CSR commitments

With almost 60% of the population living below the poverty line and more than 4 million people in a situation of severe food insecurity, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. Regular natural disasters (such as hurricanes, earthquakes and floods) diminish harvests and cause the population's needs to no longer be met, leading to accelerated deforestation.

In this context, Secours Catholique — Caritas France is helping to improve local communities' living conditions with regards to food security, resilience to natural disasters, and climate change, among other issues, while preserving and restoring the last of the island's forests.

The Maisons du Monde Foundation is supporting Secours Catholique — Caritas France in its efforts to promote agroecology and protect the environment within six communities across five of the island's regions. The funds provided will make it possible to:

• Raise awareness among at least 90% of families in these communities of the impacts of deforestation and the importance of protecting biodiversity
• Restore forest cover by creating community nurseries and by planting 140,000 trees
• Provide rural populations with training in agroecology and agroforestry techniques
• Reduce the vulnerability of at least 50 hectares of natural and agricultural spaces to erosion
• Purchase seeds and animals to ensure the food security of families in six communities
• Organise six exchange visits between groups and develop four mutual solidarity systems within affected communities

Less than 9% of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region is populated with trees, which, compared to an average tree coverage of 31% across France, makes it home to the least-wooded departments in Metropolitan France. More generally, the Hauts-de-France forest represents only 3% of the forest cover in France — an area that is far too small to ensure the restoration of biodiversity and a good living environment for the inhabitants of the region.

This has led Les Planteurs Volontaires to organise community volunteering events to plant trees in the region, in collaboration with local stakeholders. 

The Maisons du Monde Foundation will support the organisation to create ten groups in France. The funds will be put towards:

• The cost of new trees and planting kits, with the aim of planting 30,000 trees over two winters all over France (in addition to the 30,000 trees that the organisation is planting in Hauts-de-France every year);
• Training local groups in theory and practice, so they can gain independence in project management;
• The project's general running costs within the organisation.

About the Envol Vert project

The Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest and it alone is home to almost half of the Earth's biodiversity. The Amazon also plays a fundamental role in regulating the climate and new diseases known as zoonoses, for example COVID-19. And yet deforestation continues at breakneck speed.

In Peru (the country with the second-largest area of the Amazon rainforest after Brazil), the main cause of deforestation is the expansion of agricultural plots and the illegal logging of precious wood, supplying the black market. The precarious position of local populations also contributes to the destruction of the forest.

Donations from the ARRONDI en caisse campaign will help Envol Vert fight deforestation in three regions of Peru by:
 

• Protecting the endemic biodiversity of the rainforest in areas of intervention, including the 40,000-ha Yanayacu-Maquia conservation area;
• Establishing diversified and productive agroforestry systems, as well as cost-effective alternatives to deforestation;
• Building the skills of civil society stakeholders through scientific research, training and the networking of Amazon rainforest products.

For more information, you can go to the project page on the Foundation's website or the association's website.

All Maisons du Monde customers can now support the Jane Goodall Institute project in Gombe, Tanzania, by donating round-ups at the checkout. The association will receive 100% of the micro-donations collected.

We have also made a charity-linked product available online and in stores from 4 November: for each "Gombe" flask bought, €2 goes to the Institute. A great way to celebrate 60 years of the project!

Committed to forest conservation since 2016, the Maisons du Monde Foundation has supported the Jane Goodall Institute in its fight to protect chimpanzees and biodiversity since 2018. First in Senegal, then in Tanzania since 2020.

The funds raised for the project in Tanzania from the cash rounding scheme and charity-linked product will enable the Jane Goodall Institute to:

• Continue the world's longest-running research on wild primates
• Implement the TACARE project to win over local populations to conservation and sustainable development

To find out more about the project, visit the Maisons du Monde Foundation website or the Jane Goodall Institute website!

In hedged farmland, on field borders, rural trees and hedgerows serve as formidable wildlife corridors, acting as natural barriers to soil erosion and places of refuge for birds, insects and small mammals. Despite being true allies in the fight against climate change, 70% of hedgerows have disappeared under the pressure of intensive farming in France since 1950. Even now, we are losing 11,500 km of hedgerow every year!

But why a tree fund?

Afac-Agroforesteries created the Fonds pour l'Arbre tree fund to reverse this trend by helping to plant rural trees and hedgerows. The fund will do this by collecting donations from benefactors like the Maisons du Monde Foundation, and then redistributing these funds to qualified field operators throughout France to plant hundreds of thousands of trees every year. Farmers, local authorities, nursery owners, researchers and others are all joining forces to get rural trees planted — they really are an ally for the future of our land and biodiversity! 

Now celebrating its 5th anniversary, the Foundation is leveraging 10 years of corporate philanthropy, consolidating Maisons du Monde’s commitment to protecting forests. Launched in 2015 under the aegis of the Nicolas Hulot Foundation for Nature and Humankind, the Maisons du Monde Foundation has already funded 35 projects in 14 countries on all continents, bringing together over 7 million contributing customers thanks to the in-store CHARITY ROUNDUP.

