On October 6, 2015, outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland released “KOMBIT: The Cooperative” a feature documentary film chronicling a five-year project to reforest Haiti, in partnership with the Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA), a Haitian nonprofit farmer cooperative dedicated to feeding and reforesting the country.
In 2010, Timberland made a Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) commitment to plant five million trees in five years in Haiti, aimed at reversing the country’s dangerous decline in tree populations.
That commitment resulted in the development of a large-scale, self-sustaining agroforestry program owned and operated by smallholder farmers, creating lasting value well beyond the trees themselves.
The film documents the complete story of Timberland’s journey and is available to watch online at KombitFilm.com.
Today, with less than two percent tree cover, Haiti is threatened by severe deforestation and desertification caused by natural disasters, over-use of land by farmers and livestock and harvesting of trees to sell as charcoal.
“We saw a huge opportunity to match our tree planting mission with Haiti’s reforestation needs, but any solution we wanted to support couldn’t be contingent on a donor-based model anchored by perpetual funding,” said Margaret Morey-Reuner, director, strategic partnerships, business development and values marketing, Timberland.