoseproducing and selling the charcoal

meanwhile have little choice but tocontinue in the vicious cycle that ismaking them poorer.

But by planting trees, startingsheries, operating small handcra t

businesses, and installing roo topcisterns to catch what little rain allOaxaca receives, some have startedto experience a di erent way o li e.In the community o El Porvenir,which in Spanish means “the u-ture,” Plant With Purpose has been

able to walk alongside the people asthey have rediscovered the signi -cance o their community’s name.

On the road into the commu-nity, a small oasis in an otherwisebarren land, travelers are greetedwith a sign that reads, “Welcometo El Porvenir, where there are op-portunities.”

The trans ormation o El Por-venir is remarkable, but it does nothave to be unique. Indeed, it is pos-sible to interrupt the vicious cycleso de orestation and rural poverty.By recognizing the undeniable con-nection between planting trees andcaring or the poor, a green uture iswell within reach, a uture brimmingwith li e, dignity, and hope.

Tim Høiland is a freelance journalist and international develop-ment worker. He blogs about the intersections of faith, justice,and peace in the Americas at tjhoiland.com.

But I’m not sure why it’s so hard tobring the two together.”

On a practical level, Plant WithPurpose’s engagement with localchurches varies depending on context,but sta work hard to seek out mutual-ly bene cial relationships. Sometimes,churches are equipped with leadershiptraining or Bible studies, and in turnchurch leaders enlist their congrega-tions in support o re orestation andagro- orestry programs in their com-munities.

Tanzania is a unique example,where churches have made a signi -cant commitment towards environ-mental stewardship. In act, Lutheranchurches there make it a requirement

or students going through con rma-

tion classes to plant a designated num-ber o trees be ore completion.

Plant With Purpose also works toestablish partnerships with US church-es to support the work o environmen-tal stewardship abroad. While there hastraditionally been some ambivalenceamong American evangelicals towardsenvironmental initiatives, Sabin saysthis landscape is rapidly changing.

“I’ve been doing this work or 18years,” he says, “and or the rst 10

years it seemed that our work wastoo Christian or environmentalists buttoo environmental or Christians.” Sa-bin says that initially in speaking withchurch groups he would emphasize theeconomic impact o Plant With Pur-pose’s work, adding the re orestationcomponent later, almost as an aside.Now, though, given what he calls arecent “groundswell o concern or theenvironment”—occurring in part alonggenerational lines—Plant With Pur-pose has been able to re-emphasize theenvironmental ocus while the work onthe ground continues to produce botheconomic and environmental results.

But or Sabin, Plant With Pur-pose’s work does not depend on whatis currently in vogue, because he be-lieves the power ul impact o re orestation and agro- orestryon the lives o the poor speaks or itsel . “People tend to bevery pragmatic,” he says, noting, “It’s hard to argue with whatworks.”

17

A Haitian is hard at work constructing a soilconservation barrier to halt erosion and preventthe deadly landslides that can occur during therainy season.

Plant With Purpose works with 22 Tanzaniancommunities in the regions surrounding MountKilimanjaro, where 850 amilies have created am-ily vegetable gardens and collectively planted over350,000 trees.

Special thanks to our friends at Plant WithPurpose for supplying the photographs used here.

Documents

2011-07 Planting the Future | Prism Magazine