Ottawa – In a private ceremony on 5 November 2018 at Rideau Hall, in Ottawa, the four co-founders of the non-profit organization Taking Root were presented with the Meritorious Service Cross from the Right Honourable Julie Payette, the Governor General of Canada.
The Meritorious Service Cross (Civil Division) enables the Governor General, on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen and all Canadians, to recognize individuals that have performed exceptional accomplishments that set an example for others to follow while bringing honour to a community and to Canada as a whole.
The four co-founders, Kahlil Baker, Samuel Gervais, Laura Howard and Brooke van Mossel-Forrester, were nominated to receive the award in recognition of their innovative work fighting climate change and poverty. They were recognized alongside 36 other Canadians — from community volunteers to scientists, from actors to members of the military, from scholars to everyday citizens.
When establishing Taking Root in 2007, the founders wanted to create an innovative reforestation model that creates livelihood opportunities for people to grow native tree species on their farms. This is because the root cause of tropical deforestation, a major contributor to climate change, is people’s need to earn a livelihood. Thus, by engaging smallholder farmers in Nicaragua to reforest underutilized parts of their own land, the model helps address climate change and poverty simultaneously.
“Climate Change and poverty affect all of us, regardless of where we are in the world,” stated co-founder and Executive Director, Kahlil Baker. “We are really honoured to be recognized by the Governor General for our work done internationally, and thank all those who have been part of making this initiative such a success.”
With the support of partners and a local team in Nicaragua, Taking Root has since channeled over $3 million from global partners to 800 farming families in rural communities who are otherwise living on less than $2/day. This work has created over 1,000 jobs per year for the local economy. Farmers have grown over 3 million trees on 2,500 hectares of their own land and participated in more than 10,000 farmer trainings. These trees will offset 550,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the annual emissions of 119,000 cars.
Read the official press release from the Governor General, with the full list of recipients, HERE.
Kahlil Baker, CEO
Kahlil is the co-founder and CEO of Taking Root. He leads the organization to accelerate the restoration of the world’s forests. He has spent over 15 years dedicated to tropical reforestation with smallholder farmers, and has served as an advisor for leading forest carbon standards including Plan Vivo and the Gold Standard. A featured CBC changemaker and a recipient of Canada’s Meritorious Service Cross, Kahlil holds a Masters in Forest Statistics and a PhD in smallholder economics from the University of British Columbia.