In the first corporate effort of its kind, Conservation International and Starbucks Coffee Company are taking conservation beyond the coffee farm to protect rich surrounding landscapes and promote forest protection as a solution to climate change.
The two partners recently announced a new phase in their decade-long partnership that will build off and continue to strengthen existing pillars of their collaboration, including Verde Ventures and the company’s set of environmentally, socially and economically responsible coffee buying guidelines.
To date, Verde Ventures has used Starbucks’ financing to provide pre- and post-harvest loans and capital improvement financing to 18 partners located near key biodiversity areas in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru and Indonesia. The investments directly benefit nearly 48,500 acres (19,600 hectares) of rich land and more than 7,600 people.
In this new phase of the partnership, Starbucks and CI will support communities to not only use best agricultural practices on their farms but also to protect the land, water and forests that surround and nurture the most important coffee-growing regions in the world – the majority of which occur in the biodiversity hotspots.
Protecting forests is at the heart of this relationship and is an essential first response to climate change. Few people realize that more than 20 percent* of all carbon dioxide emissions come from the burning and clearing of forests – more than from all of the world’s cars, trucks, trains and planes combined.
The partners will invest in and support local coffee growers and their communities who help keep forests intact, both on and off the farm in Mexico, Indonesia and other key coffee-growing regions, providing tangible benefits to local and global communities.
*CI regularly reassesses our assumptions and conclusions to ensure they are consistent with the most current and reliable data sources available so that we are delivering accurate and up-to-date information. Accordingly, in December 2009, we updated our estimates related to global greenhouse gas emissions to reflect the best and most current science. We now estimate that 16% of greenhouse gas emissions result from deforestation and logging.
See our deforestation, logging and GHG emissions factsheet (PDF - 2.7KB) for details and data sources.