FOR

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Trees Eradicate Poverty in Some of the Worlds Poorest Places

Plant With Purposes 18 million trees assist farming families to improve their lives and land
SAN DIEGOApril 20, 2016Plant With Purpose hit a major milestone this April, planting over 18
million trees in some of the most environmentally degraded places in the world. The impact of these
trees is vast with benefits extending beyond aesthetic beauty, wildlife habitat, or oxygen to breathe:
Plant With Purpose has found a way to use trees as a tool to eradicate poverty.

Eighty five percent of the worlds poor depend on agriculture to make a living1. The poorest of these
farming families are left to cultivate land that no one else wants. A family farm might be a steep eroded
hillside, an over-cultivated plot, or a parched piece of land depleted of nutrients after years of
deforestation. These families can easily get caught in a cycle of poverty and environmental degradation.
The very act of farming exhausted land exacerbates the delicate environmental balance, causing the
land to produce even less.

Plant With Purpose has found trees to be an effective tool in eradicating rural poverty. Partnering
families lift themselves out of poverty twice as quickly as their neighbors by planting trees and
replenishing their farms2. These farming families are applying principles of agroecologybringing
together core principles of agriculture and ecology to transform marginal land and dramatically improve
farm yields. Families produce more crops, eat better, and have money leftover to save and invest in
their future. Trees play a core role in this transformation.

A simple act like planting trees can restore soil health. Trees naturally protect and replenish soil. Once
mature, branches and leaf litter break the fall of a harsh rain while roots anchor valuable topsoil. These
roots create pathways through soil for rainwater to travel and replenish underground aquifers allowing
streams to flow year-round. Leaves release water into the atmosphere through their stomata, which
increases humidity. Rows of trees provide windbreaks during storms. Leguminous trees take nitrogen
from the atmosphere and add it to the ground so other plants can access this necessary mineral.

Within three years of partnering with Plant With Purpose, 70 percent of rural poor families lift
themselves above the poverty line3.

This change is seen clearly in Haiti, a country that has been highlighted in the news with stories of
environmental devastation and rising poverty. The United Nations estimates that more than 1.5 million
Haitians are threatened with malnutrition due to a three-year long drought. This is the same country
where environmental degradation led to a cholera outbreak that killed at least 9,200 people following
the earthquake in 2010. Only two percent of the natural forest still exists. Haiti has long suffered the
impact of environmental degradation, where soil lacks fertility, and the land produces little, yet the
country is home to over one million farms4.

Clermanie Sanon, Plant With Purpose farmer in Haiti, understands the value of trees in helping reverse
rural poverty. She shares, Before working with Plant With Purpose, my husband cut a lot of trees to
make charcoal. Now, we cut less and plant more. My farm is protected against erosion and our crops
grow better.

Farmers like Clermanie are using trees to escape poverty around the world. Plant With Purpose, a
Christian nonprofit organization, reverses deforestation and poverty around the world by transforming
the lives of the rural poor.

Source: Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative - 2014 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)
Source: Plant With Purpose Multidimensional Poverty Index (2016). 70% of participants have climbed above the
poverty line as compared with 35% from a control group made up of their neighbors and similar farmers from
nearby communities.
3
Source: Plant With Purpose Multidimensional Poverty Index (2016).
4
Source: UN FAO State of Food and Agriculture 2014
2

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About Plant With Purpose
Plant With Purpose (plantwithpurpose.org) is an international development organization that
transforms lives in rural areas where poverty is caused by deforestation. For more than 30 years, Plant
With Purpose has provided lasting solutions to rural poverty through a community development
approach that integrates reforestation, sustainable agriculture programs, economic opportunity through
microfinance, and local leadership development. Plant With Purpose currently works in more than 473
communities in seven countries: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican
Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Tanzania, and Thailand. The organization has planted over 18 million trees
worldwide.
For interviews, inquiries, or additional information on Plant With Purpose, including videos or photos,
please contact Becky Rosaler.
Contact: Becky Rosaler

Marketing and Events
800.633.5319 Office

760.650.2819 Cell


becky@plantwithpurpose.org
plantwithpurpose.org