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Our Roots |
Sustainable Harvest
Our Roots
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| Chris Crowell |
Jeff Pzena |
In the words of our founder Chris Crowell...
After traveling through Mexico and Guatemala in 1979, I stumbled into Belize as a cross roads to get from point A to B. I almost immediately noticed a unique quality that made this little country somehow different and special. My intuition told me that I’d be back!
Return I did after six years – I came with a sailboat and little more than a dream to do something that somehow mattered. I soon started taking folks out for sailing trips to help support my romance with a wooden flat-bottomed boat called “Juanita.” For the next five years my little charter business called “Timeless Tours” was both a winter retreat from the cold of New England and a chance to discover the many wonders of Belize.
On one of my many sailing trips I ventured up the Moho River and found this beautiful farm along the riverbank that was recently abandoned and for sale. Looming high above was a huge Cotton Tree -- my breath was taken away and I knew that this was where I should be! Along with a few very special friends and three years of bureaucracy, the property was purchased and a dream began to become a bit more tangible. For the next ten years little more was accomplished other then a yearly visit to the property and attempts at keeping the jungle at bay.
In 1999 a few life-altering events prompted me to make a move and bring the dream to reality. To be clear, the dream I had was about bringing people from all over the world to experience a truly meaningful stay in Belize. I wanted to show people the magic and mystique of Belize. It was my belief that if I could somehow introduce others to the soul of the country, I could truly impact their lives. You know those times when you experience something and you feel your life has just changed for the better? Well, that’s the sort of experience I wanted to make happen at a jungle lodge in the heart of the rainforest. I saw a chance to create an atmosphere where individuals could appreciate other cultures while learning something about their own spirit. It’s a dream of impacting lives... of exploring new terrain... of creating stories for a lifetime.
After three years of formulating ideas and testing some assumptions about living and working in Belize, my longtime friend and new business partner Jeff Pzena and I formed CottonTree Lodge. So many people supported our efforts because they understood that we were setting out to do something truly extraordinary. Folks believed, like I do, that CottonTree Lodge could be a magical place – where visitors could get in touch with the land, the people, and themselves.
CottonTree Lodge and Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) are working together to establish a demonstration farm at CottonTree Lodge. SHI's mission is to help families in Central America work toward environmental, economic and social sustainability. They do this by hiring local agricultural extension staff that work directly with low-income Belizean families in promotion of improved nutrition, organic agricultural techniques, reforestation, health improvement projects such as improved wood-burning stoves and potable water systems, along with a focus on marketing the agricultural products the families grow so that their income levels increase.
The demonstration farm would show SHI's agriculture techniques and land reclamation methods to local farmers and visitors to CottonTree Lodge. The agricultural extensionists would work at the site, but would also work with local families near CottonTree Lodge, and would bring them to the site for training sessions on sustainable land use practices. CottonTree Lodge and Sustainable Harvest International in partnership will look for funding to make this an ongoing collaboration, to the benefit of both organizations but more importantly for the benefit of the local community.
For more information, please contact Greg Bowles, Program Director,Sustainable Harvest International at: greg@sustainableharvest.org (207) 669-8254
In Belize, the Country Director for SHI is Nana Mensah, and he can be reached at: nana@sustainableharvest.org
Sustainable Harvest International’s website is: www.sustainableharvest.org
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