Last updated: October 2024
Martinique is a biodiversity hotspot, home to over 1,500 endemic plants, 70% of which are under threat from human activities. In response to these pressures, the Péyi Vert [Green Country] initiative was launched to plant endemic trees and strengthen the island's biodiversity. Beyond simply preserving species, these trees are crucial in maintaining healthy ecosystems, as they provide essential services such as carbon sequestration, shade, food for human consumption, soil decontamination, pollination, and protection against coastline erosion. Launched in June 2020 by Entreprises et Environnement (EE), a not-for-profit business association representing 80 Martinican companies, the Péyi Vert initiative aims to plant 1 million native trees (either Martinican or Caribbean) over five years. It can be seen as a Martinique-wide strategy to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Péyi Vert facilitates connections between people who want to plant trees and Martinican companies that serve as financial sponsors. The initiative emphasizes conserving natural heritage by planting endangered species, as well as promoting native species that, while not necessarily threatened, provide valuable ecosystem services or contribute to biodiversity restoration. Between 2020 and 2023, EE reported planting 50,000 trees (Refs 1, 4, 6, 7). Although individuals can make donations, Péyi Vert primarily seeks funding from companies looking to offset their carbon emissions or enhance their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). To achieve its goals, the initiative mainly collaborates with municipalities, companies, and farmers (Ref 3).
School staff, elected officials, the environmental department and the Municipality of Le Lamentin's technical services after a tree planting activity
Retrieved from: https://peyivert.com/neg-mawon-pollinisateur-lamentin/
Overview
Nature-based solution
- Blue infrastructure
- Coastlines
- Mangroves
- Community gardens and allotments
- Other
- Grey infrastructure featuring greens
- Alley or street trees and other street vegetation
- Parks and urban forests
- Large urban parks or forests
- Pocket parks/neighbourhood green spaces
- Green corridors and green belts
Key challenges
- Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
- Climate change adaptation
- Climate change mitigation
- Coastal resilience and marine protection (SDG 14)
- Coastal protection / hazard mitigation
- Marine and coastal biodiversity protection
- Environmental quality
- Air quality improvement
- Noise reduction
- Soil quality improvement
- Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
- Green space creation and/or management
- Habitat and biodiversity restoration
- Cultural heritage and cultural diversity
- Preservation of natural heritage
- Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
- Environmental education
- Sense of community and community engagement
- Economic development and employment (SDG 8)
- Economic development: agriculture
Principal problems in Functional Urban Area (FUA)
- Climate-Related Hazards
- Coastal hazards (e.g. erosion, flooding)
- Heat stress & Extreme temperatures
- Extreme weather events (e.g. storms, hurricanes)
- Degradation of carbon sinks
- Environmental Degradation
- Biodiversity loss
- Soil degradation and loss
- Air pollution
- Land use and Socio-economic change
- Agriculture/ crop production
- Health, Well-being and Social cohesion
- Physical health harm (from pollution, wildfire, extreme temperature)
- Loss of sense of place and identity
Key priorities
Climate action (adaptation and/or mitigation), Biodiversity (conservation and/or restoration), Social Justice and community
Focus
Creation of new green areas, Creation of green corridors (including connectivity between urban and rural ecosystems), Maintenance and management of urban nature, Urban reforestation, restoration of street trees, Coastal landscape management or protection, Coastal ecosystems restoration and maintenance (mangroves, dunes, saltplains, underwater meadows), Improving coastal resilience, Ecological restoration of ecosystems, Soil remediation and revegetation, Remediation activities of sites with very poor environmental quality, Restoration of mangroves, Protection of natural ecosystems, Habitat restoration, Knowledge creation and awareness raising, Protection of agroecology approaches (agroforestry & silvopastoral systems), Educational and awareness raising programs, Strategy, plan or policy development, Creation of city-wide or neighborhood climate adaptation or mitigation strategies/programs
Project objectives
Conserve Martinican/Caribbean natural heritage by planting endemic species, whether endangered or valuable.
Provide habitat by reinforcing the biotope and improving connectivity between wild environments.
Support pollination by planting high pollen-producing trees that attract pollinators.
Engage the public through community action and volunteering days with an educational focus.
Offset private emissions by planting trees to capture CO2, reducing air pollution and mitigating global warming.
Enhance coastal resilience by strengthening root networks to hold sediments, reduce erosion, and protect against natural disasters.
Purify agricultural soils contaminated by heavy metals or chlordecone through agroforestry and phyto-purification.
