Forests Map is Live

Image of Planting Empowerment's forest map

We recently published our forest map, which shows the location of our mixed-species timber and plantain projects. Clicking on any location will open an information bubble with more detail about that site. Our goal is to develop this into a more engaging interactive tour with video and photos, so let us know what you’d like to see.

 

June 2013 Panama Trip

I recently spent a week in Panama, visiting with our planting communities and attending Peace Corps Panama’s 50th Reunion conference.

For the first few days I was in Panama City preparing for the launch of our Kiva loan, which went live on Sunday the 23rd, and funded in 17 hours! Once the funds are disbursed, we’ll start prepping the land and buying the seed to plant.

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Kiva Loan for Agroforestry

Two weeks ago we closed a loan on Kiva, a website that enables individuals to contribute to loans to help communities and projects around the world.

The $8,000 loan, raised from more than 200 individual Kival lenders, will fund the cultivation of four hectares of plantains with our partner community Arimae. The community will plant the plantains between rows of cocobolo trees, which they planted as part of the UNDP-GEF Small Grants Programme project. The loan covers the costs for seed stock, fertilizer, tools, labor, maintenance, and harvesting costs for the plantain project, and Kiva lenders will be repaid from profits on the plantain sales.

This was a milestone for both Kiva and Planting Empowerment because it was the first Kiva loan ever in the country of Panama, and represents a new source of financing for agroforestry projects that strengthen food security, create employment, and generate income for rural communities.

Kiva acts as a bridge between responsible lenders and projects that need financing. Founded in 2005, Kiva has facilitated more than $400 million in loans from more than 900,000 lenders for projects in 68 countries. With the closing of our agroforestry loan, Panamá became number 69.

As sustainable agroforestry projects gain support among rural communities in Panama, we expect to continue using Kiva as a way to fund projects and help improve evironmental and social conditions. We expect to list another loan on Kiva in the coming months for $35,000 to plant tropical woods and plantains with the community.

A big thanks to everyone at Kiva who worked with us to make this happen, and we look forward to continue working together!

Read the full press release ›

Impact Investing in Action Takeaways

Last week we participated in Agora Partnerships' Impact Investing in Action conference held at Georgetown’s business school. Planting Empowerment was invited to pitch as one of the “top early stage, for-profit companies creating social value around the world”. 

It was heartening to see more investing and actions being taken to support startup social ventures. The 21 companies presenting were collectively pursuing more than $50,000,000 of investment to further scale their businesses. Interestingly, the Inter-American Development Bank was heavily represented, mostly because the conference’s focus on Latin America. However, they’re investing very little into the companies that presented (but are investing indirectly through already established funds).

The topic of measuring impact continues to be a focus and a favorite of many. All of the companies that went through Agora’s accelerator came with a GIIRS score. While admirable, not one investor asked about a GIIRS score during the deal room presentations we attended. This makes us think that measuring impact still seems like an ivory tower proposition for most companies and potential investors. It’s important, yes, but is it worth the extra costs and time commitments for an entrepreneur to do if it doesn’t make their companies more attractive?

While most impact funds are looking for deals between $500,000-$5 million, there does seem to be slightly more capital flowing towards enterprises looking for less than $500,000. We expect that the growth of equity crowdfunding will increase support for SMEs at the startup level, and hopefully bridge them to mezzanine-level, where there seems to be plenty of capital looking for deals.

Forest Legality Alliance

Forest Legality Alliance badgePlanting Empowerment recently joined the Forest Legality Alliance, whose goal is to reduce illegal logging through supporting the supply of legal forest products.

The Alliance is a joint effort of the World Resources Institute and the Environmental Investigation Agency, supported by the United States Agency for International Development and companies in the forest sector.

We're proud to be a part of the movement to use sustainably sourced timber. As the growing demand for cocobolo demonstrates, it will only become increasingly urgent for wood buyers to understand the social and environmental effects of the tropical timber trade.