![]() ![]() ![]() The hike starts in pine forests more than 2,000 meters above sea level and weaves its way down through five ecosystems, culminating in a final sprint in kayaks which ends in the turquoise waters of the Pacific. ![]() To capitalize on the incredible natural beauty which SICOBI stewards, they also facilitate ecotourism, including an impressive nature walk called the Camino Copalita. They also have several other tree crops integrated with their coffee (citrus, mamey sapote, banana, avocado, cocoa, and integrated honey production) for sustenance and sale. In addition to their coffee plot, families also leave a portion of their assigned land to practice the traditional Mayan milpa (maize, beans and squash and sometimes pineapple & tumeric) production system. However, SICOBI´s families determined long ago that although coffee is an important crop in their territory, it is just one piece in their ecological mosaic (and business plan). Both initiatives have led to slowly improving yields. Concurrently, CRS supported SICOBI to integrate Water Smart Agriculture practices into their renovation work, taking advantage of the crisis to improve the soil and water management of the region. After coffee leaf rust struck in 2013-14, the communities quickly mobilized, after a string of participatory assemblies, to set up the communal nurseries needed for a massive renovation effort. Photo by Oscar Leiva/Silverlight for CRSĪnother advantage of the communal management style of SICOBI´s communities is that it allows the organization to undertake critical initiatives at scale with the whole community behind them. ![]() Many still sell part of their harvest to coyotes, at current C-prices, for a cash advance.Ĭommunal coffee nurseries offer an affordable and accessible source of planting material for renovation efforts following the coffee leaf rust crisis. Further, not all the members are able to sell directly to a buyer with such attractive premiums. However, as I outlined in the previous post ( A Case of Two Coffeelands), their sparsely planted, low cost and organic production systems have low yields (200 kg/ha). Much of the coffee is sold by La Colombe and Sustainable Harvest, and farmers receive a nice premium for their organic, specialty coffee. SICOBI´s farmers produce exceptional, complex coffees within biodiverse ecosystems. Over the past ten years, SICOBI and GAIA have fine-tuned this landscape level framework for rural development, developing livelihood models which have allowed the organization´s 700 families to live sustainably within their territory. Each farmer manages a small plot independently, but landscape-level management (40,000 hectares), policy and business decisions are made in a communal fashion. SICOBI´s six communities have several things in common. In fact, she influenced and mentored some of the leaders of GAIA. The families that make up SICOBI have implemented a communal land and biodiversity management strategy of which Elinor Ostrom would be proud. SICOBI is a confederation of six agricultural communities which banded together, with the support of the local NGO GAIA, to improve their territorial management coffee is one piece of the puzzle. SICOBI´s smallholder farmers are laid out across twelve ecosystems, from the highest reaches of the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca down to the pristine shores of the bahias of Huatulco. The following posts will focus on innovations and solutions at origin. The first posts of this series on profitability (see: 1, 2, 3, 4) in the Mesoamerican Coffeelands has focused on migration, climate pressures, debt and low prices - mostly the challenges coffee farmers are facing and the accompanying struggle to be profitable. Sistema Comunitario para el Resguardo y Manejo de la Biodiversidad (SICOBI), whose model is a blend of territorial management, communal decision-making and income diversification, is one of those innovative solutions. These interesting and diverse “solutions in process” enjoy varying degrees of success. Coffee farmers across origin countries search for and develop innovative business, production and management models as they seek out profitable and sustainable livelihood strategies. ![]()
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