Meet The Alto Mayo Landscape Peru REDD+ Project, 2021 Sustainability Award Winner for Best Project

The Alto Mayo Landscape Peru REDD+ Project was started in 2007 to protect and restore the Alto Mayo Protected Forest by working directly with the local community and the Peruvian government. Instead of turning a blind eye to settlers encroaching on the protected area, the project sought to engage them in a holistic solution designed to reduce deforestation, conserve biodiversity, and improve local livelihoods. This project serves as an example of how conservation and sustainable income streams can work in tandem.

Since 2004, the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) has been proud to recognize outstanding work in the field of sustainability with its annual Sustainability Awards. The awards acknowledge the efforts of extraordinary individuals, businesses and organizations that have created projects or business models that expand and promote sustainability within the coffee world.

The 2021 winner of the Sustainability Award in the Project Category is the Alto Mayo Landscape Peru REDD+ Project.

The Alto Mayo Protected Forest in northern Peru once saw some of the country’s highest deforestation rates. Rising coffee prices and a new highway resulted in a wave of settlements in the protected area. As the population and agricultural activities increased, so did the rate of deforestation. Coffee farmers cleared native trees to plant coffee and other crops, with devastating effects on Alto Mayo’s habitats. By threatening the regional ecosystem, the settlers began to destroy the same critical resources on which their livelihoods depended.

Enter: The Alto Mayo Landscape Peru REDD+ Project.

©Alex Bryce

The project creates incentives for the local community to conserve the forest and reduces their reliance on unsustainable farming practices.

Conservation International and the Alto Mayo Protected Forest Park Service designed a voluntary conservation agreement model whereby coffee growers in the area commit to not cutting trees in exchange for support to improve their agricultural production and incomes.

With partners such as the Association of Andean Ecosystems (ECOAN) and Asociación Civil Contigo Agrandando el Círculo (ACAC-ProAsocio), Conservation International and the Park Service provided the community with dedicated training, technical support, and access to speciality-grade coffee markets. This enabled the community to develop effective and sustainable farming practices, improve coffee quality and productivity, and significantly increase the income of the families living within and around the protected area. Implementing shade-grown coffee was a key element of the project, as well as integrating a sustainable management system wherein coffee plants coexist with fruit trees, timber trees, and other species without the need for chemical fertilizers.

The Walt Disney Company provided funding to help launch the project, which helps the company to achieve its targets to support nature and a healthy climate. The project is partially financed through the United Nations-backed REDD+ framework (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), which generates revenue from the sale of carbon credits. Businesses can buy and trade credits to neutralize a portion of their carbon emissions. Carbon credits have also allowed the project to leverage additional funds from multiple sources, such as BHP Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Today, the program extends beyond the original project area and includes migrant farmers and indigenous communities. The farmers are considered “conservation partners” and have significantly improved their livelihoods and opportunities for their families. They have even opened their own coffee cooperative.

More than 450 coffee farmers within the Alto Mayo landscape currently pool their production and market their coffee through the cooperative.

Using the project to strengthen not only their agricultural capacities but also their organizational and financial skills, the Alto Mayo farmers began to take a more entrepreneurial approach. The cooperative they started, Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples Bosque del Alto Mayo (COOPBAM), positions the Alto Mayo farmers as both owners and coffee suppliers. The coffee they produce now receives a market premium, enabling the farmers to sell to specialty markets. The project is helping co-op members build their coffee quality evaluation skills. It is also developing a special coffee-cuppers training to identify talent among COOPBAM members; selected members will be trained to achieve Q-Grader certification.

The multi-layered results of the Alto Mayo Landscape Peru REDD+ Project have shown that an inclusive approach to conservation works.

In 2012, the project was successfully validated under two of Verra’s sustainability standards: its Verified Carbon program and its Climate, Community, and Biodiversity program through an independent audit. Ever since, the project has avoided 8.4 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions — the equivalent of taking more than 150,000 cars off the road each year. In addition, the traded carbon credits have so far generated US $45 million dollars, which has allowed the project to leverage an additional US $20 million from grants and foundations to bring aspects of conservation and restoration to the broader landscape.

By working alongside the farmers in Alto Mayo, not only has the project improved the livelihoods of a whole community, it is also working towards its ultimate goal of protecting the forest: as of 2020, deforestation in the Alto Mayo Protected Forest declined by 59 percent.

“Today, more than 450 coffee growers from this protected area believe in an integrated sustainable management system,” says Hugo Cahuapaza, Eco Business Coordinator at Conservation International. “The success of this project has allowed us to branch out and work with more producers—almost 1,200 in total—who have become partners in the conservation of this vibrant landscape of the Peruvian Amazon. Winning this award shows that sustainable management of coffee-growing areas is possible, no matter how dire the deforestation rates appear. We hope the lessons and successful elements of this project—increased coffee volumes, higher quality coffee, diversified farmer income, and more resilient coffee lands overall—provide an example for the coffee industry, as we all collectively strive to fight climate change.”

Inspired?

Keep up to date with Conservation International, and all the amazing work they do, on their website. You can also learn more about the project, and Conservation International, on YouTube.

About The Sustainability Awards

The selection process for the 2021 Sustainability Awards was led by a committee of staff and volunteers, and the winners were chosen by individual votes from the committee’s members. Special thanks to our 2021 Sustainability Awards Sponsor, Farmer Brothers. Learn more about the Sustainability Awards, including this year’s Individual Category and Business Model Category award winners, as well as previous winners here.