Earth Day Haiti 2013 : Coffee Trees Playing Significant Role in Reforestation

April 20, 2013 - PRLog -- Hispaniola was once an island of splendid rain forests and fertile plains.  Now this former Jewel of the Antilles is a vast, deforested landscape.

Why?

The French colonization of Haiti leveled vast swaths of the rainforest to create tobacco, cotton and sugar cane fields.

When Haitian slaves from Africa freed themselves in the 1804 revolt, the French retaliated with an international boycott that would be lifted ONLY if the new black republic would pay a ransom of $21 billion (in today's money).

Haitians themselves have been poor stewards of their land.

Molly Nicaise of Singing Rooster Haitian coffee offers, "Haiti has a long road to environmental recovery, and coffee trees are playing a significant role."

Half of Haiti's 2% forested lands are coffee plants.

Why? They won't cut them down because they're income-providing. PLUS, coffee trees are water intensive & therefore thrive in the shade of taller trees (i.e., they won't cut down trees protecting coffee plants).

Now add in this: coffee trees have an IDEAL root structure for holding delicate mountain soil in place (taps roots yes, but also horizontal roots stretching for METERS).

Singing Rooster works with Haitian coffee farmers to plant seedlings to regenerate old fields AND reforest Haiti.

"Our coffee seedling nursery near Marigot Haiti has generated over 59,000 new coffee trees," said Christophe Nicaise, co-founder of Singing Rooster.  

He added, "Haiti's environmental problems were created, in part, by others. It's our duty and responsibility this Earth Day to help make things right."

    Donate to our coffee seedling fund (http://www.singingrooster.org/donate.html) to help reforest Haitian Lands: $5 for 10 seedlings = 20 years of productive, income-generating plants...  

Visit Singing Rooster’s website to learn about how they're helping to reforest Haiti and to learn how they offer a direct buyer relationship & on-the ground assistance to coffee farming communities in Haiti for the sake of self-sustainability, dignity & economic autonomy.

We help farmers to cultivate and process high quality, gourmet Haitian coffee. Then we buy/export tons of it at higher than fair trade prices and create new markets for it: roasted coffee, green coffee, fundraising with coffee, & wholesale coffee for roasters, cafes, stores, and nonprofits.

This enables a stable outlet for our farmer partners, rids them of middleman, and provides partial funding for our comprehensive approach (http://www.singingrooster.org/projects.html) -- where 100% of our coffee sale proceeds are returned to farmers.

We may be a nonprofit - but our goal is entirely profit-driven: to help Haitians be economically autonomous through SMART business practices, by improving their product, and offering insight for growth.

We meet then exceed principles of fair trade. (http://www.singingrooster.org/transparency.html)

To learn more about Singing Rooster's work in Haiti, see

http://www.singingrooster.org

Their green Haitian coffee beans are 100% Arabica and wet processed. They currently source their beans from the Dondon, Artibonite, Beaumont, Cavaillon and Thiotte regions of Haiti.

Varietals: Arabica typica, Arabica blue mountain.

Cupping Notes: soft sweetness, hints of chocolate, medium body, balanced cup, mellow acidity.

Two words: smooth & rich

To learn more about Singing Rooster's projects or to support their work through donations, see their website:

http://www.singingrooster.org

Singing Rooster's Haitian Mountain Bleu coffee (http://www.singingrooster.org/buycoffee.html) comes from the same plant & is grown in the same region as the wildly successful Jamaican Blue - but at a fraction of the price.

100% of Singing Rooster's proceeds go BACK to Haiti; our goal is to build economic infrastructures based, in part, on coffee growing, production and exportation.

Drink our Coffee. Build an economy. Pass it on.