Indigenous and women-led coffee cooperatives in Latin America have teamed up with Food 4 Farmers and the crowdfunding platform, Grow Ahead, to launch three new farmer-led climate resilience projects in Latin America. These new initiatives include crowdfunding campaigns to plant over 93,000 food and habitat trees and melliferous plants in Colombia, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.
The variety of trees and plants will provide food, fuel and pollinator habitat, making healthy food accessible to these communities, while increasing biodiversity to improve resilience to climate change. In many of the communities where Food 4 Farmers works, climate change is having a dramatic impact on coffee farmers’ ability to consistently put healthy food on the table every day.
Due to the massive threat posed by climate change, mitigation has become a top priority for small-scale farmers. Until now, most mitigation efforts have not led to short-term increases in income or welfare. Farmers now see agroforestry as a way to mitigate the impacts of climate change, while building food security.
“These projects will help farming families take the lead in addressing challenges posed by climate change and global food supply chains. This campaign will deliver more financial security, better health, and more resilient food systems and ecosystems,” says Janice Nadworny, Co-Director of Food 4 Farmers.
“Transforming monoculture coffee farms into biodiverse food forests, and the habitat they create, will have a powerful, visible impact throughout the communities and regions where we work.”
Julia Gentner, Program Manager at Grow Ahead, adds: “By adopting agroforestry practices, smallholder farmers will be able to simultaneously sequester carbon from the atmosphere, bettering their economic opportunities, and enhancing other essential ecosystem services.”
Grow Ahead’s crowdfunding platform allows people from around the world to learn more and support these three new food security reforestation campaigns.
The organization also recently launched an app for Spotify allowing your customers to donate $1 per purchase to plant a tree and cover the carbon footprint of shipping their package. Download the app here & start contributing now.
The campaigns include:
SOPPEXCCA – Women-led Reforestation in Nicaragua
The SOPPEXCCA coffee cooperative will plant 34,950 trees and plants on 103 women-run coffee farms and home gardens. SOPPEXCCA has developed the first women’s organic farmers market in Jinotega to bring fruits, vegetables, and other products to a city of 130,000 people with little access to chemical-free food.
“When women have access to the means of production of food, they have access to local markets and can move toward economic independence,” says Fatima Ismael, Director of SOPPEXCCA. “With women making up 40% of SOPPEXCCA‘s membership, the cooperative plays an important role in the empowerment of women in local communities, by centering women farmer leadership.”
To support this program, visit Women-led Reforestation in Nicaragua.
COMPECAFE – Indigenous-led Reforestation in Colombia
COMPECAFE is a coffee cooperative of 1,400 indigenous small-scale coffee farmers in the northern mountains of Cauca. This project will plant 16,875 trees, add a new tree nursery, and include hardwoods, bananas, plantains, bamboo and fruit trees – for food production, shading coffee plants and water conservation for 150 families.
To support this program, visit Indigenous-led Reforestation in Colombia.
Maya Ixil – Reforestation and Beekeeping in Guatemala
Maya Ixil, a cooperative of 200 Indigenous small-scale coffee farmers, will plant 42,000 trees and cover crops on 200 farms. The trees and cover crops will also support the Maya Ixil beekeeping program, by increasing pollination and the productivity of local food production.
To support this program visit Reforestation & Beekeeping in Guatemala.
These three campaigns support Grow Ahead’s larger mission to plant 1 million trees in partnership with small-scale farmers. To learn more about all of their projects, please visit www.growahead.org.
