Giving Compass' Take:

• More entrepreneurs and funders are combating land degradation with restoration solutions to improve the quality of the environment.

• How can donors identify and support entrepreneurs interested in land restoration? Is there room for collaboration?

• Read more about investing in forest restoration. 

According to a 2013 report, more than 93 percent of the wood supply in Africa comes from natural forests. Deforestation is rampant. Tevis Howard decided to try and introduce sustainable timber to the market while improving land quality and supporting smallholder farmers.

It took him years of experimentation to figure out an approach that was both financially and environmentally sustainable. Ultimately, he chose a distributed plantation model, working with smallholder farmers to plant eucalyptus and mukau (a native mahogany tree) on farmers’ land. Today, his business Komaza provides seedlings, tools, and training, while farmers provide the labor and the land.

Entrepreneurs are responding to the challenge of land degradation with solutions that leave business-as-usual in the dust. As forests and farmland are restored, the environment thrives.

When the trees are ready for harvest, Komaza buys the timber from the farmers at a fair price, providing families that rely on subsistence farming with a new—and significant—source of income. To date, Komaza has planted two million trees in cooperation with around 9,000 farmers. It raised more than $9 million in its Series A investment round in 2017 and expanded from a team of 110 to 450 in two years.

Read the full article on environmentally responsible business by Sofia Faruqi & Caroline Gagné at Stanford Social Innovation Review.