Dr. Bronner’s (Vista, CA) has partnered with Ecosia, a search engine that plants trees, to finance the expansion of dynamic agroforestry in Ghana. Coordinated with on-the-ground support from Dr. Bronner’s sister company in Ghana, Serendipalm, this project will convert 200 acres of arable land in Ghana to a mixed dynamic agroforestry model for product and full-scale demonstration of the concept to farmers and visitors. Managed and farmed by Serendipalm staff, this land will be used to cultivate cocoa, palm trees and other crops to the highest bar fair trade and Regenerative Organic Certified standards. This will help equip and empower the rural community near Asuom, Ghana with the tools to diversify their crops, expand farmer incomes and improve food security in the community while sequestering carbon in soil and trees, thus helping mitigate climate change impacts.
“We’re thrilled to have found a like-minded partner in Ecosia, a fellow B Corp, with whom we share core values of environmental stewardship and the commitment to embracing real, tangible actions to combat climate change,” said Michael Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner’s. “Serendipalm is an exemplary regenerative organic agriculture project, and this expansion of acreage will achieve significant positive impacts for farmers, soil, and community.”
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, West Africa will see an increase in prolonged droughts, higher average temperatures and periodic flooding, threatening food security and ecological resiliency while exacerbating rural poverty. In addition to necessary actions to reduce consumption of fossil fuels, and the pursuit of carbon capture technologies, regenerative agriculture remains a key solution for restoring and sequestering atmospheric carbon in soil, and nurturing a broader economic shift away from extraction-oriented production models.
Founded with support from Dr. Bronner’s Special Operations team in 2007, Serendipalm is a fair trade and Regenerative Organic Certified project in Asuom, Ghana, composed of more than 800 farmers who cultivate and produce the palm oil used in Dr. Bronner’s bar soaps, as well as cocoa for the brand’s Magic All-One Chocolate. Cultivation of an additional 200 acres, funded by this Dr. Bronner’s and Ecosia partnership, will allow for expansion of farmed crops to include food for local markets such as plantain and cassava, thereby increasing food security and long-term financial resiliency for farmers and their community. These crops are also sought by brands in the global North that need to source Regenerative Organic Certified ingredients for their products. Such brands pay a premium for fair trade, ROC ingredients and furthermore, they promote the concept of dynamic agroforestry to their customers.
“Serendipalm demonstrates the best of what agroforestry systems can achieve: the combination of more than 20 different trees can result in a considerable increase in income opportunities for farmers, soil quality improves significantly, the risk of crop failure is reduced, and large amounts of carbon are stored in the soil,” said Katharina Spethmann, head of social and economic sustainability at Ecosia. “The IPCC continues to sound the alarm that now is the time to take action on the climate crisis. For the agriculture industry, Serendipalm is a prime example that an investment in agroforestry is an investment in the community’s long-term economic health and climate resiliency.”
Environmental stewardship, climate responsibility, and regenerative organic agriculture are guiding principles at the core of both Ecosia’s and Dr. Bronner’s business models. By teaming up to support the expansion of agroforestry to bolster local communities and farms, they hope to help to advance the movement to shift our economy towards more sustainable practices and continue to always put community and climate action at the fore.
For more information, visit www.drbronner.com.
