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Ejido Verde is a mass-reforestation project structured as a private-public-Native initiative, an innovative form of social enterprise and community forestry that will benefit the most marginalized rural families, sustainably alleviate poverty, and improve the environment—in addition to providing a key raw material for an established industry.


Ejido verde es una iniciativa de reforestación masiva que, desarrollado a través de nuestro modelo, crea fuentes sostenibles de trabajo para las comunidades más marginadas de México e impulsa una de las industrias más vulnerables del país, la resinera.

El proyecto está estructurado de tal manera que reúne al sector privado, al público y a distintas comunidades indígenas de México. Es un innovador modelo que combina emprendimiento social, la reforestación del medio ambiente y la integración y conservación del patrimonio nacional.

El propósito del proyecto es trabajar de manera conjunta con las comunidades locales para un mejor manejo de la tierra, impulsar la protección del medio ambiente e incentivar la economía local para que más familias obtengan una fuente de ingresos digna y sustentable para las futuras generaciones.


Background

Ejido Verde is building a new kind of regenerative forestry company, guided by principles of reciprocity, generosity, and innovation. They're growing millions of fast-planting trees, to create holistic community wealth and return on investment. They're inviting and exploring an array of partnerships that can propel regenerative principles in business while reinventing wealth and well-being among the rural and indigenous communities of Michoacán, Mexico.

Definitions

Ejido: Communal land on the outskirts of a town, destined for common services, such as a cattle pasture.
System of distribution and possession of land institutionalized after the Mexican Revolution, granting land for use by a group of people.
Verde: Green.

Project goals

Ejido Verde's goals adhere to a triple bottom-line:

  • Viable ROI (return on investment) [ profit ]
  • Community wealth & well-being for marginalized rural and indigenous communities [ people ]
  • Carbon offsets to reverse global warming through tree planting [ planet ]

Current goals include:

  1. Raising day-labor wages up to five times the current rate
  2. Expanding land use by 2000 acres/year
  3. Increasing tree population, from 85 pines/ha (hectare) to 850


Design

Besides its triple-bottom-line approach, it has also successfully blended affiliation with the nonprofit (mission), government (mandate), and commercial (margin) sectors. (Having begun as a nonprofit, it's now made the transition to for-profit.)

Moreover, the project is a perfect model of regenerative design. As such, it can can not only scale up, but also be iterated elsewhere, with applications in diverse situations.


Funding

The economic value of non-wood, non-timber forest projects require a longer-than-average ROI (return on investment) time scale. This is only natural. It takes pine trees about 10 years to produce a viable amount of resin. Yet pine resin (aka "pitch") has a myriad of commercial uses, including:

  • medicine
  • fragrances; incense
  • glue; adhesive
  • varnish

Major players in pine resin can raise necessary pesos for investment in maintaining the trees, but would want a high interest rate in exchange.

Other hurdles exist, but the bottom line here is clear. The project is profitable and scalable, and needs committed investors willing to make adjustments in their everyday views to take into account the project's uniqueness.

Fortunately, the project is not theoretical research, but is, rather, already applying its concept in action. Its viability is thus available for assessment across various criteria and metrics.


Next steps

Conclusions

References


External Links

Ejido Verde official website

Facebook page

Follow " @EjidoVerdemx " at Twitter

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