Why is tree planting in the rainforest particularly important and how can we do it better?

Founder of Community Carbon Trees, Jennifer Smith has devoted over 17 years to planting and growing more than 556,000 trees in Costa Rica. Born in Southwest Louisiana, she was raised on a sustainable family farm where she learned the importance of land stewardship and sustainable business practices from a young age.

She earned a Juris Doctorate degree at Louisiana State University in 1993 and in 2000, went to Costa Rica to embark on a mission to plant trees. Her work to build community, protect biodiversity, and reverse climate change is a model for how all people can coexist with nature.

In addition to her expertise in tree planting and reforestation, Jennifer also became a Certified Auditor of carbon dioxide under international guidelines. Jennifer is trained to calculate carbon footprints to determine baselines for sequestering CO2. In addition, Jennifer completed the agroforestry calculations to determine how much CO2 is sequestered by tropical trees using accepted techniques and practices.

Jenny provides private consulting services to help individuals and businesses understand their carbon footprint. She can determine how many trees you need to grow over 25 years to offset your CO2 footprint and become carbon neutral.

In this conversation with us, “Tree Jenny” as she is known within the tree planting community, shares what ignited her passion for tree planting and reforestation of the rainforest and why it’s something that we all need to be supporting.

Side-stepping the blame game, Jennifer emphasizes the importance of focusing our attention on the solution. She explains the role that tropical trees play in rain patterns and climate change around the world, and why conserving existing forests – or simply planting millions of trees – is not enough.

Her approach to planting trees and growing biodiverse forests over the long-term also includes helping local farmers and workers regain their self-esteem and purpose and work together as a community, thus ensuring sustainability and scalability.

Episode Show Notes: https://leadersoftransformation.com/podcast/leadership/312-jennifer-smith-planting-trees-and-protecting-biodiversity-in-the-rainforest/

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