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Plant With Purpose Joins the Trillion Tree Movement

May 24, 2021

Christian environmental organization pledges 40 million trees toward global effort

San Diego, CA (May 12, 2021) - Plant With Purpose announces its significant pledge to plant trees towards the ambitious reforestation goal set by the global Trillion Tree Movement. Relaunched in 2019 by the World Economic Forum, the Trillion Tree Platform is part of a global effort to accelerate nature-based solutions in support of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. The platform will mobilize, connect, and empower organizations and individuals around the world as they seek to conserve, restore, and grow one trillion trees by 2030. 

A Plant With Purpose community member in Haiti prepares a lot of seedlings in his nursery.

After planting forty million trees, Plant With Purpose eyes forty million more over the next five years.

Plant With Purpose signed the Trillion Tree Pledge to participate in a global initiative with organizations aligned with the overarching goal of restoration and conservation. Recently, Plant With Purpose reached the milestone of 40 million trees planted throughout the organization’s history, since its founding in 1984. The organization has now grown to the point of being able to accelerate its tree planting efforts. As part of its THRIVE25 strategic initiative, Plant With Purpose aims to plant another 40 million trees by 2025.

“We’re excited to join the Trillion Tree platform to highlight the amazing work that our partner farmers are doing in their communities from planting trees, to restoring their watersheds, and reversing poverty,” says Valerie Foulkes, Strategic Initiatives Manager at Plant With Purpose.

Breaking the cycle between deforestation and rural poverty.

Plant With Purpose plants trees as a key action towards breaking the cycle between deforestation and rural poverty. With 85% of people in poverty living in rural areas, addressing the intersection between poverty and the environment is critical. Plant With Purpose seeks holistic change that leads to entire community development and the renewal of both people and their local environment. As a Christian organization, Plant With Purpose integrates these efforts with spiritual renewal activities to repair relationships among humans and with the natural world.

While tree planting is a powerful and effective means of environmental restoration and community development, Plant With Purpose intentionally considers the methods by which trees are planted and their impact on surrounding communities and ecosystems–not just the quantity of trees. “The Trillion Tree Challenge is focused on the quantity of trees planted, and while we agree that numbers are an important metric, they are not the most important,” said Foulkes. Plant With Purpose aims to plant trees through local communities of subsistence farmers, not only promoting tree planting, but also training in land management and regenerative agriculture. This enables trees to grow on healthy soil, and optimizes their benefit to the broader ecosystem.

Plant With Purpose works in eight countries with a variety of local partnerships in each, ranging from schools, churches, different branches of the local government, and organizations. Plant With Purpose’s program has resulted in a 55% reduction in poverty and the reversal of deforestation in every target watershed.

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Plant With Purpose is the nation’s leading Christian environmental organization. Founded in 1984, Plant With Purpose operates at the nexus of poverty alleviation, environmental restoration, and spiritual renewal. Through years of holistic, community-led innovation, Plant With Purpose provides local leadership in global communities to equip families to reverse the structural and environmental root causes of rural poverty. This model transforms entire watersheds by integrating reforestation, regenerative agriculture, savings group activities, and environmental restoration. Plant With Purpose has planted more than 40 million trees globally and will double that number by 2025. For more information, visit plantwithpurpose.org.

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