Grow Ahead Partners with Coop Coffees and Bean North for a Women-led Reforestation Project in Peru

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Bean North Coffee Roasting Co. Ltd. Partners with Coop Coffees to Raise Funds in Support of Women-Run Agroforestry Initiative in Peruvian Amazon 

Grow Ahead Crowdfunding Platform Supports Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Pangoa Reforestation Effort

 

PORTLAND, OR — Bean North Coffee Roasting Co. Ltd., an organic and fair trade coffee roaster from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, along with green coffee importing cooperative, Coop Coffees, have announced commitments to support a regenerative agroforestry tree planting campaign in the Peruvian Amazon launched by Grow Ahead, a crowdfunding platform that supports small-scale farmers and climate resiliency projects around the world. Through the campaign, Grow Ahead is raising funds together with one of Coop Coffee’s producer partners, Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Pangoa (CAC Pangoa), to support a women-run reforestation project aiming to promote organic and fair trade coffee production in the region, provide economic opportunities for the women in the community, and protect the land from the effects of climate change. CAC Pangoa will be matching the funds that Grow Ahead raises to financially contribute to the project.

 

“The commitments by Bean North Coffee Roasting and Coop Coffees to this campaign, in addition to Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Pangoa’s matching contribution and ongoing reforestation efforts, provides an example of how to responsibly collaborate on sustainable, diversified economic opportunities in Amazonian communities,” says Julia Gentner, Program Manager of Grow Ahead. “At a time when awareness of the need to protect the Amazon is of critical importance, we encourage our global network to act together with the people of Pangoa as they empower themselves with the tools necessary to strengthen resilience on their lands,” Gentner continues.

 

Grow Ahead aims to raise $25,000 to support the project goals, which include:

• Working with Pangoa’s women farmers to reforest 90 plots of land, totaling 45 hectares
• Planting a total of 22,500 trees
• Expanding dynamic agroforestry in the Peruvian Amazon to sequester atmospheric carbon into the soil through the local ecosystem.

 

Bean North Coffee Roasting Co. Ltd. is a roaster member of Coop Coffees and is a buyer of CAC Pangoa’s coffee crop. Among the efforts to raise awareness of the campaign, the roaster is launching a new coffee blend called, “Hot Coffee for a Cool Planet” and donating $1 from each purchase of the blend to the campaign covering the cost of one tree being planted per bag.

 

“As a proud owner-member of Coop Coffees, we believe that the farmers who grow our coffee deserve a high quality of life and a healthy environment to live and work in,” says Michael King, Manager and Co-owner of Bean North Coffee Roasting Co. Ltd. “To that end, we have focused on building long term working relationships with producer groups and paying a fair price. This improves standards of living for producers and results in higher quality coffee for the end consumer,” explains King.

 

Based in the foothills of the Peruvian Amazon where the Andes mountains meet the rainforest, 691 farmers and their families of CAC Pangoa grow coffee and cacao in balance with their environment, working to combat climate change, while protecting their lands from industrial development. Through a history of farmer-driven reforestation programs and education, the cooperative continues to restore water and nutrients to the soil, increase production of coffee and food and pull carbon out of the atmosphere.

 

“Since starting to reforest, we have seen massive improvements,” says Esperanza Dionisio, President of Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Pangoa and founder of the Pangoa Women’s Committee. “The soil has more water and planting trees creates microclimates that are better for production, since it balances the excess heat. And as a result, our farmers don’t have to deal with as many ups and downs as the climate changes,” continues Dionisio.

 

This Grow Ahead campaign builds upon existing efforts within the cooperative's own reforestation program that was launched in 2000 and includes the work of the Pangoa Women's Committee, which has been influential in getting more women involved in CAC Pangoa to create new and diversified economic opportunities. The Pangoa Women’s Committee has a long history of supporting the women producers in the cooperative and will be working with 90 women farmers to achieve the restoration, reforestation, and production goals of the project.

 

Coop Coffees began working with CAC Pangoa in 2005, importing its coffee that has unique characteristics of medium body and rich cocoa, almond and berry notes and medium acidity. CAC Pangoa has also received funding from Coop Coffees’ Carbon Climate and Coffee Initiative to support their Centres of Excellence program, which highlights best field practices and supports farmer efforts to create fully integrated and diversified family farms. In 2016, cooperative members also took part in the Regenerative Soil Workshop, Diplomado Organica, in Marcala, Honduras, to learn soil conservation methods from other farmers throughout the region.

 

“We are proud of our long-standing partnership with Esperanza and the cooperative members,” says Monika Firl, Coop Coffees Director of Sustainability. “We are thrilled to be supporting the continued example of best practices in soil management and to re-establish ecological balance through this reforestation initiative on their land-holdings. CAC Pangoa is clearly involved in the lives of its members beyond the purchasing and selling of their coffee and provides an exemplary model of the power of small-farmer cooperatives,” Firl continues.

 

This campaign is part of Grow Ahead’s larger mission to plant 1 million trees by 2020 in partnership with small-scale farmers. To learn more about CAC Pangoa Cooperative’s reforestation campaign in the Peruvian Amazon, please visit: https://growahead.org/give-trees-peru/

 

To learn more, watch Grow Ahead’s 2020 tree planting campaign video, please visit: https://growahead.org/plant-trees/

 

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ABOUT GROW AHEAD

Grow Ahead is a crowdfunding platform that supports small-scale family farmers address climate change in their communities. By contributing through Grow Ahead, individuals and organizations can support climate resiliency initiatives that have a proven track record of success in farming communities.

To learn more about Grow Ahead, please visit: http://www.growahead.com

ABOUT COOP COFFEES

Coop Coffees is a green coffee importing cooperative committed to supporting and partnering with small-scale coffee farmers and their exporting cooperatives. By importing directly from our partner-farmers, we do business in a way that creates a fairer, more transparent and sustainable system of coffee trade that directly benefits farmers, and their families and communities.

To learn more about Coop Coffees, please visit: https://coopcoffees.coop/

ABOUT BEAN NORTH COFFEE ROASTING CO. LTD.

Since 1997 Bean North Coffee Roasting Company Ltd has been roasting certified organic fair trade coffee in the northern boreal forest of the beautiful Takhini Valley, northwest of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. We continue to be inspired by the people who grow and care for the coffee we buy, by our coop that facilitates its transport north, by those who roast and brew a magic blend and by customers who love our coffee and support what we do.

To learn more about Bean North Coffee Roasting Co. Ltd., please visit: https://beannorth.com/