Reforesting La Loma: ancestral agroforestry in Cabarete

La Finca Comunitaria (Community Farm) of Cabarete Sostenible

Cabarete Sostenible combats food insecurity through community-led spaces for civic agriculture. Cabarete Sostenible believes that sustainable farming projects offer a solution to the lack of food sovereignty in the region by creating a network of diverse food options. 

La Finca (Community farm) is a community space serving as a hands-on educational and regenerative working farm. We use organic and ancestral farming practices with a focus on syntropic agroforestry to regenerate soil that was degraded through cattle farming. Synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, GMOs, and artificial products are strictly prohibited. Funds raised in this campaign will be used directly to continue the reforestation of this land using ancestral techniques, syntropic agroforestry and permaculture methods. 

Economic and Historical Context:

The Dominican Republic's economy and food system have historically been characterized by the exploitation of domestic natural resources by foreign corporations and nations. In areas dominated by international tourism, these exploitative practices persist in a neo-colonial form. Ecological resources and labor continue to be exploited for the benefit of foreign entities, often without local involvement. Additionally, the rapid expansion of real estate through tourism has severely impacted the local ecosystem, exacerbating poverty and undermining local livelihoods. Despite this, many locals rely on low-paying tourism jobs and foreign investment as their primary sources of income, often struggling to survive.

Cabarete, known globally as a surfing and kitesurfing hotspot, has not seen an increase in local prosperity from tourism development. Compounding this, a significant portion of land in Cabarete, over 65%, is designated as protected area by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, leaving the region vulnerable to food insecurity. Local farm production is minimal, limited to small-scale cattle farming.

According to our latest Questionnaire data, approximately 47% of households in Cabarete experience food insecurity, with 27% of these households in critical condition. Although 60% of locals are employed in the tourism sector, their salaries fall far below the United Nations' standard for a dignified living in the Dominican Republic.

The economically precarious situation in Cabarete is starkly reflected in its socio-economic and geographic divide. The town is split into two: the beachfront area with numerous hotels and tourist activities such as kitesurfing, yoga, and spas, and the inland area where the average Dominican lives, unable to afford these luxuries. Arguably, a third zone outlines the inland neighborhoods, the Monumento Natural Lagunas Cabarete y Goleta, previously known as El Choco national park and a current category 3 protected area. 

This division creates two parallel worlds within the town. Beachfront hotels dominate the oceanfront, while Dominican residential areas lie inland, restricting locals' access to the sea. Due to the many private hotel accesses, the inhabitants of Cabarete themselves have limited access to the sea and the beaches, in their own country. This has created, amongst other inequalities, a strong detachment and carelessness from the natives towards the natural resources of the region.

Beginning in 2023, concerns about gentrification in Dominican and Haitian immigrant neighborhoods have grown. Rising housing prices and global inflation threaten residents' livelihoods, while local business owners and entrepreneurs struggle against foreign-owned companies. There is a lack of regulation on foreign businesses, exacerbating community displacement.

Our solution:

La Finca, the Community Farm, is located in the neighborhood “behind” the beach fronts, on the other side of the main road, at the end of the Callejon de la Loma and inside the protected area named Monumento Natural Lagunas Cabarete y Goleta. 

La Loma, as the Natural Monument is locally known, is a small community where everyone knows and supports each other. CS has been able to create emotional and mutual aid ties with our neighbors through the development of the community farm. Many of the homes near the community farm are households with elderly folks living below poverty level and who raise cattle and poultry in different capacities to sustain themselves. Cows and goats generally run free and families lack the proper tools to manage and contain them. There is general neglect from local authorities towards the families that have lived in these lands for generations and that have inherited their homes prior to the Ministry of Environment implementing restrictions on housing development. There is no waste management and families have resigned themselves to burning their trash, producing toxic fumes for themselves, neighbors and environment. 

