The Dominican Republic
| The Revolving Loan Fund was first tried in the Dominican Republic. Through the Agroforestry Revolving Loan Fund, Floresta provides poor hillside farmers with a loan of several thousand dollars over a seven year period. These loans are used to establish agroforests consisting of fast growing trees which are harvested for wood products, as well as fruit trees and more traditional short term crops. The techniques used are sustainable and begin to reclaim the degraded hillsides. |
The farmers begin to pay back their loan with their first tree harvest. That money is used to enable additional farmers to enter the program. This process offers significant economic gains to the farmers (often up to a 500 or 600 percent increase in income) while healing environmental scars.
There are currently over 279 farm families who have been beneficiaries of the Agroforestry Revolving Loan Fund. Of these, 21 have completed repayment of their loans and now have self-sufficient, six-acre agroforestry farms which are producing at several times the rate of their old subsistence farms.
A forest wood lot of about 100 acres was established several years ago on an eroded hillside above the town of El Puerto. Products harvested on this farm will provide Floresta with some of the income it needs to reduce reliance on donations and grants. This farm also provides a location for Floresta technicians to experiment with new products and technologies.
Finally, this farm has helped to demonstrate the viability of plantation forestry as a land use option for eroded hillsides. A recent study estimated the value of the wood in the Forest Products Farm to be approximately US $1.6 million over the next 10 years. It is hoped that Floresta will be able to duplicate this farm with similar large scale reforestation efforts in the near future.
Los Arbolitos, Floresta's for-profit nursery affiliate, provides both a source of seedlings for farmers in the Floresta program, and a source of income for Floresta. Floresta Incorporada and Floresta USA hold 12 and 15 percent of the stock in Los Arbolitos. respectively.
Los Arbolitos has become the largest tree nursery in the Caribbean, with an annual capacity of 5 million seedlings, and the ability to rapidly expand that to 15 million seedlings, depending on the local demand.
· 24,935 trees were planted this quarter, bringing the historical total to 1,841,270.
· 8 microcredit loans were made, bring the total to 80; 1 agroforestry loan and 4 microcredit loans were repaid.
· Floresta USA and Floresta DR have worked out a modification to the agroforestry loan model and will begin making agroforestry loans again in the near future. We are confident that the modified system can overcome the marketing problems and reach a greater number of people in a shorter amount of time. To complement the new system, Floresta will establish an Agroforestry Validation Farm (FIVA)
· FIVA: In conjunction with a national agricultural research institution, Floresta is developing a portion of the Forest Productions Farm to experiment with and locally verify a variety of agricultural and agroforestry techniques. These will feed into the systems used by loan recipients. The farm will also incorporate elements of the long anticipated training farm.
· Carlos has developed a network of 8 churches to participate in local discipleship and outreach in the project areas. Participating churches have submitted a number of very exciting and concrete plans of action, which we are helping to coordinate.
· The Sarasota mission trip in November was a tremendous success on all sides, and we hope to be taking more teams to the DR in the near future. Sarasota looks to repeat their trip.
· The sawmill operation is currently paying for itself and providing a marketing channel for many Floresta farmers.
· The Dominican economy is struggling through one of its worst crises in recent decades. Inflation is at 46% and all of our staff and farmers are impacted.
· Beyond the basic budget, the top priorities for Dominican Program this year are 1) vehicles and 2) additional money for rural microenterprise.
Dominican Summary:
| Communities served – 35 | Trees Planted this Quarter – 24,935 |
| Agroforestry Loans this Quarter - 0 | Historic Trees Planted – 1,841,270 |
| Historic Agroforestry Loans - 279 | |
| Rural Microcredit Loans this Quarter – 8 | |
| Historic Rural Microcredit Loans - 80 |
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