PIPC launched: program to mitigate environmental impacts

Global coffee brands, environmental organizations, and civil society endorse the innovative investment program led by the Cerrado das Águas Consortium.

Photography: Marcelo Andre

PIPIC: program to mitigate environmental impacts

Source: IUCN

Patrocínio, Minas Gerais, August 8, 2019 – An innovative program aimed at preserving biodiversity and water supply in the Cerrado Mineiro region, responsible for 12% of the national coffee production, will begin this month.

The initiative is promoted by the Cerrado das Águas Consortium, a platform that brings together different actors (producers, coffee brands, local and global environmental NGOs), whose efforts resulted in the founding of an independent organization to promote environmental development through restoration, smart agriculture, and efficient water resource management.

With the support of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Nespresso, Nestlé, Lavazza, Cooperativa Expocaccer, and Imaflora – Institute for Forest and Agricultural Management and Certification – have joined forces to make a five-year commitment to the creation and technical support of the Conscious Producer Investment Program. The program will bring together work streams aimed at improving the supply and delivery of ecosystem services (such as water health, soil health, carbon stock, among others) in order to achieve the climate resilience of a landscape or territory.

The pilot project will be implemented in the Córrego Feio basin, located in the municipality of Patrocínio, Minas Gerais. The Consortium plans to invest in the protection of natural ecosystems on approximately 124 properties along the basin, which presents severe water scarcity and conflict.

“The new investment program will provide financial incentives and expertise so that all landowners can make their environmental assets increasingly healthy and productive in this important watershed,” said Giulia Carbone, Deputy Director of the IUCN Business and Biodiversity Programme. “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 have committed to investing US$100,000. In addition, the Consortium has already received a grant of US$400,000 from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF). 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 in which we operate. 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 four years.

“The producers in the Cerrado Mineiro region are committed to the sustainability of the territory in which they are located. And the Cerrado das Águas Consortium is a project that meets 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 area of ​​Patrocínio, where the entire municipality and coffee growers depend on this single basin, 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 the restoration of native vegetation. Peggy Poncelet, Director of CEPF, says that

“The goal is to achieve 100% chemical-free restoration of native vegetation at a cost 85% lower than the current cost in the Cerrado, which is a globally critical area for biodiversity loss. Partnerships with local agroecological laboratories, EMBRAPA, and EMATER will help test new technologies to reduce the incidence of weeds and pests.”

About the Cerrado Waters Consortium

Created in 2015, the Cerrado Waters Consortium, a legally independent organization, is a platform that brings together companies, civil society organizations, and government representatives with the goal of promoting environmental development through landscape restoration and maintenance of ecosystem services in the Brazilian Cerrado to reduce environmental impacts. Members of the Cerrado Waters Consortium include: CerVivo, Conservação Internacional, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), Cooxupé, Expocaccer, Federação dos Cafeicultores do Cerrado , UICN, Lavazza, Nespresso e Nestlé.