The current state of the land inside the Natural Monument and the community farm, as well as the designation as protected area has shaped the mission and the methodology of La Finca:

• Using agroforestry and ancestral methods, we are reforesting more than 18,000 square meters of degraded land with native timber, endemic indigenous plants and fruit trees. Regenerating biodiversity in this region. 
• A living and breathing educational center for the region providing workshops and courses, hands-on practices, volunteer opportunities.
• Community center where neighbors gather to address and find solutions to common concerns and participate in civic engagement, for example: La Finca offers composting solutions and collaborates with local recycling centers to address the lack of waste management from local and national governments. 
• A laboratory for social entrepreneurship that promotes food sovereignty through the harvest of fresh fruits and vegetables from La Finca. 

Tracking and evaluation:

• Soil & Biodiversity Recovery: Track the transition of 18,000 m2 of degraded cattle land into a thriving ecosystem by monitoring Soil Organic Matter (SOM) increases, improved water retention, and the return of native bird and insect indicator species.
• Ancestral Knowledge Transfer: Quantify educational impact by logging total "Knowledge Hours" delivered to local community members alongside tracking the number of participants implementing these methods on their own land.
• Solid Waste Diversion: Document environmental and public health improvements by weighing and tracking the total volume of organic waste diverted from open-air burning into La Finca’s community composting and recycling systems.
• Economic Sovereignty Value: Measure local resilience against gentrification by tracking the total volume and local market value of all fresh fruits and vegetables harvested, distributed, or utilized in the social entrepreneurship laboratory.
• Protected Area Reforestation Density: Track reforestation success within the Monumento Natural Lagunas Cabarete y Goleta by counting native and endemic timber/fruit trees planted, and monitoring their 6- and 12-month survival rates.

Organizational Experience and Track Record:

Founded in response to the acute economic and food insecurity challenges exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Cabarete Sostenible has evolved from a grassroots emergency coalition of local non-profits, family farms, and community leaders into a  Dominican-led, and volunteer-driven non-governmental organization. For six years,  the organization has pioneered systemic solutions to food insecurity and the loss of food sovereignty on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic. Driven by a low-cost, high-impact operational model, Cabarete Sostenible has successfully executed a high-impact strategy that addresses the region’s deep socio-economic and geographic divides through: nutritional aid, civic agriculture, and social entrepreneurship. To date, the organization has demonstrated exceptional community trust and logistical capacity, having successfully packaged and distributed 4,588 emergency food packages and 1,383 ready-to-eat meals to vulnerable households.

Complementing the reforestation of La Finca are the operations of Cabarete Sostenible’s Community Garden (El Jardín) and Community Kitchen (La Cocina Comunitaria). Community Garden serves as a vegetable cultivation space growing Dominican kitchen staples, fresh produce, and medicinal herbs. The garden is home to our composting model where we have composted an estimated five thousand kilos of organic waste. 

Directly adjacent, the Community Kitchen acts as an operational hub and a vibrant social venue. On packaging days, it serves as the logistical center where volunteers gather to harvest from the garden and assemble plastic-free food packages. Throughout the week, it functions as a social enterprise, operating an affordable vegetarian dining space that highlights farm-to-table local ingredients. This integrated pipeline not only provides direct nutritional aid and delicious, culturally appropriate food options to the community, but it also provides a space for workshops where local women and youth learn to transform excess farm harvests into value-added artisanal products.

Cabarete Sostenible’s localized, community-driven methodologies have earned international recognition and rigorous institutional backing. The organization has secured highly competitive grant funding from esteemed global entities, including the Fondation Philippe Daher in France and Columbia University in New York, which awarded the organization a Community-Driven Co-Production of Climate Knowledge Grant for its "Konuko La Loma" initiative to preserve Caribbean ancestral resilience to climate change within La Finca. Through community gatherings, workshops, and oral history projects, Konuko La Loma bridges generational divides by engaging local elders and youth to document and preserve traditional land-stewardship methods. By anchoring small-scale, climate-resilient food production in historical Taino and Caribbean sustainability practices, we are not only restoring the soil but also restoring a sense of cultural pride and native ownership over local natural resources. At La Finca, we have nurtured 192 trees in their initial growth phases, along with a diverse collection of 694 plants, including medicinal species, shrubs, and flowers.

Backed by diverse funding streams, Cabarete Sostenible possesses the fiscal maturity, execution experience, and deep community roots necessary to successfully manage and scale its transformative environmental and social mandates.