Unusual good, grows
in the middle of nature
Regenerative agroforestry
Cocao grows around the equator. These areas are facing large-scale deforestation and a loss of biodiversity. We are helping to reforest the areas where our cocao grows using a multi-layered agroforestry system. Cocao trees are combined with shade trees and other valuable tree species such as citrus and mango trees.
OUR APPROACH
Behind a lot of chocolate sits a system of low prices, little prospect for farmers and large-scale damage to nature and biodiversity. That is a system we were not willing to accept.
In Colombia, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, we work with local partners to restore exhausted land. Unproductive coffee plantations are converted into cacao agroforestry.
By converting these unproductive coffee plantations to cocao agroforestry, we are restoring around 375 hectares of land in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. We are doing this in collaboration with the Aso Anei cooperative and RVO.
A healthy chocolate industry
The Farmers gain better prospects, as they are cultivating their plot of land with a higher yield of high-quality cocao and other crops. In addition, carbon is collected from the atmosphere at a rate of 5 to 8 tonnes of CO₂ per hectare per year, restoring tropical biodiversity throughout the area.
By managing everything ourselves, we help breaking the ‘choco-code’ of power and exploitation. And we ensure that chocolate contributes to future-proof cocoa farming.
The RESULT
It's more than just chocolate.
Because we organise things differently, there is room for living incomes, for the recovery of tropical forests and for chocolate with character. Unusually good, seriously delicious.
