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From Destructive To Sustainable Organic Farming

Our AYMARA PROJECT Coffee is named after the language that the coffee-producing families in the Yungas region speak. This ancestral language is accompanied by many customs and traditions that are still reflected in the daily life of the villagers today but in 2009 the picture was very different.

Far from working with nature, external consultants came to Bolivia and pushed the Yungas coffee farmers to increase their yields by cutting down trees and using chemicals to boost production on the plots. As global warming was already taking hold, the lack of trees made the work much more difficult, with the sun having detrimental effects on the land, the plants and the farmers.

Led by Felix Chambi Garcia in coordination with our green bean wholesaler Belco, they created the AYMARA Project to illustrate to the Yungas coffee growers the damage this kind of farming has on the environment and how implementing a reforestation project would stop the multitude of destructive environmental impacts they were experiencing.

By reforesting the plantations, the coffee trees would no longer be stressed by the excessive heat and lack of water, the farmers would no longer be exposed to the direct heat of the sun and having sustainable plantations would guarantee a better future for their children. They would truly reverse the damage caused by deforestation, bad practices, and soil erosion.

To defend a less destructive model of agriculture, Belco have written a specifications book for all of their Bolivian coffees and farmers with the aim of incentivising more sustainable practices and reforestation within the organic certification.

Meet Felix & Our Growers

Felix is a young Bolivian entrepreneur. With a background in mechanics, his love for coffee brought him back to this world. Son of a coffee producer, he has been leading the AYMARA PROJECT in Yungas for the past 4 years.

In search of each Terroir’s potential, he seeks excellent coffees but above all, he explores Human potentials. Working closely to farmers, he works in favor of a richer biodiversity in coffee farms implementing, more shade. Producers that have chosen to go beyond what is expected by the organic standards.

People like Felix are the beating heart of environmental coffee farming and gives everyone hope that slow grown, shade grown coffee will dominate Bolivia’s coffee sector