Eco-Palms and Your Church: Your Role in Supporting
Social and Environmental Justice
Cooperatives provide opportunities for women and men to work, learn leadership
skills and take part in decision-making that affects not only the success of
their business but the community as a whole. Photo courtesy of Lutheran World
Relief. 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. Your congregation's commitment
to purchase eco-palms plays an important role in protecting forests, local jobs,
and sustainable livelihoods in the harvesting communities.
Eco-palms are purchased directly from the communities at
5 to 6 times the normal payment per frond. Families are able to depend on a more
stable source of income and benefit from additional value-added processing that
takes place within the community.
Prices for 2008 are still being finalized. In 2007 the price
was $47.50 per case (200 stems). For 2008, palms will be available by the bunch
(20 stems) and by the case in 200, 300 or 600 stem quantities.
Placing your order early ensures the best availability. Palm
Sunday falls on March 16, 2008. The last date congregations can order eco-palms
in time for Palm Sunday 2008 is February 20, 2008.
Purchasing eco-palms for your congregation helps ensure
a market for the palms, which in turn means communities can depend on fair and
stable wages and the forests can be protected.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is partnering with Lutheran
World Relief,
Catholic Relief Services and the University
of Minnesota to
help build support in the U.S. for eco-palms by introducing congregations to
this social and environmental justice project. The University of Minnesota Center
for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management has teamed up with
the North American Commission
for Environmental Cooperation to develop a certification program for palms
that will ensure the palm harvesters are earning a fair income for their labor
and the palms are being harvested in an environmentally sustainable way. |
