ACT Alliance

In the ‘Banana Republic’ of Honduras, the rivers of the Merendon mountain flow down from 2000 metres to quench the thirst of the major industrial cities by the Caribbean sea. But the water is drying up and causing a crisis.

The modern farming methods used by subsistence farmers on the mountain have had such a negative impact on the environment, particularly with deforestation and erosion, that the vital supply of water to the cities is dwindling. And what does get to the cities is polluted with agro-chemicals.

One organisation is working to resolve these problems by coordinating soil conservation with low-income farmers and local authorities. It has made such an impact that it has just been awarded the Government’s National Environmental Prize, for the third time. And it has done it taking advantage of our love of chocolate.

CASM uses a participatory approach for food security and watershed management and deliberately involves local authorities to have environmental concerns built into their plans and policies, it is a coherent and long-term approach. But in this case the most outstanding part of their work relates to chocolate. They are planting community-managed gourmet cocoa plantations, running them organically and selling the cocoa to make Swiss chocolate. So, how does that help the environment?

Maria Sosa, who lives on the mountain and works on the project says that “the cocoa trees protect the soil by preventing erosion and by making a micro-climate that attracts the rain”. This protects the supply of water for the communities on the mountain and the flow of water to the cities. “Doing this without chemicals means that we aren’t putting chemicals into the soil. into the food we eat, or the water we drink”.

The cocoa provides an important cash income for poor communities. While it is difficult to make money any more with either with bananas or normal cocoa, the organic gourmet cocoa fetches a good price and is in high demand. Maria says that “even before the first big harvests from the project we had signed a contract with a Swiss chocolate company to buy the production from the project”. Chocolats Halba will buy some 9 tons of organic cocoa beans from the project this year.

The projects currently have 14 community nurseries where gourmet cocoa is grafted onto resistant stock. Some 120,000 cocoa trees have been planted already.

The project is being run by CASM, a member of ACT Development. Nelson Garcia Lobo, Director of CASM, would like to talk to organisations that are interested in CASM’s work.