By Scott Sabin, Executive Director
Floresta is unique in its focus on people who live in deforested areas. However, people often mistakenly believe that we are just about trees. That is only a small part of the story. In addition to trees and discipleship, enterprise creation has always been an important aspect of Floresta’s vision.
Floresta has been involved in credit systems and business creation since our founding in 1984. Our first big initiative was Los Arbolitos, a large-scale for-profit tree nursery which has employed as many as 250 people and has had up to $800,000 in annual sales. We learned quite a few lessons as a result of this experience, and Los Arbolitos is still going strong. It has in many ways revolutionized the Dominican nursery business and has been instrumental in the development of its forestry laws.
We then began making medium-scale loans ($3000-5000) to promote agribusiness in the Dominican Republic. After making about 300 of these loans, we branched out to offer a wider variety of loans to small rural entrepreneurs. We have financed almost sixty businesses including mechanic shops, bakeries, beauty salons and tailors, with amounts ranging from $500 to $2000.
Most recently we have started a sawmill business with three small sawmills. Floresta currently owns it, but will be spinning it off as an independent business, with ownership split between Floresta and the farmers and workers.
Six years ago, as we expanded our work to Haiti, we were advised not to use credit, as it almost always failed. For this reason we decided to start small. We also found that people needed an incentive to try new agricultural techniques, so we made that a prerequisite for receiving credit. To avoid some of the pitfalls that others have had with credit in Haiti, we established credit co-ops to act as peer accountability groups. Thus far we have made almost 1000 small loans ranging from $50-$125. They have been used for land, seed, livestock, retail and some resale.
In Mexico, the people had more of an inherent interest in sustainable agriculture and forestry so we haven't needed to use our loan program as an incentive. The local economy is based on illegal charcoal production, so almost any business that diversifies the economy combats deforestation.
Our big breakthrough came when we gave the borrowers freedom to try their own ideas. Suddenly we unleashed their creativity, which was far greater than I had imagined. They developed a real sense of ownership and I was amazed at the entrepreneurial spirit of the people. We have now made about 85 loans in Mexico, ranging from $50 to $2000. Businesses include three carpentry shops (two produce high quality furniture and one specializes in wooden rocking horses), a welding shop, a public phone (the only one in town), several restaurants, craft manufacturing, various resale activities and a pharmacy.
In the future we hope to teach more business/entrepreneurial skills to people. We have done some basic accounting and business training at the co-op level, but we are now incorporating more formalized training.
Secondly, we are looking at the next layer in the economy. We want to assist those villagers who already have ideas and business plans and especially those who are ready to add value to primary products.
It is our hope to revitalize the rural economy from the ground up, healing the land and its people, and sharing the love of Christ with those we serve.
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