Segment: Coffee Plantation – Gorongosa National Park
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane & Nigel Ruck
Date: 2nd December 2018

One of Mt Gorongosa’s more incredible stories would have to be the coffee plantation that has been planted under the hardwood trees on the side of the mountain.

• Growing Arabica coffee is a new industry for the local farmers, but the location of the plantation is what makes it truly remarkable – it sits below the cloud level home of the opposition rebels base camp.
• This area has recently been the scene of significant conflict between the rebels and the government forces, but that hasn’t stopped the farmers from establishing 40 hectares of coffee plants, and after 4 years the harvest is about 100 tonnes of premium Arabica coffee beans.
• The project was designed to help hundreds of families on and around Mt Gorongosa. It replaces poor practices in existing and potentially new farmland and is the brainchild of the Carr Foundation and the Norwegian Government. The Global Environment Facility, a group made up of 183 countries and international institutions is also involved in the project.
• A challenge that the mountain was facing was deforestation with the hardwood trees being removed, thus destabilising the whole mountain. Underplanting the coffee plants under the hardwood has stabilised the soil while providing the local families with incomes.
• The process of harvesting the crops involves collecting the beans by hand, dehusking the fruit to reveal the beans and then drying them. The beans are then packed into hessian bags and are sold to be roasted later. This scheme is set to grow in the next decade, adding another 1250 acres resulting in around 4000 tonnes of coffee beans.
• The project wouldn’t be possible without the support of the American philanthropist Greg Carr, who has dedicated his life to the ecological restoration of the mountain. He has found a way to work with the opposition forces and government, showing the locals a way to sustain their families as well as the environment.