Exporting Haitian Cotton Expertise to Puerto Rico

Paving the Way for a New Natural Fibers Industry

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, December 20, 2018 – A study released today draws on the recent reintroduction of cotton to Haiti by the Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA) as the basis for mapping out a similar scenario for Puerto Rico. Both countries share a history of cotton production that has been halted for generations, and both countries have a tradition of small-scale family farming in need of revitalization. Hurricane Maria in 2017 was particularly devastating to Puerto Rico’s smallholder farmers, and a coalition of local organizations there approached the SFA to share its sustainable smallholder-grown cotton expertise to help with the recovery efforts. The Puerto Rico Cotton Study: Exploring a Smallholder-based Organic Cotton Supply Chain is the result of a collaboration led jointly by the SFA and Visit Rico, with support from Textile Exchange and members of Armonía en la Montaña, an educational non-profit organization in Puerto Rico, and the Mercado Agrícola Natural Viejo San Juan.

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Timberland Receives Best Economic Empowerment Program Award for Work in Haiti

Atlanta McIlwraith accepting the US Chamber of Commerce Citizenship Award on behalf of Timberland,
accompanied by Hugh Locke from the Smallholder Farmers Alliance.

Timberland’s work to reintroduce cotton farming to Haiti was honored recently with the US Chamber of Commerce Citizenship Award for the Best Economic Empowerment Program. In partnership with the Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA), the global outdoor global lifestyle brand aims to create a new supply chain for sustainable cotton for use in its products through a program that will also contribute to reforesting Haiti and improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Over the next five years, the program will plant 25 million trees and engage 34,000 Haitian smallholder farmers to produce 10 to 15 million pounds of organic cotton lint annually.  

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Planting Tree Currency in Haiti

The radical social business model that is turning tree planting into a form of currency to finance
smallholder farm improvements in Haiti. Photo: Andres Cortez / SFA.

Check out our new brochure Tree Currency, the text of which follows:

Haiti is severely deforested and the lack of tree cover reduces agricultural productivity, raises average temperatures and makes rural areas more susceptible to flooding.

Some 70% of Haiti’s energy comes from burning wood and charcoal, which means that trees in Haiti are worth more dead than alive. Low agricultural productivity leads many of Haiti’s more than one million smallholder farmers to take up producing charcoal to supplement their low incomes, ensuring that the causal link between deforestation and rural poverty continues unabated.

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Cotton Export Tutorial in Haiti

Farmers near Gonaives, Haiti, planting cotton seeds are joined by Hugh Locke (middle front) and Timote
Georges (right) of the Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA). Everyone is wearing Timberland shirts in
acknowledgement that these same items will soon begin to incorporate smallholder-grown organic
Haitian cotton. Photo: Thomas Noreille / SFA

Smallholder farmers near Gonaives, Haiti, are in the midst of planting the first commercial cotton crop this country has seen since 1987. On August 9, some of these farmers gathered to help plant a demonstration farm where other smallholders will be trained in cultivating a crop that was once Haiti’s fourth largest agricultural export. And in a practical tutorial about export markets, the farmers wore cotton shirts from Timberland, the global outdoor lifestyle brand

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What Connects Prince Charles, Jane Goodall and Haiti? Answer: TREES.

A book being published in October with a foreward by HRH The Prince of Wales and an introduction by Jane Goodall will be designated "tree positive" because one new tree will be planted for every copy published--and half those trees will be planted by smallholder farmers in Haiti. Each tree they plant earns farmers the crop seeds, tools and organic agricultural training they need to significantly increase yields and incomes through a model the Smallholder Farmers Alliance has developed called "tree currency."

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Rivers in the Sky: How Deforestation Is Affecting Global Water Cycles

Moisture produced by the world's forests generates rainfall thousands of miles away. Photo: Richard
Whitcombe / Shutterstock

REPRINT > Fred Pearce for Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Forestry 

A growing body of evidence indicates that the continuing destruction of tropical forests is disrupting the movement of water in the atmosphere, causing major shifts in precipitation that could lead to drought in key agricultural areas in China, India, and the U.S. Midwest. 

Every tree in the forest is a fountain, sucking water out of the ground through its roots and releasing water vapor into the atmosphere through pores in its foliage. In their billions, they create giant rivers of water in the air – rivers that form clouds and create rainfall hundreds or even thousands of miles away. 

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Putting Haiti’s Unrest in Context

To understand the riots and violence in Haiti in response to last Friday’s announcement of fuel price increases, you have to go back to 1815 when Simón Bolívar landed in the newly formed nation of Haiti and asked the government of president Alexandre Pétion for arms and soldiers to help liberate various South American countries from Spanish rule. Bolívar’s request was met on the condition that he abolish slavery in all the countries he was helping to set free from Spain, which eventually included Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Bolívar was from Venezuela, and Haiti’s unique role in their gaining independence established a special bond between the two nations that continues to this day. 

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Partnering with Rotary to Plant Trees in Haiti

It would be hard to find a more diverse group than the 25,000 Rotarians from some 175 countries who gathered for their annual international convention last week in Toronto. I noted this in my opening remarks to a breakout session last Tuesday, and then went on to announce a partnership between Rotary and the Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA) to plant trees in Haiti.

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