Social Impact of a DOLE Organic Banana Plantation in Northern Colombia.

During the 4 years of operations in La Guajira, Colombia, Don Pedro Farm has shown a very positive impact among the soundrounding communities of Matitas, Choles, Anaime, Tigreras and Comejenes.
Don Pedro Farm provides full time and permanent job to hundreds of locals and contributes to the improvement of their living conditions.

On December 27th, 2008, on a very emotive act, Mr. Jorge Perez Vernier, Governor of La Guajira, Mr. Jaider Curiel, Major of Riohacha, and Mr. Roland Pinedo, Manager of Gases de la Guajira (Natural Gas Company), signed the agreement to subsidize 620 home gas connections in the above mentioned communities were most of the Don Pedro Farm’s workers live. With an investment of US$162.000, 620 families will now have access to gas in their homes.

The local authorities recognized the role of Don Pedro Farm on the Social Development of the Region and especially in the development of this project

Capacitación de Evaluadores de Producción de Banano Orgánico

Ciento nueve trabajadores-operarios de la Agropecuaria San Gabriel de la finca Don Pedro, en el corregimiento de Matitas, del Municipio de Riohacha y cinco evaluadores en Producción de banano orgánico recibieron sus respectivos certificados de competencia laboral.
En la sede la plantación se desarrolló el acto donde los aprendices, trabajadores de la Finca Don Pedro, cumplieron con las diferentes etapas de formación en un ambiente colaborativo, donde el SENA contó con el irrestricto apoyo de las directivas de la compañía.
Cabe destacar que esta certificación fue entregada a un representativo grupo de mujeres de la zona, que laboran en la bananera y que mostraron su interés por recibir la certificación buscando siempre realizar un trabajo responsable para contribuir con el presupuesto familiar.
Por primera vez en el departamento de La Guajira se entrega certificación por competencia laboral en este renglón de la economía, constituyéndose los aprendices en alternativas para nuevos proyectos de banano orgánico que se tienen previstos para la región. A la fecha, con la llegada de la bananera se ha reactivado la económica de la zona y centenares de residentes en poblaciones como Matitas, Choles, Anaime y Tigreras cuentan hoy con un empleo, que además les ha dado la oportunidad de formarse en el SENA y mejorar sus competencias y calidad de vida.
Para José Ferreira, Gerente Administrador de la Finca Don Pedro, este es un logro que se obtuvo gracias al Sena, pues hace tres años cuando la empresa llegó no contaban con mano de obra residente en estas poblaciones, calificada para este oficio. “Hoy, dijo Ferreira, los nativos de la región pueden mostrar su competitividad y motivar a otros a que mejoren cada día sus competencias, porque la proyección es que los 230 trabajadores de la bananera San Pedro estén certificados por el Sena el próximo año”.

Link: http://el-informador.com/detgua.php?id=42349

Time to plant trees!

Dole Organic Program is encouraging the communities to join the Company effort to become Carbon Neutral by reducing the CO2 emissions and compensate them by planting trees.

After a very successful tree planting campaign on June 5th, Environment Day, where more than 10.000 trees were planted at DOLE Organic Farms in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras and Costa Rica; people is still excited with this initiative and willing to be part of it.

Last week, at ECOPIÑAS del ARENAL, S.A., an Organic Certified Pineapple Farm owned by DOLE in Bella Vista de Cutris, 200 Kms north of San José in Costa Rica, we received the visit of Red Cross Volunteers from Ciudad Quesada (main city in northern Costa Rica).

These Red Cross Volunteers participated in an “on farm” training course about Organic Agriculture, Soil Conservation, Environmental Protection and Carbon Compensation as well as in a planting more than 500 trees in our organic certified farm.

We want to thank these brave teens for joining us in our effort to reduce our Environmental Footprint.

DOLE FOOD COMPANY, INC. ANNOUNCES WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY TREE-PLANTING AND CLIMATE CHANGE AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

Dole Food Company, Inc and its operating divisions in Latin America celebrated World Environment Day yesterday by organizing tree-planting events and environmental awareness campaigns with communities, employees and local officials to motivate participants to work toward environmental protection and mitigation of climate change.

Jonathan Bass, President of Dole Latin America stated, “I am pleased to see and share in the excitement that these World Environment Day events have produced with our employees and workers and particularly within the communities in which our production units operate. We all have an important role to play in protecting the environment”.

In Costa Rica, the event is also linked to the official opening of Dole’s organic pineapple plantation reaffirming the company’s leading position in organic agriculture and alternative production methods. The activity includes the planting of 5,000 trees provided by the National Electricity Institute as part of the Costa Rican Government’s pledge to plant 7 million trees in the year 2008. School children, local government regulators, field workers, office employees, neighbors and the region’s congresswoman will plant trees at the organic plantation to commemorate World Environment Day and demonstrate the effectiveness of private, public and community partnership.

The reforestation events are also part of Dole’s commitment to work toward carbon neutrality. It is estimated that for every ten trees approximately 5 tons of C02 per year can be captured from the atmosphere. The activities held in Honduras, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Costa Rica serve as an opportunity for participating employees and neighbors to compensate for the emissions produced by their own vehicles, creating awareness to take action to alleviate climate change.

“This grass roots reforestation event brings many benefits including helping to reduce erosion, protecting water sources, and contributing to biodiversity. In addition, the carbon dioxide emissions from the agricultural machinery used in pineapple production will be compensated by the carbon fixed by the trees.”, commented Richard Toman, Vice-President of Pineapple Operations for Dole Fresh Fruit International Ltd.

Tree-planting at ECOPIÑAS del Arenal in Costa Rica

Tree-planting at Bananasoma Organica Farm in Ecuador

More pictures to come....