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Eterno-Verde II continues a successful partnership created by Verde Ventures in 2000. This initiative builds on an existing relationship between Verde Ventures and small coffee producer cooperatives that work under CI’s Conservation Coffee™ program.
Verde Ventures made available a three-year, $500,0000 line of credit for coffee cooperatives to provide short-term working capital to their members during the harvest cycle. For the 2003-2004 crop, two organizations, Comon Yaj Nop Tic and Indigenas y Campesinos Ecologicos de Angel Albino Corzo, obtained combined financing of $234,500. Verde Ventures plans to increase the number of participating groups in years two and three.
The project enables farmers to support CI’s Conservation Coffee™ objectives and to further the conservation goals to preserve the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve. As part of the conservation coffee practices, these cooperatives agree not to log, to implement sustainable agriculture techniques, to divert coffee pulp from local waterways, and to respect the rules and regulations of the reserve. These efforts will maintain 4,331 hectares of buffer zone, and the price benefits and debt reduction of the program will impact more than 1,100 people.