OBEC was co-founded by Nadine Dominique, a Haitian-born activist and permaculturist, as the next stage in her lifelong mission to revitalize traditional food growing systems and drive a renaissance of Haiti’s ancient forests. She is the daughter of Haitian civil rights leader Jean Dominique, subject of the celebrated documentary film The Agronomist, who was assassinated for his work in the year 2000. After stints living in Canada and Jamaica, Nadine put down roots in the hills of Cap Rouge, on land overlooking the Caribbean Sea. There, she began to expose the local population to forgotten pieces of their agricultural heritage, and to work with elders to preserve existing traditions that were in danger of being forgotten. Since that time, her land has grown into a hive of environmental action for the community.

In 2012, Nadine partnered with Rocky Paurice, a veteran agriculturalist and passionate sustainability educator. Rocky serves as OBEC’s Director of Operations, and in that capacity he coordinates and leads tree distribution, tree planting working groups, and local outreach. Together, Rocky and Nadine employ local workers and volunteers to accomplish all the tasks of a small farm and outdoor community education center –– from preparing compost, filling thousands of seed bags, and pruning the young trees, to leading workshops for children and listening sessions for elders.

They concentrate on food trees which are on the verge of local extinction, and on deep-rooting canopy trees which have the capability to bring groundwater to the surface.

Among the deep-rooting canopy species which form the pillars of OBEC’s emerging food forest are the Mayan nut tree –– locally called chokogou (“chocolate taste”) due to the flavor of its highly nutritional nuts, and sometimes also nicknamed the “money tree” because the valuable nuts can survive storage for up to 5 years. Another is the silk cotton tree –– called mapou in Creole and considered sacred to the spirits in traditional Haitian folk religion. Yet another is the baobab, a large tree which is extremely useful in drawing up water and retaining eroded riverbanks, hazardous ravines, and spring heads. All of these trees serve the role of rehydrating the land, protecting it from hurricanes, and shading a productive understory.