Biodiversity and ethical sourcing are both key components in our approach to environmental stewardship. Planting a balanced mix of indigenous and cash crop trees on agricultural land – that is to say, agroforestry – helps us make significant progress on both fronts.

For greater impact, in recent years, we’ve teamed up with local conservation groups. For example, we collaborated with the NGO Kijani Pamoja, who have set up a seedbank and nursery to provide farmers with high-quality native tree seedlings to plant. We also gave out 17,722 tree seedlings (Albizia, Khaya, Syzygium, Avocado, and Croton) to farmers in the Kilimanjaro Region as part of the NGO Hakuna Matatas’ Pamoja Project.

Planting trees contributes to biodiversity by creating havens for wildlife and shade for other plants – making the local ecosystem more resilient and increasing carbon sequestration. Not to mention enhancing soil health and therefore yields for farmers – who can also obtain additional income from fruit. A win-win approach.

Spurred on by the positive results so far, we’ve set ourselves the target of planting 20 trees for every acre of vanilla by 2028 across our partner farms.

We’ll keep you posted on our progress.