|
The business interests of Bel Soley depend on
adequate supply of agricultural products. Consequently, it is
a primary business of Bel Soley to promote and participate in
programs that support the environmental health of Haiti –
specifically reforestation programs. Bel Soley applies its
resources as a for profit company to support reforestation and
environmental programs through purchase of the crops produced
through those
programs.
The Bel Soley Resource Development and
Reforestation Program
Question: To keep land
forested, trees must be more valuable as growing living things
than as wood for charcoal. How do you do that in Haiti?
The Problem
The primary cause of
de-forestation in Haiti is economic necessity. In the absence
of affordable alternatives, the people of Haiti have turned to
trees as the primary source of wood to turn into charcoal for
cooking. Trees are also the key resource for lumber used in
construction. The result is massive deforestation. There have
been a number of re-forestation projects – most funded by
government and non-government organizations (rather than
private or for-profit concerns) – but many of these programs
have failed because the trees are cut down when they are large
enough to be turned into charcoal. The result is continuing
desolation.
The Proposed Solution
The
de-forestation problem can be remedied through two parallel
efforts:
• First, trees must be more valuable to
Haitians as a source of steady income than as a source for
charcoal or lumber;
• Second, the need to chop down
trees for firewood or lumber must be reduced by providing
alternative solutions that cost the same or less than the
current
solution.
In
the first effort, different types of organizations must work
together in a effort to start and maintain healthy trees.
Re-forestation programs can help plant trees. Economic
maintenance programs (e.g. micro-finance credit, etc.) can
help maintain small farmers until trees are mature enough to
produce cash crops. For-profit companies can buy the cash
crops at good prices.
In
the second effort, different types of organizations must work
together in an effort to develop alternatives to cooking with
charcoal and the underlying economics that will make those
alternatives cheaper.
The Business Component
Bel Soley
d’Ayaiti (BSA) is an agricultural products processing and
development company based in Haiti. The company is or plans to
be involved in processing agricultural products for both the
export market and the domestic (Haitian) market. To operate
its business, the company needs an adequate, steady and
growing supply of raw materials, i.e. agricultural products.
Many of these products must grow for a number of years (one to
five) until the plants are mature enough to be productive.
During the pre-maturity period, the cost of planting, tending
and maintaining the crops can be a substantial cost. In almost
all situations, small family farmers in Haiti do not have the
resources to sustain themselves during the period necessary
for the crops to reach maturity. Consequently, it is
difficult for BSA to obtain the necessary raw resources from
small family farms (the most desirable
source.)
Examples of crops that Bel Soley d’Ayaiti needs and may
support in this Resource Development Program include: Mango
trees
Moringa trees
Jatropha
trees
Bamboo
Macadamia nut trees
Avocado
trees
Cashew trees
Also, for first stage growth on
severely damaged land, prior to re-forestation:
Switch
grass and other grasses
Castor beans
(both used for
bio-fuels)
The Reforestation Program
This program
is designed to create the necessary resources for Bel Soley
product lines by providing the capability to plant trees and
provide the financial stability for small farmers to survive
until crops are productive. A collateral (secondary) objective
is to focus the program on lands that are currently deforested
and unusable for growth of annual food crops.
To cover the resources gap, BSA will work with government
and non-government programs in a three-way co-operative
effort: producer (the farmers), support organizations (the
non-profits), and the buyer (BSA). The non-profit partner(s)
will organize or work with individual farmers and groups of
farmers in co-ops that agree to participate in the program.
The non-profit(s) will provide good quality seed, organic
fertilizers and insecticides, and training for the farmers.
The non-profit (or a different, partner non-profit) will
provide a quarterly financial subsidy for each of the farmers
until the designated crop reaches maturity. For example, the
non-profit could pay each farmer an agreed number of goude per
healthy tree per quarter. As a variation, it is possible to
work with micro-credit organizations to provide the farmers
with regular (monthly?) loans at affordable rates until their
crops are mature.
BSA in turn will pay for the cost of organic certification
(where necessary) and set quality levels. Once the crop is
mature BSA will agree to buy produce that meets quality levels
at the higher of a price pre-set at the beginning of the
program or market price. The farmers agree to comply with
organic certification standards. When the crop is mature,
farmers agree to a sales system with Bel Soley for the first
several years where they will offer their crop for sale to BSA
first and will sell to Bel Soley as long as BSA meets the
market price.
Action Items for Re-Forestation
Program
Bel Soley d’Ayiti (BSA) is willing to team with other
organizations to solve the re-forestation problems. BSA will
enter into agreements with those organizations (and/or the
farmer co-ops formed as a part of the effort), to buy the cash
crops produced by the forestry program. As a consequence,
a.) BSA seeks government and non-government
re-forestation partners to help train farmers and plant and
maintain productive forests;
b.) BSA seeks government
and non-government programs to provide economic survival to
farmers until their trees are
productive.
|
