Despite challenges that stretched from 2020 into 2021, this past year has been one of programmatic growth fueled by a renewed conviction in the importance of Sustainable Harvest International’s mission. The Covid-19 pandemic demanded flexibility, but also fostered the creativity and innovation that continues to forge an exciting path forward.

A major highlight of 2021 was the addition of Jenniffer Zapata as SHI’s International Program Manager and the promotion of Victor Arboleda to the role of Program Data + Technology Coordinator. Both of these positions will play a strategic role in refining SHI’s methodology and adopting new technologies to scale SHI’s impact.

Our plans for 2022 are built on the successes and partnerships forged and strengthened in 2021. Here are notable highlights from the past year:

2021 was  a year of milestones and exciting new partnerships for SHI-Belize. In December, 37 partnering families in Chunox and San Luis Village graduated from SHI’s 5-phase, multi-year training program in regenerative agriculture. Although every community graduation marks an important milestone for SHI, this is even more so in the case of Chunox and San Luis. These families were the very first cohort to partner with SHI-Belize when the program moved its offices to northern Belize from the southern district of Toledo five years ago. Their successful graduation reflects SHI-Belize’s ability to establish an institutional presence over the last five years, the critical foundation for the program’s growing impact in the years to come.

In 2021, SHI-Belize also began a pilot program in partnership with Belize’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Pesticide Control Board (PCB) to provide training in organic alternatives to pesticides for farmers in three “test” communities around the country.

In addition to the community of Patchakan, SHI-Belize is currently selecting new communities for future partnerships.

SHI-Honduras begin 2021 celebrating the graduation of 157 families across nine partnering communities in January. Since then, the SHI-Honduras team has been working hard to expand the 5-phase program to eleven new communities in the municipalities of Meámbar and Trinidad where they’ve successfully begun phase one with 195 farming families. To support this growth, SHI-Honduras hired two new staff members, Norma Deras as field coordinator and Daniel Pérez García as field trainer.

Looking proactively towards the future of scale, the SHI-Honduras team has been researching and testing practices and methodologies that will improve and expand their impact. Collaborating with a local forestry university, UNACIFOR, four interns completed internships with SHI-Honduras, studying reforestation, agroforestry, and solid waste management. The SHI-Honduras team elaborated and revised plans to implement an innovative farmer mentor program in 2022 that will increase climate resilience of 90 smallholder farmers and their families (women, men, and youth) who live and work on the frontlines of climate change. 

Finally, in response to the aftermath of back-to-back hurricanes in 2020, a SHI Board-led emergency fundraiser provided the support needed to rebuild the home of SHI partnering farmer Doña Ercilia. 

SHI-Honduras is actively partnering with 201 families (1,005 direct beneficiaries) in 13 communities in central Honduras.

SHI-Panama continued to demonstrate the power of leveraging partnerships to affect change. In 2021, SHI-Panama collaborated with several local and international organizations and universities, including Global Brigades, Engineers Without Borders, and the Technology University of Panama. SHI’s Executive Director, Elliott Powell, also met with Panama’s Ministry of Agricultural Development (MIDA) to discuss opportunities for future collaboration.

SHI-Panama celebrated the graduation of 28 farming families in the communities of Caimital and La Pedregosa. Over the course of 5 years, these two communities reforested 7.5 acres with 1,970 native tree species and put another 4.5 acres of forest into conservation. Through SHI capacity building, partnering families will continue to implement and share their knowledge of topics like nutrition, small business entrepreneurship, agroforestry, technology, and microfinancing, as they contribute to the well-being of their families and communities. SHI-Panama was also excited to welcome Kellys Lorenzo as the team’s newest field trainer. 

SHI-Panama is actively partnering with 95 families (475 direct beneficiaries) in 7 communities in central Panama.

MILLION FARM TRANSFORMATION INITIATIVE

After years of preparation, SHI publicly announced our “Million Farm Transformation” scaling up plan on March 25, 2021. Board members and staff, aided by an advisory council of world-renowned agricultural and scaling experts and entrepreneurs, drafted a plan to reach a lofty goal to scale up SHI’s impact. The Million Farm Transformation initiative will help a million farms transition to regenerative organic practices by 2030, reversing degradation on 8 million acres of land and achieving food security for 5 million people, including 3 million children. Learn more here.

NEW BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS

SHI established or renewed partnerships with the following corporate partners who have dedicated a portion of their profits or provided in-kind donations to support a more sustainable world:

NEW NETWORK MEMBERSHIPS

SHI champions ecosystem restoration worldwide through participation in international alliances and working groups. In 2021, SHI joined the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration (GPFLR), and Initiative 20x20 as a technical partner. We also continued to participate in initiatives to increase soil carbon in our third year as a member of both the 4 per 1000 Initiative and Regeneration International and our 6th year as a member of the Global Soil Partnership. Additionally, SHI pledged to plant one billion trees by 2030 as part of the 1t.org network and launched over 300 active restoration projects on Restor, the Crowther Lab’s science-based open data platform to support and connect the global restoration movement.

SHI SPOTLIGHTS

• January 2021 - SHI Founder + Director of Strategic Growth Florence Reed joined Returned Peace Corps Volunteers for Environmental Action (RPCV4EA), Citizens’ Climate Lobby, and Business Climate Leaders to discuss regenerative agriculture on a Q+A panel for a film screening of Kiss the Ground. 

• January 2021 – Florence Reed provided comment for a Huffington Post article on the economic and environmental potential for integrating technology in farming.

• April 2021 - Forbes highlighted Greenbar Distillery’s longstanding corporate partnership with SHI. Since 2008, Greenbar and SHI have partnered to plant 966,343 trees.

• August 2021 - Jad Daley, President and CEO of American Forests, and Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, featured SHI as an organization leading the charge on reforestation efforts in their Time article, “Yes, We Can Grow 1 Trillion Trees to Help Fight Climate Change.”

• August 2021 - Philanthropist Youtuber Shin Fujiyama produced an entertaining and inspiring 20-minute episode about the work of SHI in Siguatepeque, Honduras.

• September 2021 - Sustainable Energy published an academic article written by former SHI Program Manager Ricardo Romero and SHI Data + Technology Coordinator Victor Arboleda that presents their research findings on the effect of improved stoves on wood consumption and particulate matter.

• SHI was featured on several “best of” lists over the course of 2021, including Forbes’ “This Earth Day, Plant Trees With Female-Inspired Organizations,” Global Citizen’s “7 Groups Leading the Way With Nature-Based Solutions for People and Planet,” and Green Dreamer’s “35 Environmental Organizations and Nonprofits For a Sustainable Future.”

• SHI leadership presented as experts on numerous panels and conferences over 2021, including the Initiative 20x20 annual meeting in April, the EU Green Week in May, the 8th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture in June, the Peace Corps 60th Anniversary Conference in September, and the 28th annual ECHO International Agriculture Conference in November. 

IN MEMORIAM

We’d like to honor the following donors who we lost in 2021. Even in their absence, they continue to inspire SHI’s mission to create a just and sustainable world:

• Tony Barrington (Founding board member and board chair)

• Dielle Fleischmann

• Tucker Harris

• Tom Howe

• Jan Jackson

• Jorge Ramos

• Helen Reed

• Barbara Schermerhorn

• John Shonle

• Cynthia Werts

We also learned belatedly in 2021 of the previous passing of former board member, Jerry Kelly.