Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 12 July 2018

Coffee and conservation: Mozambique tries both on a mountain

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA tries, international institu-
Associated Press tions and other entities. The
MOUNT GORONGOSA, Mo- annual budget is expected
zambique (AP) — At Mo- to expand to between $1
zambique's Mount Goron- million and $2 million.
gosa — where farmers The rainforest of Mount
are being encouraged to Gorongosa, whose highest
grow coffee in the shade peak is 1,863 meters (6,112
of hardwood trees, both to feet), is home to pygmy
improve their own lot and chameleons and other rare
to restore the forest — there species.
is a point beyond which vis- The mountain, a source of
itors are told not to go. traditional creation stories, is
The problem: Base camps under severe pressure from
of Mozambique's main op- the rampant, corruption-
position force sit on the fueled deforestation across
cloud-shrouded mountain, Mozambique that supplies
a redoubt that was the a foreign market, primarily
scene of military incursions China. Scientists estimate
and civilian flight in the last that it has lost about 40
few years. percent of its original for-
There were times when est since 1970, though they
managers of the coffee- are designing a reforesta-
and-conservation project In this photo provided by Jen Guyton, a worker, with a bag of fertiliser on his back, passes cof- tion program that respects
couldn't go anywhere near fee plants with green cherries, at Mount Gorongosa, in Mozambique. open grasslands found nat-
the mountain because of Associated Press urally in the area and that
the conflict, or had to walk The threat of drought and the poor people around Randinho Faduco, a cof- contain plant species such
up because the opposition climate change also loom the park's edges must be- fee farmer who is benefiting as the protea shrub, with its
had blocked the road with over a project driven by come stakeholders in their from a truce between the distinctive large flower.
logs to prevent the military the idea that human de- natural heritage rather Renamo (the Portuguese Mozambique isn't a coffee
bringing up equipment. velopment and ecologi- than remain spectators to acronym for Mozambican producer on a par with Afri-
With a lull in tension, they cal restoration must work in the occasional tourist influx, National Resistance) oppo- can industry giants such as
are pushing ahead with concert if there is any hope as was the case under the sition group and the ruling Ethiopia and Uganda, and
plans to plant more coffee for both to succeed. Portuguese colonial rulers Frelimo (Mozambique Lib- production goals at Goron-
and trees on a mountain "We've had huge troubles who left in 1975. eration Front) party. gosa are relatively modest.
that captures rainfall and working here," said Quentin Scientists settled on coffee A post-colonial civil war About 40 hectares (100
supplies the rivers sustaining Haarhoff, a veteran farmer as an alternative tool in a between the two adver- acres) of arabica coffee
people and wildlife living of coffee around Africa broader restoration plan for saries killed up to one mil- plants are in the ground;
around its base. who doesn't let hard reali- the mountain because the lion people and ended in farmers plan to plant an-
It is among the more com- ties sap his optimism. 90 hardwood trees plant- 1992, though disputes over other 100 hectares (250
plex conservation efforts Haarhoff acts for a non- ed for every hectare (2.5 power flared into violence acres) this year and a to-
in southern Africa, a bid to profit group founded by acres) of coffee provide as recently as 2016. tal of about 1,000 hectares
convince farmers to aban- American philanthropist shade that the crop needs Designed to help hundreds (2,470 acres) over the next
don old-slash-and-burn Greg Carr that is collabo- to thrive. of families on and around decade, all in areas that
methods of farming and rating with Mozambique's A sustainable mosaic of Mount Gorongosa, the cof- are being farmed or were
commit to the longer-term government to rehabilitate cultivation and natural for- fee project is supported by farmed in the past.
yield of coffee on the same Gorongosa National Park, est is envisioned, and farm- Carr's foundation, the Nor- The first harvest comes four
plots, while maintaining a rich ecosystem whose ers are encouraged to cul- wegian government and years after planting, and
government support for a animals are recovering af- tivate bananas, pineapples the Global Environment Fa- each hectare yields 2 to 3
project in an area that har- ter war and poaching. To and other crops amid cof- cility, a group of 183 coun- tons of coffee beans.q
bors an opposition militia. do that, the thinking goes, fee plantations, providing
fertilizer for the coffee from
falling foliage.
"The bulk of the nutrition
of the coffee plant comes
from a very, very shallow
layer of soil which we never
want to disturb," said Haar-
hoff, a white farmer from
Zimbabwe who lost his cof-
fee plantation during often
violent land seizures there
nearly two decades ago.
"What we're doing essen-
tially here by growing these
other crops is restoring the
natural hydrology of the
soil here. It's turning into a In this photo provided by Jen Guyton a worker, passes young
In this photo provided by Jen Guyton, workers fertilise coffee sponge," he said. coffee plants in a plant nursery, on Mount Gorongosa, in Mo-
plants, on Mount Gorongosa, in Mozambique. "Now things are easier and zambique.
Associated Press calmer. Associated Press
We can cultivate," said