When Community Friends’ Sri Lankan partner acquired a 40-acre tea plantation in the high-elevation cloud forest, we did not fully realize what we were taking on. I was hiking on the land, following a wild boar trail and noticed barefoot Tamil women with burlap sack skirts picking tea. I said to our guide, “Who are these women?” He explained, “They work for you.” A bit startled, I then asked, “How much are we paying them?” The going rate seems to be about 25 cents an hour. I did not realize that when we acquired the land, it came with a village of 50 families who have worked this tea plantation for five generations. All they have known from British colonial times is working for the “master.” And now we are the new masters.
The first tasks were to establish a living wage, provide health care and install a micro-hydro generator for electricity. We began to convert the tea to an organic plantation. However, we realized that the tea industry is oppressive for both the people and the land. We decided to begin a transition from tea to fruit-bearing trees that could become a major income stream for the village.
Financing the economic transition requires upfront money since the newly planted fruit trees will not be producing for a few years. We decided to sell carbon offsets based on the carbon absorbed by the newly planted trees. The sale of these offsets to people in the USA provides the financing to transition the village economy from tea to fruit.
The longer-term concept is to allow the villagers to replace the master. In the future, we anticipate that we will be able to transfer ownership of the land to a land trust managed by the community.
Carsten Henningsen
