As part of this mission, Raw Material launched the \u201c11 Million Trees\u201d programme, a 25-year effort to help shift the coffee sector in Timor-Leste.<\/p>\n
Graylee said the large-scale coffee reforestation and sustainability initiative will revolutionise Timor-Leste\u2019s coffee farming industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will transform the coffee sector, reduce poverty and build environmental resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coffee is Timor-Leste\u2019s second-largest earner, grown by 37.5% of households.<\/p>\n
Yet according to Raw Material, most coffee-farming families in poverty are relying on trees that are decades past their prime and growing in depleted soils, producing only a fraction of their potential.<\/p>\n
Research from Monash University and the National Coffee Sector Development Plan shows that doubling production would bring poverty among these households down from 50% to 28%.<\/p>\n
Coffee cherries are dried at a Raw Material supported coffee farm in Timor-Leste.<\/p>\n
Recently, phase two of the 11 Million Trees project completed its fundraising goal on Kickstarter meaning Raw Material can support investment in coffee forest regeneration through renewables, recycling, and upgrading bamboo treatment facilities to replace steel.<\/p>\n
The project will also establish a national coffee variety testing forest in the country, which will allow disease and climate-resistant trees to be discovered and develop a large-scale nursery and soil programme for the thousands of families Raw Material already works with in Timor-Leste.<\/p>\n
Graylee said that over two weeks, the project managed to reach its target, pulling in about $240,000 across two weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Kickstarter was really a way of allowing people in the industry and from people from far away to join in with what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n