Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Plant With Purpose‚ work targets some of the world‚ most damaged and degraded forest regions. These areas regularly suffer from severe storms, droughts, wildfires, and other disasters. By coming alongside farmers in crisis, establishing tree nurseries, teaching innovative agriculture techniques, and integrating watershed-level reforestation projects, Plant With Purpose is helping smallholder farmers restore the land and promote nature-based solutions to sequester carbon. In our 35-year history, Plant With Purpose has empowered farmers in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mexico, Tanzania, and Thailand to grow and plant over 38 million trees.

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Plant With Purpose empowers a number of individuals who are traditionally underrepresented in the leadership of the climate movement including women, youth, marginalized indigenous communities, and climate-vulnerable communities. 

Because we work in areas wrought with extreme poverty and environmental degradation, Plant With Purpose partnering farmers are highly vulnerable to climate change and its consequences. Their livelihoods depend on the land and the environment around them, and, due to the conditions of poverty that they face, any change in weather patterns can send them to the brink of crisis. Through our program, we empower climate-vulnerable community members to take on leadership roles in agricultural training, tree planting, and other activities that will sequester carbon and, in turn, improve climate conditions. 

In addition, of Plant With Purpose‚ nearly 49,000 partnering farmers, approximately sixty-four percent are women. In the areas where Plant With Purpose work, women often lack voice and agency, and have disproportionately lower access to resources and agriculture training than their male counterparts. Plant With Purpose‚ model changes this reality. Partnering women often take on leadership roles and participate in tree planting, agroecology training, Farmer Field Schools, and more. We also have a number of local female staff members, and provide these women with the tools and training needed to thrive in their respective roles. 

Finally, Plant With Purpose partners with local schools to train youth in environmental restoration, instilling values like tree planting and watershed restoration in the next generation of leaders. Youth also gain opportunities and improve their livelihoods through Plant With Purpose‚ presence in their region. In fact, according to our most recent triennial impact report, partnering farmers are fifty-five percent more likely to send their daughters to secondary school. We are particularly excited about this because the health and education of girls is one of Project Drawdown‚ top five solutions for CO2eq reductions.

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