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MOUNT GORONGOSA, Mozambique – On Mount Gorongosa in Mozambique – where farmers are encouraged to grow coffee in the shade of hardwoods, both to improve their own fate and to restore the forest – there is a point beyond which visitors
The problem: the base camps of the main Mozambican opposition force are sitting on the cloud-covered mountain, a redoubt that has been the scene of military incursions and civilian flights in recent years. There were times when leaders of the coffee conservation project could not approach the mountain because of the conflict, or had to walk because the opposition had blocked the road with logs to prevent it. Army to raise the equipment. [19659002] With a lull, they go from the front with the intention of planting more coffee and trees on a mountain that captures the rains and supplies the rivers that sustain the people and the wildlife around its base.
Southern Africa, an attempt to convince farmers to abandon traditional farming methods and engage in long-term coffee on the same plots, while maintaining the support of government for a project in an area that houses a militia of the opposition. . The threat of drought and climate change also hangs over a project motivated by the idea that human development and ecological restoration must work together if there is hope that both succeed
. said Quentin Haarhoff, a veteran coffee farmer around Africa who does not let the harsh realities undermine his optimism.
Haarhoff works for a non-profit group founded by American philanthropist Greg Carr who works with the Mozambican government to rehabilitate the Gorongosa National Park, a rich ecosystem that animals recover from after the war and poaching. To do this, the thinking is that the poor people around the park must become actors in their natural heritage rather than remain spectators of the occasional influx of tourists, as was the case under the Portuguese colonizers who left in 1975.
They chose coffee as an alternative tool in a broader restoration plan for the mountain because the 90 hardwood trees that are planted for each hectare (2.5 acres) of coffee provide shade for Culture. A sustainable mosaic of crops and natural forests is envisaged, and farmers are encouraged to grow bananas, pineapples and other crops in the middle of coffee plantations, thus providing fertilizer for the coffee of the country. falling foliage.
a very, very shallow layer of soil that we never want to disturb, "said Haarhoff, a white Zimbabwean farmer who lost his coffee plantation when seizures of often violent land there nearly two decades ago
"What we do Essentially, by growing these other crops, the natural hydrology of the soil is restored here. It turns into a sponge, "he said.
" Now things are easier and quieter. We can cultivate, "said Randinho Faduco, a coffee producer enjoying a truce between the opposition group Renamo (Portuguese acronym for the Mozambican National Resistance) and the ruling Frelimo party (Liberation Front of the Mozambique). A post-colonial civil war between the two adversaries killed up to one million people and ended in 1992, although power struggles exploded in 2016.
Designed to help hundreds of families on Mount Gorongosa, the coffee The project is supported by the Carr Foundation, the Norwegian Government and the Global Environment Facility, a group of 183 countries, international institutions and other entities. The annual budget is expected to increase by $ 1-2 million
The Mount Gorongosa Rainforest, whose highest peak is 1863 meters (6,112 feet), is home to pygmy chameleons and other rare species.
a source of traditional creation stories, is under severe pressure from rampant deforestation, fueled by corruption across Mozambique that supplies a foreign market, mainly China. Scientists estimate that they have lost about 40% of their original forest since 1970, but they are designing a reforestation program that respects the grbadlands found naturally in the region and that contain plant species such as the protea shrub, with its large flower feature.
Mozambique is not a coffee producer at the same level as the giants of African industry such as Ethiopia and Uganda, and the production targets in Gorongosa are relatively modest. About 40 hectares (100 acres) of Arabica coffee are in the soil; farmers plan to plant another one hundred acres (250 acres) this year and a total of about 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) over the next decade, all in areas that are mined or have been exploited in the past. The first harvest occurs four years after planting, and each hectare gives 2 to 3 tons of coffee beans.
Coffee experts from Brazil, the world's largest producer, went to Gorongosa to present their ideas. Machines from Colombia, another major producer, are set up near the mountain to turn freshly picked red coffee berries into green beans before export. It would be better to bring the equipment to the coffee fields, but a new eruption of political violence could force operators to abandon it in a hurry.
The Gorongosa coffee is already on sale at the Chitengo Wildlife Park store. One possible market is Portugal, where the name Gorongosa appreciates the mystique of the colonial era.
The Portuguese group Sonae welcomes the idea of environmental sustainability and seeks to introduce Gorongosa coffee as a "premium brand," said Paulo Azevedo, group president. He was struck by the natural beauty of Mount Gorongosa while on a trip there
"This really separates us from our modern day civilization," says Azevedo
There is a feeling of "feeling". urgency on rainforest restoration projects. , where deforestation continues.
"This poses a serious threat to the system as a whole and to some species in particular," said Marc Stalmans, scientific director of Gorongosa National Park. "We can not be indifferent."
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Follow Christopher Torchia on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/torchiachris
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The Associated Department of Health and Science of the Press receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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