Provide ecosystem services in urban areas, including shade, air purification, noise reduction, and food.
Connect Martinican actors—financial, technical, or landowning—toward a unified strategy to conserve biodiversity, adapt to or mitigate climate change (Refs 1, 3, 6).
Implementation activities
1) Péyi Vert selects a project-lead (landowner) in Martinique, then facilitates contact with other case-specific stakeholders and sets-up a steering committee for the intervention that determines the protocol (type of tree, quantity, budget, volunteering needs).
2) Tree planting is undertaken by volunteers usually affiliated to the project-lead. Péyi Vert offers them an educational workshop on the challenge adressed or the tree species used.
3) Tegular maintenance of the project is taken over by the project lead.
4) There are three implantation zones, corresponding to the types of plants used to adress the environmental challenges.
a) The green belt: implementing tree planting projects that restore degraded coastal areas with species that mitigate erosion, sea level-rise, the intensity of extreme weather events and increase habitat connectivity (e.g. restoring mangroves to improve the network of roots and provide habitat).
b) The tree in the city: planting valued or endangered species that deliver ecosystem service in urban environments, along roadsides and roundabouts, in industrial areas or in school gardens, care-homes, businesses, neighbourhood associations.
c) Trees in the fields: fighting against soil contamination and food dependence by working with farmers to incorporate tree species that contribute to the phyto-filtration of agricultural activities. This program also supports actors initiating an agroforestry project with fertilising tree species (Ref 1; 3-5).
Climate-focused activities
Climate change adaptation:
- Implement measures that prevent/manage desertification, soil erosion and landslides
- Increase urban vegetation cover to reduce urban heat island effect
- Restore sediment supply to coastal zone
- Protect and restore coastal ecosystems, to address loss of land and livelihoods, due to rising sea levels
- Increase the use of or more efficient agroforestry practices (e.g. soil moisture, reduce evaporation) or drought-resistant species for agriculture
Climate change mitigation:
- Increase the availability of green urban space for carbon storage (street tree cover)
- Raise public awareness of behaviours, lifestyle and cultural changes with mitigation potential
Communities vulnerable to environmental hazards or climate change impacts
Yes
Specification of climate or environmentally vulnerable communities
Coastal communities, Urban heat islands, Rural agricultural communities
Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities
Biodiversity restoration:
- Rehabilitate and restore damaged or destroyed ecosystems
- Restore species (native, endangered, or unspecified)
- Restore ecological connectivity
- Public engagement
Main beneficiaries
- Local government/Municipality
- Private sector/Corporate/Company
- Citizens or community groups
- Coastal-dependent communities (e.g. small-scale fishers, coastal farmers, and indigenous peoples)
Governance
Management set-up
- Led by non-government actors
Type of initiating organisation
- National government
- Non-government organisation/civil society
- Private sector/corporate actor/company
- Business association or network
Participatory approaches/ community involvement
- Co-planning (e.g. stakeholder workshops, focus groups, participatory mapping)
- Deliberative decision-making processes (e.g., consensus building, deliberative polling)
- Crowd-sourcing/Crowd-funding/Participatory budget
- Consultation (e.g. workshop, surveys, community meetings, town halls)
- Joint implementation (e.g. tree planting)
- Citizen monitoring and review
Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project
Entreprises et Environnement (EE) is the leading NGO coordinating the Péyi Vert initiative, which focuses on tree planting and biodiversity conservation. EE facilitates partnerships among key stakeholders, including the business association Contact-Entreprises, advertising firm Havas Publidom, the not-for-profit nursery Jardins Partagés de Gaïac, and the National Office for Forests (ONF). The organization primarily funds its projects through tax-deductible donations from private companies and a smaller contribution from individuals. Project leaders—including companies, municipalities, public institutions, community groups, and farmers—propose and maintain tree-planting projects. Each initiative is overseen by a steering committee made up of relevant stakeholders, ensuring effective governance and alignment with conservation goals.(Ref. 1, 4, 6)
Project implemented in response to ...
... an EU policy or strategy?
Unknown
... a national policy or strategy?
Unknown
... a local policy or strategy?
Unknown
Type of enablers
Governance innovations (such as public private partnerships)
Financing
Total cost
€2,000,000 - €4,000,000
Source(s) of funding
- Corporate investment
- Crowdfunding
Type of funding
- Direct funding (grants, subsidies, or self-financed projects by private entities)
- Tax exemption
- Donations
Non-financial contribution
Type of non-financial contribution
- Provision of labour
Who provided the non-financial contribution?
