Building climate resilience from seedlings

Across the Amazonia, Chiquitania and Yungas regions of Bolivia, rural and Indigenous producer organisations are demonstrating that strengthening livelihoods and conserving forests can be mutually reinforcing.

Indigenous Peoples are custodians of their native seeds: by saving seeds, farmers are restoring degraded forests and preserving genetic diversity to help reduce disease and increase resilience.

A key strategy used by producer organisations is to observe the natural forest and imitate it. Based on this understanding, they are establishing and expanding agroforestry systems that combine native timber and non-timber species, including fruit trees and crops such as cacao, coffee and açaí.

Forest and Farm Facility activities

In Caranavi in the La Paz department of western Bolivia, the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) is supporting four coffee producer organisations:

CELCCAR (Central Local de Cooperativas Agropecuarias Caranavi – Local Centre of Agricultural Cooperatives Caranavi)
CIAPEC (Cooperativa Integral Agrícola de Productores Ecológicos – Comprehensive Agricultural Cooperative of Organic Producers)
ASOCAFÉ (Coffee Growers Association of Taipiplaya – Asociación de Caficultores de Taipiplaya), and
Aprocafe Bolivia (Association of Organic Coffee Producers – Asociacion de Productores de Cafe Ecologico).

The organisations are working to rescue traditional coffee varieties preserved through generations, selecting those best adapted to changing local conditions. With FFF support, these organisations have reproduced more than 136,000 coffee seedlings in community nurseries, strengthening crop resilience.

FFF has also supported cocoa producers to conserve native cacao species such as Criollo cacao, a rare, wild-harvested cacao highly coveted by premium chocolatiers.

In 2019, FFF assisted the Association of the Isiboro Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS) with propagation and preservation practices. And since 2017, the Leco Indigenous People of Guanay have been conserving Wild Beniano, the primary national Bolivian cacao variety. These two Indigenous organisations are producing nearly 145,000 native cacao seedlings, drawing on species conserved over generations.

In areas repeatedly affected by forest fires in the Bolivian Amazon, such as Bajo Paragua and Pando, the producer organisations AAICAM (Asociación Agro Integral de La Comunidad Campesina Los Mandarinos – Agro Integral Association of the Los Mandarinos Peasant Community) and APB Porvenir (Asociación de Productores del Bosque Porvenir – Association of Porvenir Forest Producers) have received support from FFF since 2022 to increase their resilience. These associations are restoring degraded forests through the propagation of around 40,000 açaí palm seedlings, a long-term investment that supports both ecosystem recovery and future income.

Significance of impact

Altogether, ten organisations have produced over 320,000 cacao, coffee and açaí seedlings with FFF’s support. FFF has provided technical assistance for species selection and nursery management, alongside financial support to establish and operate nurseries.

Alongside this, the associations recognise the importance of certifying these forest-based production systems. With FFF support, more than 2,400 hectares under agroforestry, restoration or certified production have been strengthened.

Cocoa and coffee organisations hold organic, fair trade and bird-friendly certifications, and APB Porvenir has obtained the country’s first Forest Stewardship Council certification for non-timber forest product harvesting, covering 94,000 hectares certified as organic and wild.

Conclusion

With FFF support, organisations of cocoa, coffee and açaí producers have established community nurseries that are vital to improving incomes, restoring degraded forests and conserving native genetic diversity and biocultural knowledge.

Building climate resilience from seedlings

Forest and Farm Facility activities

Significance of impact

Conclusion

Further reading