Understand how coffee cultivation is helping to restore African national park

Africa is widely considered the birthplace of coffee and today Ethiopian and Kenyan beans are known as some of the best in the world. But there is an emerging actor on the continent that is trying to make a name for itself: Mozambique.

This year, the country joined the International Coffee Organization, committing to produce coffee in an ethical and environmentally friendly way.

Mozambique’s efforts to become a coffee power are due, in part, to the Gorongosa Coffee Project. Founded in 2013, it began with the aim of reforesting the national park where it is located — an area of ​​4,000 square kilometers in the center of the country.

AND the home of about 200 thousand people, as well as iconic African elephants and lions. now the coffee it also provides an extra source of income for the communities that live there.

Juliasse Sabao, supervisor of the Gorongosa Coffee Project, says that before coffee arrived in the national park, many people were subsistence farmers who grew enough maize, beans and peas to feed their families, with little surplus to sell..

But through the project, park residents were encouraged to grow coffee and taught how to cultivate and harvest it in their fields. They also received seedlings of indigenous trees to plant next to the crop, providing shade and windbreak for coffee, in addition to helping to reforest the park.

Now, the cafe generates enough income for workers “to pay school fees, buy new uniforms and basic necessities for their families”, says Sabão. “Their lifestyle is changing very quickly.”

The project started with just ten families, but in the ten years it has been running it has grown to about a thousand families working as farmers, roasters, harvesters and tasters.

Sabao says communities were initially hesitant to get involved: coffee was a new crop in the country and not much was known about it. He noticed a big change after the first successful crop was sold and the farmers made a profit; the news spread and many more people joined the initiative.

Reforestation, coffee and communities

Sofia Molina, head of the project, notes that, over time, coffee production “slowly increased, not only in terms of volume but also in terms of quality”.

Although the Gorongosa Coffee Project is a for-profit venture, Molina is certain of one thing: “For-profit production is not sustainable for the future.” She believes that other motivations, such as reforestation and community participation, are vital.

Sabao shares this belief. “There was a native plant cultivation program here in 2018, but it didn’t work out because the community didn’t understand the importance. ‘For what benefit?’ was the issue,” he says.

“So, we sat down and brought coffee as a catalyst for reforestation. They are happy now because they know that if they grow coffee they will make money and at the same time the forest will come back.”

Reforestation is very necessary. The park faced severe degradation due to natural disasters, human conflicts and developmentaffecting the wildlife that lives there.

Some creatures, like the pygmy chameleon from Serra da Gorongosaendemic to the region, are threatened by habitat destruction, and growth and protection of the natural environment will help protect the park’s biodiversity.

growing education

“Coffee is a noble culture”, says Molina, adding that he has seen the annual income of some communities triple since he joined the project. “Done hand in hand with conservation, we have become the biggest coffee producer in Mozambique”, and that, she says, is “a source of pride for the country itself”.

Part of the profits from coffee sales go towards building new schools and training teachers in the park. Many of these schools have a particular focus on creating a safe space for local girls, encouraging them to finish school and helping to prevent child marriages.

Extracurricular programs are also offered which, in addition to teaching the girls to respect the ecosystem in which they live, give them time to play with—something previously lacking as girls went straight home after school to do chores.

Vasco Galante, director of communications for the national park, believes that the restoration of Gorongosa National Park is one of the greatest wildlife restoration success stories in Africa.

He says coffee production helped achieve this, adding that sales of the product have allowed buyers to become “part of the self-sustaining system that helps restore and protect the park, creates jobs and provides health care, training and education to its inhabitants”.

cross-border impact

Gorongosa coffee is mainly exported to Africa, with South Africa being its biggest market. The company has plans to expand into neighboring Zimbabwe, as well as Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya.

The Coffee Project is also facilitating the exchange of ideas, inviting farmers from other countries to learn about the park’s model, as well as sending their own employees abroad.

Wana Chipoya, a Zambian agronomist who works with coffee, recently visited the national park and was very impressed. “I took many of these techniques with me,” he says.

Molina’s message to the end consumer is to think about where your coffee comes from before drinking it: “If the price is low, why is the price so low? Think of the families out in the countryside who are really doing the hard work — they depend on income from that coffee.”