Safeguarding coffee and cocoa from the climate crisis

Agroforestry, a land management practice that involves planting additional trees alongside cocoa and coffee, offers both shade and carbon capture benefits. That means farmers are learning to lower carbon emissions while boosting productivity through our projects.

For example, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we have helped farmers grow 65,000 shade tree seedlings in local nurseries and trained them to manage and maintain the trees once planted. This is part of an integrated approach to support the coffee-growing communities of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park area to prevent deforestation and poaching in one of the world's largest forests.

While not part of the HEARTH program, the work in Chiapas, Mexico, provides a good example of how a landscape approach can reduce carbon in the supply chain. In this area, where the livelihoods of 100,000 families depend on coffee production, we are showing farmers how soil and leaf analysis of coffee crops can help cut carbon emissions from chemical fertilizers and pest control and boost productivity.

And in West Africa, specifically in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, we are working with 15,000 cocoa farmers to give communities a voice and ownership of managing three priority landscapes for conservation by setting up Land Management Boards. 

We cannot ask farmers to switch to more sustainable practices if it means a hit to their incomes. They need the right inputs and technical know-how to professionalize their farms in a way that works for them and the surrounding landscape.

Building on the success of other HEARTH projects, we are improving access to training and digital tools to enable a fair and transparent sourcing process for 1,000 farmers in Peru – while helping them grow specialty-grade coffee, including organic, which commands a higher price. 

And, launching later this year in Indonesia, we will support 6,500 cocoa and coffee farmers to improve their yields by 25% while conserving 14,000 hectares of the watershed and riparian buffers by the end of 2025.