As Chair of the Foundation for the past four years, Gilles Petit has contributed to consolidating its structure for maximum impact, especially spurring the setup of tools to dialogue with partners.

These first four years also paved the way to deploying two large-scale projects:
- The in-store CHARITY ROUNDUP in all Maisons du Monde stores across France, whereby customers are invited to donate to the NGOs,
- And the launch of the Aux Arbres movement. This initiative by CSR Director and ED of the Maisons du Monde Foundation Fabienne Morgaut brings stakeholders together to preserve forests and raise awareness in the general public.

As CEO of Maisons du Monde since July 2018, and a Foundation Director since 4 March 2020, Julie Walbaum took over as Chair on 2 June 2020, succeeding Gilles Petit. She will make a point of honour of nurturing the Foundation’s ambition and projects initiated since 2015 to protect forests and forest biodiversity. Forest preservation will be a special focus in the coming years as the Foundation addresses issues such as agroforestry and city trees, getting stakeholders involved.

The Foundation Committee is also welcoming Julien Vigouroux, Group Supply Chain Director, who has been applying the social and environmental responsibility projects to Maisons du Monde logistics for several years. Alongside the other Foundation members, he will contribute to strategic decisions and help select new projects in line with the Foundation’s mission statement that can make a difference at grassroots level.

Boasting 2,954 hectares of remarkable forests and 450 hectares of mangroves, Nosy Boraha has been listed as a top-priority site for protection by the state of Madagascar. Tourism and intensive human activity especially has undermined forests, the coastline and marine ecosystems.

To restore these ecosystems, GRET set up a project with local residents in 2016, to help with reforestation and to protect forests and mangroves, supported by the Maisons du Monde Foundation. A core feature underpinning this project is the creation of viable jobs that do not exploit the environment. And going yet further, steps have also been taken to create a Natural, Protected Area to safeguard the 260 remarkable species listed on the island!

Funds raised via the ARRONDI en caisse operation will help to:

• Improve knowledge of wildlife biodiversity in Nosy Boraha forests, in order to protect and restore them
• Obtain Natural Protected Area status
• Reinforce capacity for the Protected Area’s future governance body (made up of local residents)
• Improve the local economy by developing agro-ecology, tree nurseries for reforestation etc.

If you’d like to find out more, go to the project page on the Maisons du Monde Foundation website or the NGO’s website!

Home to a large percentage of the world’s biodiversity, the tropical forest of the island of Borneo is under threat from human activities along its coastline (animal breeding, oil business, etc.). These activities are particularly damaging to the mangrove, a forest that grows in the water.

To restore the mangrove and protect its environment, Planète Urgence’s project is to replant trees with the help of local populations. The association also wants to offer populations alternative economic activities, such as sustainable shrimp farming.

The funds collected via the Round up operation will help to:

• Plant 135,000 trees in order to restore the natural area of the mangrove
• Train 45 farmers in planting techniques
• Train 30 fishermen in sustainable shrimp farming
• Raise awareness among 800 schoolchildren and 3,000 villagers of the challenges of climate change

To find out more, visit the project page on the Maisons du Monde Foundation website or the association’s website!

This year, Maisons du Monde received the 1st prize for its commitment to a global CSR initiative. This prize rewards our team’s work on our responsible range, our environmental performance, the CSR network’s actions in headquarters and in store, as well as all other functions, in transforming the company!

Two other R-Awards also reward our commitment to sustainable development:

• The « Social action» prize, for our partnership with Emmaüs France, to which we donate customer returns which cannot be repaired or put back in stock and which Emmaüs can repair. Our sofas, for example, are donated to Emmaüs Défi and resold at a lesser price to people who gain access for the first time to long-term lodgings.
• The « Climate initiative » prize for our ambitions with respect to climate change, validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. By 2030, we have committed to reduce by 50% the greenhouse gases emitted by our stores and warehouses, and by 15% the emissions related to our products, their transportation and our customer transportation.

As the last chimpanzee habitat in Senegal, the Dindéfélo commune forests are threatened by deforestation, caused by human activities (such as agriculture) and global warming, which cause droughts and floods.

When their natural habitat is threatened, chimpanzees migrate to villages in search of food, which creates conflicts with humans and in turn threatens the survival of their species even more.

To counter this phenomenon, the Jane Goodall Institute leads reforestation of chimpanzee natural habitat initiatives and works on economic alternatives to poaching for local populations. The association carries out most of this work with women, who bear the load of agricultural work in the community.

The funds collected through Round Up operation are used towards:

• reforestation initiatives for chimpanzee habitat
• Work with local populations on economic alternatives to poaching.

For more information, click on the Maisons du Monde Foundation project page or on the association website!