Ejido Verde Reserves

Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

Status Update- May 25th 2026

Following our July 2025 update on Ejido Verde, Kiva continued every reasonable effort to engage with the organization's leadership and recover the outstanding loan obligations — including direct outreach, formal demands, and ultimately third-party collections in Mexico. None of these efforts produced a response or any acknowledgment of the debt from the current board.

We do not believe the underlying communities are unwilling to repay. The breakdown originates at the organizational level, with the current board's decision not to honor prior debts. However, Kiva does not have a mechanism to collect directly from communities without partner cooperation.

After exhausting available recovery options, the loans are now being formally defaulted. The outstanding balance will not be returned to lender accounts.

This is a deeply disappointing outcome for a partnership that once represented a powerful impact thesis. We remain grateful to every lender who supported this work, and we are committed to applying the lessons learned to how we vet and monitor future partnerships.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding.

Status Update- July 25th, 2025

We would like to share an update regarding Ejido Verde, one of our long-standing partners. After more than 10 years of a successful relationship, the organization experienced a leadership change last year following internal governance challenges. Since then, the new management has not acknowledged the outstanding loan obligations with Kiva.

Despite our repeated efforts to re-establish communication, Ejido Verde’s current leadership has not responded to our inquiries.

We have recently learned that internal conflicts among the main investors have led to a shift in the organization's strategic direction, and the current board does not intend to repay previous debts, including those owed to Kiva.

This is a deeply disappointing outcome for a partnership that once had strong impact and alignment. At this stage, we consider the loan at serious risk of default, and we will continue to monitor any potential developments.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding

Status update — September 3, 2015

After 14 months on Kiva and $200K in loans fundraised, Ejido Verde Reserves has graduated out of Kiva’s Experimental Partnership program and been given a risk rating of 0.5 stars. 

Partner description: 

Ejido Verde Reserves (EVR) is a nonprofit organization that is run by leaders of the Mexican pine-chemicals industry in partnership with Indigenous communities. It operates in the states of Michoacan, Jalisco and Mexico. 

The organization is working to establish productive native resin pine plantations on Indigenous lands with the goal of improving Indigenous livelihoods, reforesting idle lands and increasing domestic production of pine resin. 

Pine resin, a millennial industry, is used in the manufacture of adhesives, inks, chewing gum, pine oil, surface coatings, insulating materials and synthetic rubber. 

Learn more about Ejido Verde Reserves in this video»

A unique lending approach:

Recipients of Kiva and EVR loans are currently earning income from tapping their native forests, which have tree densities—on average—of around 50 trees/hectare. 

With support from EVR and Kiva, these communities would be able to cultivate plantations of 800 trees/hectare, drastically increasing the number of trees from which to sustainably extract resin, decreasing travel time between trees in order to tap, and increasing incomes by over 500% over the course of 1-2 decades. 

Kiva loans of 0% interest will be used to establish pine plantations in communities that are already working with EVR, and EVR will not charge any interest either on this capital. Each loan will be for 15 years, with repayments equal to 10% of resin sales due back to Kiva lenders annually at the time of each sale. With Kiva’s support, EVR will be able to improve the livelihoods of many Indigenous communities.