Mapa and FAO project for cocoa conservation in southern Bahia is approved by the Global Environment Facility

The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa), through the Executive Committee of the Cocoa Farming Plan (Ceplac), in partnership with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had the project “Conservation of the Atlantic Forest through the sustainable management of cocoa agroforestry landscapes” approved by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The value of financing in the donation modality is US$5,3 million.

The project was launched during the Symposium on Agroforestry Systems with Cocoa – SSAF-Cacau, in Ilhéus (BA), this Thursday (01/12).

“The cocoa region of Bahia has not recovered to this day from the introduction of witches’ broom. This pioneering project has the capacity to accelerate the transformation and modernization of cocoa farming in the cabruca system, ensuring its preservation and environmental conservation while providing technical management assistance and the construction of a new development model for the region using available technologies, such as materials resistant to pests, management and fermentation techniques”, highlights the director of Ceplac, Waldeck Araújo.

The territorial intelligence component will equip public managers and technicians with contextualized information and analysis for management processes, thus making it possible to solidify the culture and practice for reconnecting forest fragments in the Atlantic Forest, a biome preserved in this region thanks to cocoa farming.

According to the director, part of the resources will be allocated to support initiatives to pay for environmental services. “All these actions are ways in which society, in its most varied representations, can work together with the State in different spheres for sustainable regional development”, he adds.

The project is estimated to benefit 3.000 family farmers in southern Bahia who produce cocoa under the cabruca system, which is an agroforestry cultivation method where native trees shade the cocoa trees. According to data from recent studies, 74% of the 93.000 producers who cultivate cocoa on almost 600 thousand hectares in Brazil belong to the family farming category.

FAO representative in Brazil, Rafael Zavala, emphasized that aligning biodiversity conservation with productive landscapes is one of the most effective approaches to maintaining ecosystem services and social development of rural populations. 

“FAO and GEF, together with Ceplac and partners, will strengthen a historical practice in southern Bahia, cocoa production in the cabruca system associated with the conservation of the Atlantic Forest. For FAO, this project is extremely important, not only for its social aspect, but for enabling the expansion and recovery of degraded areas, increasing ecological connectivity supported by financial mechanisms and through income generation, which will allow the results of the project are sustainable over the years”, said Zavala.

The cabruca system has a high potential to be considered as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS), which is promoted globally by FAO. GIAHS recognizes a living and evolving system of human communities in a directly connected relationship with their broader territorial, cultural, agricultural and social landscape. This is yet another incentive to work on this GEF proposal.

As the GEF is a fund focused on the environment, the project should focus on valuing the role of cacao farmers and the cabruca production system for the forest preservation of the Atlantic Forest, so that the strengthening of such a model will serve to reduce pressures for change of land use and avoid the exchange of cocoa cultivation for other crops.

Through a collective governance model (environmental and agricultural agencies, technical assistance, research institutions and farmer representatives), the project aims to: strengthen the conservation of the Atlantic Forest; bring technological packages for multiple-use forest management based on the renewal and enrichment of cabruca with native species, consolidated with financing systems and integrated with technical assistance; replace elderly cocoa trees with advanced, disease-resistant clones; ensure post-harvest with a focus on quality, traceability and certification mechanisms.

The project will be structured around four axes:

• Governance of multiple environmental use and conservation efforts between public authorities and producers: public and private institutions that participate in a governance system, capable of managing territories rich in forests, with a comprehensive approach, sensitive to multiple use and conservation to guarantee the service providing and supporting ecosystems;

• Implementation and adoption of appropriate packages of management tools and technologies: Conservation, restoration and strengthening of environmental services through better management of natural resources based on the use of biodiversity monitoring, production management tools and technologies;

• Sustainable management: once the cabrucas have been strengthened, cocoa producers continue to implement good production and post-harvest practices, which will contribute to increasing crop productivity, improving cocoa quality and conserving biodiversity.

• Development and strengthening of processes and mechanisms for a green market based on improving the quality and diversification of cocoa by-products: strategy for farmers' access to the differentiated market in terms of quality and sustainable production, generating income growth and contributing to economic viability and environmental aspects of the Cacau Cabruca Agroforestry System.