How Planting Trees Combats Gender Inequality in Guatemala

It’s a well-known fact that trees are beneficial to the environment.

They offset CO2 emissions, support biodiversity and combat soil erosion and deforestation - but it doesn’t stop there.

Trees have an enormous social impact too from providing food security to generating income and empowerment.

For International Women’s Day, the team at Treedom want to highlight the impact planting trees can have on fighting gender inequality by raising awareness of their projects in Guatemala.

Together with the NGO, AMKA, their tree planting initiatives provide women with the tools need to empower their social and economic role in the community. Here’s why and how you can help.

Choose to challenge

This year’s International Women's Day theme is “Choose To Challenge” which is about encouraging individuals and organisations all over the world to tackle inequality and break patterns of discrimination.

In honour of this campaign, the B Corporation and online tree planting platform, Treedom is raising awareness of their tree planting initiatives in Guatemala and they want you to get involved.

For a limited time only, trees that are planted in this country will have dedicated International Women’s Day graphics on their online profiles to showcase how they’re contributing to the local community.

Top tree species that will have this feature include Coffee, Chicozapote, Inga, Mandarin and Cacao.

How Treedom works

Treedom allows people to remotely plant trees around the world and follow their story and progress.

Every Treedom tree is geolocated and photographed so you can keep up to date with the latest news and projects in their online Tree Diary.

In addition to environmental benefits including combatting soil erosion and offsetting CO2 emissions, social impact through planting trees is a core part of Treedom’s business model.

Trees planted in Guatemala will highlight their social impact on women’s empowerment in particular.

These initiatives contribute towards 10 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as outlined by the United Nations to end poverty. In this case, Goal 5 which is “Gender Equality”.

How planting trees fights gender inequality

So, how does planting trees fight gender inequality?

Agriculture, agroforestry and livestock are the main economic sectors in Guatemala. Tree planting initiatives with produce such as cacao and coffee provide empowerment, food security and income.

Since 2018, Treedom has partnered with AMKA, an Italian NGO, to support women in Guatemala and give them the tools necessary to create income-generating activities and help them attain these social benefits.

AMKA has been active in the country since 2009, working with Indigenous women to fight gender-based discrimination in local communities through professional training and education.

Their ultimate goal is to establish equality and integrate women into the community’s decision-making and socio-economic development.

Working in partnership with AMKA in Guatemala, Treedom has incorporated this same goal to provide women with the opportunity to strengthen their skills, highlight their potential and empower their social and economic role through tree planting projects.

One such project in the Petetan municipality in eastern Guatemala aims to plant a minimum of 10,000 coffee trees in partnership with 80 women with the idea that they will form a cooperative.

This will help provide them with the means to set up their own Fairtrade coffee business and sustain themselves and their families at the same level as the men in the region.

Federico Garcea, founder and CEO of Treedom, explains: “We design our projects so that they provide not only environmental but also social and economic benefits for local communities.

In Guatemala our work will provide income opportunities for women in a male-dominated sector, promoting their leadership, productivity and business skills. This is a project we believe in, and its successful example can be replicated.”

Plant trees for International Women’s Day

Want to join the “choose to challenge” movement and support women in agriculture for International Women’s Day this year?

Visit Treedom and discover which trees are shining a spotlight on their tree planting projects in Guatemala.

You can find information on how each tree makes an impact, whether it’s food security, economic development or environmental protection. You can also get a breakdown of how much CO2 you can offset and the exact location of where the tree is currently kept. It's why we at pebble chose them as our tree-planting partners (and this is what we do).

You can either plant a tree for yourself or gift it as a token of your support for International Women’s Day. Plus scroll down to find our exclusive discount code for any one planting trees with Treedom this year.

Find out more at Treedom.

Get an exclusive discount code to plant a tree with Treedom

Get 20% off any tree or tree bundles with Treedom by using the code PEBBLEMAG.

Valid until 31 December 2021.