What is the Jumarp cooperative doing in Peru?

The cooperative Juan Marco El Palto (Jumarp for short) is a member of the Café Selva Norte project (CSN) and is committed to reforestation and the preservation of the local jungle.

The CSN project works to combat deforestation and land degradation in the country. According to Ecotierra, 15% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by deforestation, and the most common cause is the spread of farming practices. So, as soon as farmers are financially forced to artificially increase their arable land through rhododendrons, we allow deforestation to be driven forward.

What is the challenge of the local coffee farmers?

When the leaf rust crisis (Roya) hit the country in 2013, most farmers were advised to cut down their shade trees. This would allow for freer air circulation in the plantation, preventing excess moisture and the spread of the fungus. However, growing coffee under the full sun requires greater input of inputs that producers could not afford. Yields from coffee trees, already struggling with the Roya, continued to decline, threatening farmers’ livelihoods.

To produce more, farmers move from one part of their plot to another, expanding their plot or replacing their perennial crops with annual crops such as corn. Before that, they burn the soil to clean it, resulting in a more acidic soil. Impoverished land forces farmers to use new plots of land, sometimes old-growth forests – clearing them to make way for new farmland. At the expense of the Amazon.