PIPC: climate change insurance for farmers

Protect your business against unpredictable weather with PIPC.

Climate insurance for farmers: protection and security.

Source: Cafeicultura Magazine

By Region of the Cerrado Mineiro

In the pilot area, the Córrego Feio in Patrocínio, the Consortium plans to invest through the Conscious Producer Investment Program in the protection of natural ecosystems found on approximately 124 properties along the basin, as an insurance against climate change for farmers. An innovative program of climate-smart investments will begin this month, aiming to preserve biodiversity and water supply in the Cerrado Mineiro Region, the only Designation of Origin for coffee in Brazil, an important supplier of high-quality coffee, responsible for 12% of the national coffee production.

The initiative comes from the Cerrado das Águas Consortium, a platform of different actors (producers, coffee brands, local and global environmental NGOs) whose efforts resulted in the founding of a legally independent organization with a highly specialized team to promote environmental development through restoration, climate-smart agriculture, and efficient water resource management. Based on initial support from the IUCN – International Union for Conservation of Nature and Nespresso, the leading coffee brands Nestlé and Lavazza, and the Expocaccer cooperative have joined forces to make a five-year commitment to support the Conscious Producer Investment Program, which coordinates these three areas of work to improve the supply and provision of ecosystem services (water health, soil, carbon stock, among others) in order to achieve climate resilience or protection of a landscape or territory.

In the pilot area, the Córrego Feio in Patrocínio, the Consortium plans to invest in the protection of natural ecosystems found on approximately 124 properties along the basin, the only one supplying the largest coffee-producing municipality in Brazil and a serious case of water scarcity and conflict.

“The new investment program will provide financial incentives and expertise for all landowners to make their environmental assets increasingly healthy and productive in this important watershed,” said Giulia Carbone, Director of the IUCN Business and Biodiversity Program. “Landowners will literally and practically be the managers of environmental assets, and their decisions to protect key ecosystem services – such as forests and rivers – will directly contribute to the recovery of the Cerrado landscape.”

This year, companies committed to investing US$100,000 to fund the consortium team. In addition, in 2019, the Consortium received a US$400,000 grant from the Critical Ecosystem Partnerships Fund (CEPF) to implement the program. This was the largest grant ever awarded by CEPF, which has demanding donors such as the French Development Agency (AFD), the European Union, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Government of Japan, and the World Bank.

“The Cerrado das Águas Consortium has demonstrated why companies need to adopt a long-term approach and contribute to the broader landscape where we work. Similarly, the public sector must commit to ensuring that these innovative solutions are scaled up and capable of delivering lasting benefits to the region's population,” according to Mario Cerruti, Global Director of Institutional Relations and Sustainability at Lavazza.

The Cerrado Coffee Growers Federation, an entity that protects, promotes, and controls the Designation of Origin of the Cerrado Mineiro Region, the area of operation of the Cerrado das Águas Consortium, supported the fundraising efforts with CEPF and acted as the Consortium's Executive Secretariat for the past 4 years. “The producers of the Cerrado Mineiro Region are committed to the sustainability of the territory in which they are located; the Cerrado das Águas Consortium is a project that aligns with this commitment and the environmental awareness that has always been present in the Cerrado Mineiro,” explained Juliano Tarabal, Superintendent of the Cerrado Coffee Growers Federation.

“Promoting the recovery and conservation of ecosystem services as insurance against climate change in this important landscape is a key objective of the investment program,” said Guilherme Amado, Nespresso manager in Brazil. “In the pilot site of Patrocínio, where the entire municipality and coffee growers depend on this single watershed, producers will also have a clear view of the degradation of ecosystem services on their properties, and will receive professional advice and funding to make them climate resilient.”

All these efforts are critical to recovering the landscape and its value chains. The program is establishing new paradigms for important conservation fronts such as native vegetation restoration. According to Peggy Poncelet, Director of CEPF - “The goal is to achieve 100% chemical-free native vegetation restoration at a cost 85% lower than the cost currently practiced in the Cerrado Mineiro, which is a globally critical area for biodiversity loss. Partnerships with local agroecological laboratories and EMATER will help test new technologies to reduce the incidence of weeds and pests.”