- Public authorities (e.g. land, utility services)
- Citizens (e.g. volunteering)
- Private sector (businesses, financial institution)
Impacts and Monitoring
Environmental impacts
- Climate change
- Storm / wave induced erosion and flooding
- Expected storm / wave induced erosion and flooding
- Enhanced carbon sequestration
- Expected enhanced carbon sequestration
- Enhanced protection against extreme weather events (e.g. storms, cyclones, tidal surges, coastal erosion)
- Expected enhanced protection against extreme weather events (e.g. storms, cyclones, tidal surges, coastal erosion)
- Prevent the frequency and/or intensity of heatwaves
- Expected prevent the frequency and/or intensity of heatwaves
- Environmental quality
- Improved air quality
- Expected improved air quality
- Reduced noise exposure
- Expected reduced noise exposure
- Improved soil quality
- Expected improved soil quality
- Green space and habitat
- Increased ecological connectivity across regeneration sites and scales
- Expected increased ecological connectivity across regeneration sites and scales
- Increased number of species present
- Achieved increased number of species present
- Increased protection of threatened species
- Expected increased protection of threatened species
- Enhanced support of pollination
- Expected enhanced support of pollination
Economic impacts
- Attraction of business and investment
- Expected attraction of business and investment
Socio-cultural impacts
- Social justice and cohesion
- Increased access to healthy/affordable food
- Expected increased access to healthy/affordable food
- Increased sustainability of agriculture practices
- Expected increased sustainability of agriculture practices
- Cultural heritage and sense of place
- Increased sense of place identity, memory and belonging
- Expected increased sense of place identity, memory and belonging
- Education
- Increased knowledge of locals about local nature
- Expected increased knowledge of locals about local nature
Type of reported impacts
Presence of formal monitoring system
Yes
Presence of indicators used in reporting
Yes
Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports
No evidence in public records
Availability of a web-based monitoring tool
Yes
Potential risks of implementation and trade-offs
Offsetting, Carbon offsets *
References
1.
Gelin, C. (2021). Où en est l’opération de plantation d’arbres Péyi Vert en Martinique ?. ewag.fr, Accessed on September 22, 2024, [Source link];
2.
Entreprises & Environnement (n.d.). Programmes Péyivert. entreprisesenvironnement.com, Accessed on September 22, 2024, [Source link];
3.
France-Antilles Martinique. (2020). 1 million d’arbres en 5 ans pour transformer la Martinique. martinique.franceantilles.fr, Accessed on September 22, 2024, [Source link];
4.
Médiaterre (2020). Opération écologique " Péyi vert "en Martinique. mediaterre.org, Accessed on September 22, 2024, [Source link];
5.
Péyi Vert (n.d.). Comment participer ?. peyivert.com, Accessed on September 22, 2024, [Source link];
6.
Péyi Vert (n.d.). Le projet. peyivert.com, Accessed on September 22, 2024, [Source link];
7.
Lamy, R. (2023). Opération « Péyi Vert » : des arbres fruitiers plantés à la gendarmerie de Martinique. rci.fm, Accessed on September 22, 2024, [Source link];
8.
Péyi Vert (n.d.). Le mag’ | Péyi Vert Martinique. peyivert.com, Accessed on September 22, 2024, [Source link];
9.
Péyi Vert. (n.d.). Foire aux questions. peyivert.com, Accessed on September 22, 2024, [Source link];
educational plantations by high school students
https://peyivert.com/lpa-du-robert-plantations-pedagogiques-par-les-lyceens/
Denel fruit processing factory planting 30 cocoa trees during their "open day"
https://peyivert.com/ce-dimanche-chez-denel-plantation-de-cacaoyers/
Péyi Vert offers 200 Pterocarpus officinalis to the municipality of Le Lamentin for coastal resilience
https://peyivert.com/mangrove-du-lamentin-sauvons-la-plus-vite/
Péyi Vert partner of the municipality of LE Lamentin for the preservation of natural heritage
https://peyivert.com/peyi-vert-partenaire-de-la-commune-du-lamentin-pour-la-preservation-du-patrimoine-naturel/
EDF in Martinique enters into a 4 year financing agreement with the Péyi Vert program
https://peyivert.com/edf-en-martinique-sengage-dans-le-programme-peyi-vert/
Information about this nature-based solution was collected as part of the Naturescapes project funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No 101084341.