We are looking to grow 4,000 mango francique trees over these few weeks while they are in season. We negotiated all morning with the merchants and in the end, paid an average of $0.12 each for the 700 mangos we found today. Then to get the fruits back to the tree nursery, we hired several helpers and a truck for $25. Many thanks to Paul Leger, a THTP supporter for raising the funds for these valuable seeds!
Nursery Coverings To Prevent Seed Rot
Thanks to ForestNation and donors like you, we have several thousand Sed trees growing in the nursery.
Last fall, we lost quite a few seeds to rot from heavy rains. This year we have part of the nursery covered with screen protection. As more donations come in we'll slowly cover the rest of the nursery.
So far, the rot hasn't been an issue during this rainy season.
Tree Tracker Updates
On Arbor Day in Haiti, it's a tradition to give out trees in schools and churches. Yearly, the Haiti Tree Project takes part in this tradition and suppled schools and churches with all the seedlings they wanted to take and distribute.
Arbor Day: Free Trees!
On Arbor Day in Haiti, it's a tradition to give out trees in schools and churches. Yearly, the Haiti Tree Project takes part in this tradition and suppled schools and churches with all the seedlings they wanted to take and distribute.
Nursery Clean-Up
Weeding and clearing fallen leaves is one of the many jobs in the nursery.
Supporting UGADES + Full-Time Workers
We support the local organization of UGADES in Sucrerie to run the nursery with full-time workers. This image shows workers taking the native Sed (Spanish Cedar) tree from the soil bed and transplanting them into bags. By the end of June, they'll be ready to go to homes where they will be planted and tracked on mountain tops along with several varieties of fruit trees.
The Pom Fruit
One of the most popular trees amongst the locals is the cashew tree. We seem to always have a few hundred growing in the nursery. Most people are familiar with the nut part of the tree, but there's also a fruit part called “Pom”. Prom is a fruit and often used to make jam in Haiti.
Kashima Seeds
K(C)ashima seeds collected from the fruits in the village are ready to start growing in the nursery for August planting.
Moringa Seed: A New Cash Crop
Last Fall's moringa seeds have grown into trees and are heading to their new home. In the future, The Haiti Tree Project hopes to produce organic moringa seed oil for export.
What We Know:
Moringa oil is a key ingredient in cosmetics all across the world.
Organic oil is extremely profitable.
Moringa seeds are abundant in Haiti.
What We Need:
Continued support and education to provide training.
A cold press to produce the oil.
To provide communities with as many of these trees as they want.
Now we have two cash crops we hope to export in the coming years; Mango Madam Francique and Moringa oil.
A Message From the Director
Check out our latest work below. It’s going great. There is a strong demand for our trees, we have employees in the nursery, and farmers compensated for all their labor to care for the trees, but once again, we are entering a time of need. Right now, the funds we have will cover the activities in the nursery through April, then we will have to wait until more donations build up before restarting. Currently, only a handful of wonderful people give monthly to our project. We can’t thank them enough for that consistent income. However, if just 25 donors gave $20 a month we could have enough regular funding to keep the nursery running year-round. That way, we would always be prepared with work to show potential large donors. We hope to get calls again soon from companies looking to “buy trees” but we never know when.
I would greatly appreciate any volunteer help in growing our organization. If we had more people working on organizational tasks like grant writing, social media updates, and whatever interests YOU, we could do so much more and create more jobs in the organization too. “
Thank you! - Karen Nicolas
