Central de Cooperativas Agrarias Cafetaleras de los Valles de Sandia

The Project: Central de Cooperativas Agrarias Cafetaleras de los Valles de Sandia (CECOVASA) is a federation of cooperatives with 5,000 members (30 percent of whom are women) of Quechuan and Aymaran small coffee producers. The federation has participated in CI’s Conservation Coffee™ Program since 1998. CECOVASA provides logistical support, on-farm technical assistance, and access to credit and training to its members, as well as coordinating warehousing, milling, marketing, and exporting of certified-organic, fair trade and gourmet coffee to the U.S. and European markets.

The Deal: In June 2004, Verde Ventures made available a three-year, $350,000 rotating line of credit for CECOVASA to provide post-harvest financing to conservation coffee cooperatives in the buffer zone of Bahuaha-Sonene National Park and the Tambopata-Candamo Natural Reserve in southern Peru.

The Benefit to Conservation: CI-Peru partnered with CECOVASA to find solutions to the rapid deforestation and declining coffee yields facing this area of the Tropical Andes biodiversity hotspot. CI and CECOVASA are encouraging farmers to move to higher-elevation, abandoned fields by providing support to produce and market coffee grown according to conservation best practices. These production methods will keep farmers away from the park and protect the local watershed while providing participants with direct economic incentives for compliance due to resulting improvements in quality, organic certification, and subsequent contracts with Starbucks Coffee Company.