100,000 Trees AND MORE . . .
A Legacy Project to Reforest Northeast Haiti and Break Generational Poverty
For 2025, Jatrofa Projenou (JP), the agricultural program that Bethlehem Ministry helps support, has a major initiative: 100,000 Trees AND MORE
The eroding mountains of Haiti are covered with small family farms that are stuck in a cycle of poverty-driven farming practices that further damage the land and don’t produce enough food to avoid malnutrition or enough income to cover basic necessities. JP has optimized how to achieve sustainable results that rescue these poverty-stricken family farms and has a proven track record. This year, JP aims to plant 100,000 trees and rescue over 75 farms as part of this major initiative to scale up its impact.
But 100,000 trees is just the beginning of the program. . . JP’s unique expertise and approach are where the “AND MORE” comes in . . . JP does NOT just stick trees in the ground. JP’s success comes from its focus on partnering with - and building relationships at - the family farm unit. A family farm typically supports a multi-generational family of 8-15 women, men, and children.
JP’s Haitian agronomist-foresters, who are experts at the challenges of the northeast region, engage in careful planning on the front end, taking into account a given farm’s specific agricultural, ecological, and economic situation, create a plan for a sustainable farm ecosystem (known as agroforestry), work with the farm in implementing that plan, then provide continuing follow-up support over the next year. JP's system is to work with this family/farm unit over a period of a year to transform its land and farming practices, so that the farm can properly feed them, provide cooking fuel, wood to build with, and money to buy the basics - schooling, clothing, housing, tools, transportation, etc. By the end of a year, barren land is visibly transformed, and families are well on their way to food security and improved livelihoods.
100,000 Trees AND MORE is a legacy project that will break the cycle of human poverty and environmental collapse. We are thrilled to announce that the project has reached the halfway point with 50,000 trees planted, but it needs more funding to be completed. The seasonal cooler weather and rain WILL come, and we need to be ready to plant! Amazingly, the cost to rescue ONE ENTIRE family farm, which typically supports a multi-generational family of 8-15 people, including planting approximately 1300 trees at that farm, and ALL of the support to help ensure the success of the agroforestry project, is only $1800! That is less than $1.50 per tree! Just as amazingly, due to JP's comprehensive one-year partnership with each farm it assists, these trees have an unheard-of 98% survival rate!
These are photos of just a few of the people and places that JP has helped - this is what building environmental and human resilience and breaking generational poverty looks like!
Project Update: Rob Fisher visited Haiti in September 2025 and provideD this report:
How will the economy of Northeast Haiti improve if farmers can’t find good markets to sell their crops? How will land be vouchsafed for families fifty years from now, if farmers today don’t learn how to protect it? How will families succeed with their little enterprises if they don’t know the rudiments of business? How can students become interested in their environment if no one has awakened their curiosity? How will things ever get better in Haiti’s countryside if its young people continue to abandon it for the city? What will change their minds?
Reforestation, erosion terraces, and deep-planted yams are the tangible parts of what we do, but they are not everything. Just as important are the intangible parts of our work. In fact, maybe more important because without them, positive change will not endure. More than half of our days are spent connecting to the intangible needs and dreams of the people we serve.
Our green shirts can be spotted throughout Northeast Haiti - igniting children’s curiosity in little wooden schoolhouses, hammering out solutions to farmers’ problems, and coaching families who are staking out terraces with a plumb bob. You’ll see our green-shirted staff with a generator, a boom box, and a pot of gumbo in the middle of villages, celebrating successes like a good harvest, a new mill, or a thousand trees planted.
You’ll see our staff deep in conversation with elders and surrounded like rock stars by teens wanting to talk about “stuff.” Our agronomists are young, cool, and successful, and good parents, too. In other words, inspiring role models in a place where there aren’t many.
At JP, we are investing the time to make sure people succeed and change endures. That is the ‘more’ part of ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND TREES AND MORE, and it’s what it takes to break generational poverty in rural Haiti.
JP’s green shirts are known throughout Northeast Haiti. They come with a gold star reputation.
JP goes out of its way to know the people it serves, and everyone loves to dance.
A whole lot of curiosity is about to be ignited by two JP agronomists at a village school.
A JP agronomist listens to the elders’ ideas.
Young people on a farm listen to a JP agronomist who has become a friend and a great role model.
Project DETAILS
The Need:
Haiti is deforested and its land is deteriorating to the point that families cannot grow the food they need, let alone sell to others. This collapse is the result of decades of poverty-driven farming on steep land. Why farm steep land? Because there is no other choice, Haiti is a land of mountains. Today, people are barely subsisting, and the soil that farming depends on is being lost forever. Poverty is acute. Most families live in households with dirt floors, no running water, no sanitation, and no electricity. A typical multi-generational family of ten people lives on $2.50/day. People are chronically underfed and children suffer from malnutrition. High mortality rates and naked mountainsides tell a tragic story.
How steep is it?
The Approach - Agroforestry:
This transformative project will restore steep denuded land by planting one hundred thousand trees in a sustainable farm ecosystem, called agroforestry. Agroforestry blends farming and forestry in a way that produces both environmental and economic benefits.
Cashew trees, for example, are planted to protect the soil, but they also produce food and a cash crop that can be sold for income. Some trees add fertility and moisture to the soil, which increases the yield of vegetables, while others can be coppiced for fuel and wood without killing them. Pineapple hedges prevent erosion but also yield valuable harvests. In other words, restoring denuded land with agroforestry will give families a reliable food supply, crops to sell for income, fuel for cooking, and wood to build with. When trees produce these kinds of tangible benefits, they are nurtured and protected. More than ninety-eight percent of the trees we plant survive. The project will be done by the families who live on the land, guided by JP’s agronomist-foresters, all of whom are Haitian. Critically, they will work with the families involved for one year to make sure learning curves hold and farms succeed. By the end of the year, barren land will have been visibly transformed and families will be well on their way to food security and improved livelihoods. This is a legacy project that will break the cycle of human poverty and environmental collapse.
The Scope:
The project will encompass 154 hectares (385 acres) and directly improve the lives of 75-85 families (700-800 individuals) in northeast Haiti. Additionally, the project will serve as an important model for the region, where most have never known anything but deforested mountains. As Rob Fisher says, “If we ever want to have a meaningful impact on what underlies the poverty of Haiti, we must move beyond boutique-scale gestures. In our service area of three hundred square miles, hunger is chronic, economic poverty is dire, and the land’s ability to feed the population has collapsed. Child malnutrition is widespread, and every rainstorm takes away the lifeblood of the land, the soil.”
The Feasibility:
100,000 Trees AND MORE is highly feasible! JP has been doing this kind of work since 2018, planting over 25,000 trees with a 98% survival success rate! The time is right to scale it up. JP’s staff are experienced and up to the task. All of JP’s staff are Haitian and include four professional agronomists and four skilled farmers. They are well known and respected in the three hundred square mile region JP serves. JP’s tree nursery in Haiti has the capacity to grow all of the trees from locally collected seeds of many species. Lastly, JP’s staff are problem-solvers and know how to adapt to the unforeseen situations that inevitably arise.
