Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem was accented by the jubilant waving of palm branches and is re-enacted each Palm Sunday in Lutheran and other Christian congregations worldwide as the observance of Holy Week begins. Unfortunately, for the communities where these palms are harvested, palm fronds do not always represent the same jubilation they do for us.
Harvesting palm products is an important source of income for many indigenous families and communities in Guatemala and Mexico. However, over-harvesting palm can threaten the livelihood of these communities as well as the shaded forests where the palm plants thrive. Many of the palm producing areas are important “biosphere reserves,” where palms are part of the natural forest.
Typically, palm harvesting is done by community members hired by large floral export firms. “Payment is based on volume, so the harvesters are motivated to gather a large number of palms, without regard for the quality,” said Brenda Meier, Parish Projects Coordinator for Lutheran World Relief, who recently visited palm-harvesting communities in Guatemala and Mexico. “As a result, up to 50% of the palms are later discarded because of poor quality. This method risks the rapid depletion of the forest’s rich biodiversity, including the many bird species that migrate to these regions during the winter.”
The palm-producing areas tend to be the home of poorer segments of the rural population where the people rely heavily on the palm harvest for income. But, although purchases of palms in the U.S. may reach as high as $4.5 million each year, the palm harvesters themselves earn very little.
In Guatemala and Mexico, an effort is underway to develop a new structure for harvesting palms that protects the environment and also provides a better income for the harvesters of the palms. Called eco-palms, the palms are harvested in a more sustainable way, whereby the harvesters are paid on the quality of the palms they harvest rather than the quantity, which helps to limit the amount of palms taken from the forest.
The Eco-Palm Project is an effort of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation and the University of Minnesota Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management to develop a certification program for palms that will ensure the palms are being harvested in an environmentally sustainable way, and the palm harvesters are earning a livable income from their labor.
“These communities have adopted harvesting practices that minimize impact on the natural forest where the palm grows, and ways to protect this wild species of palm,” said Meier. “In some areas where the waste ratio reached as high as 50% before, the discarded palms now account for only 5-7% of the harvested volume.”
Also, rather than sending the harvested palms off to a distant warehouse for sorting and packaging, the community members complete those tasks themselves and sell their palms to international buyers directly rather than relying on middlemen—ensuring that more of the money paid for the palms actually goes to those who worked the hardest to provide them.
“When done in an environmentally just way, palm gathering can actually protect valuable natural forests,” said Meier, who spent several days visiting the harvesting communities and learning about the environmental, economic and social benefits the palm harvesting provides the communities. “Also, the increased income that comes from directly selling their palms has provided schools, healthcare, business training and better nutrition for the community members,” she said.
More than 300 million palm fronds are harvested each year for U.S. consumption alone—most of them for Palm Sunday, but also for floral displays for church-related events. Lutheran World Relief is partnering with the Eco-Palm Project to help build support in the U.S. for eco-palms by introducing Lutheran parishes to this social and environmental justice project.
“Lutheran World Relief chose to endorse this project after seeing all the benefits this project brought to the communities—environmental, economic and social,” said Meier. “By purchasing eco-palms for Palm Sunday celebrations, Lutheran congregations will play an important role in protecting forests, local jobs, and sustainable livelihoods in the harvesting communities.”
“Lutheran congregations have long been committed to economic and social justice. This project closely aligns with our values to ‘do justice’ as the prophet Micah calls us to do,” she said.
For Palm Sunday 2006, the eco-palms are available in the following states: Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and western Indiana. Pricing and ordering information is available at www.lwr.org/palms. For parishes outside the area of availability, an interest form is also available at www.lwr.org/palms. “Knowing other regions of the country where interest in purchasing the palms is high will help plan distribution methods for future years,” said Meier.
