Farmers treated as partners
The ArBolivia Project splits the profits from timber revenues equally with farmers, rather than paying local people a salary and exporting most of the profit overseas. A consultative approach is adopted with farmers having the ultimate say on what is planted and harvested. Forestry committees also ensure that farmers get a fair say.
Scalable, business solution
The project has been structured so that it can be replicated more widely, both within Bolivia and elsewhere. We think that the project is far more likely to be sustainable, and ultimately successful, by addressing social and environmental problems with a business solution. Some aspects of the project require grant funding as they have no commercial value, but the root cause of deforestation in Bolivia is the poverty that leads to slash and burn farming. The only truly sustainable solution is to address that poverty with a business approach.