Eco Palms
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Celebrate Justice This Palm Sunday
They took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord - the King of Israel!"
-John 12:12-13
Each year congregations celebrate Palm Sunday by raising palm branches in jubilant celebration. Yet for the communities who harvest these plants year after year, palm fronds rarely represent that same jubilation.
In conventional palm harvesting, workers are paid based on volume. The more fronds they cut, the more income they generate, encouraging over-harvesting and threatening the rainforest. Middlemen then transport the palms out of communities for processing, where more than half of the palms are discarded because of poor quality.Eco-Palms, however, are harvested in a sustainable manner. Harvesters are trained to gather only quality palm fronds in a way that allows the plant to keep growing. The palms are then brought to a community processing building, where the palms are processed and packaged for export.
By processing the palms themselves, these communities capture more of the profits, improving the communities' standard of living and ensuring that the money paid for the palms benefit those who labor. With this additional income, one community even built a processing building to improve working conditions and now provides scholarships to students, pays a teacher's salary and supports elderly members of the community.
As you raise your branches in celebration this year, you can play an important role in protecting forests, local jobs, and sustainable livelihoods in harvesting communities.Churches are partnering with the University of Minnesota to help build support in the US for Eco-Palms by introducing congregations to this social and environmental justice project.
To learn more or to order, please visit www.ecopalms.org
If you have any questions, email info@ecopalms.org or call 612-624-7418