A weak rural economy in the Dominican Republic imposes great financial, personal, and social hardship on farmers, as well as environmental stress on forest ecosystems. Floresta Dominican Republic, a sister organization to Floresta USA, was founded in 1984 to address these hardships and to bring hope and reversal to the vicious cycle many rural farmers found themselves in. Over the years Floresta has had significant influence on Dominican environmental and forestry policy, and has been the catalyst in motivating many private reforestation efforts as well. Additionally, churches in the area are ill-prepared to effectively provide for the needs of the communities. As such, Floresta is able to partner with local churches to act as a medium with pastors and community leaders, bringing good news to the poor and greatly enhancing the ministry of churches both individually and collectively.
Working in a region degraded by deforestation, one of Floresta’s first projects was to establish Los Arbolitos in 1985, a for-profit tree nursery, which has provided tens of millions of high quality tree seedlings and hundreds of jobs for rural Dominicans, while dramatically changing the rural landscape. At the time, Los Arbolitos was the largest tree nursery in the Dominican Republic. Soon after, a revolving loan fund was established. By 2007, Floresta farmers had planted over 2,500,000 trees. Today, Floresta is working in 43 villages in the rural areas north of Santo Domingo.
Continuing in partnership with its Dominican sister organization Floresta Incorporada, Floresta’s longest running field program made impressive strides in 2007, particularly in the area of discipleship. Floresta Incorporada has a well-developed capacity for local fundraising and a large portion of the program’s budget is raised in-country, with the remainder provided by Floresta USA. Work is ongoing in 41 communities north of Santo Domingo, and this year expanded to the Haitian border, where staff from Floresta DR devoted significant time and talent helping establish the Dominican half of the Trans Border Project.
- As part of a long-term reforestation effort, participants in the Floresta program planted 168,420 trees across a total area of 300 acres.
- 152 new micro-enterprise loans were made, in the total amount of $32,983, for the purpose of helping local program participants begin, maintain, and expand small businesses. In addition, 67 microenterprise loans were repaid in the total amount of $40,336 (including interest).
- Floresta granted 80 new agroforestry loans, in the total amount of $34,246. In addition, 25 previously granted agroforestry loans were repaid, in the total amount of $23,314.
- The Discipleship Program added 81 new Bible study groups and trained 56 new individuals to lead the 438 members of these studies. As a result of discipleship efforts, 235 people made a personal commitment to follow Christ.
- Floresta partnered with 56 churches to organize and train 277 individuals to lead regularly meeting Bible study groups. At the end of the fiscal year, 1,491 individuals were participating in Floresta-sponsored community Bible studies.
- Floresta began an egg production project in 9 communities, providing farmers with 1,240 chickens. These in turn produced 22,289 eggs, which helped improve community nutrition and provided farmers with an additional source of revenue.
- Dominican Republic staff officially established a new project on the Haitian border, setting up an office and dedicated staff in the region of Sabana Real. During its pilot year, the Dominican portion of the Trans Border Project resulted in 96,729 trees planted, the establishment of a new church partnership, and the formation of 3 Bible studies.
Lifetime totals
Trees planted: 2,574,348
Agroforestry loans granted: 497
Microenterprise loans granted: 435
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