Our Biosphere Reserve Series showcases coffee from some of the most wondrous and wild corners of the globe.
A small group from our coffee team recently journeyed to Peru's Bahuaja-Sonene National Park and the neighboring farms that make up CECOVASA co-op, the source for the third coffee in our Biosphere Reserve Series, the appropriately named Organic Expedition.
VIDEOS FROM THE BIOSPHERE
MEET THE CO-OP BEHIND ORGANIC EXPEDITION: CECOVASA Co-op, Peru
We've never seen a client here before... I feel so happy now that I know where our coffee is going.
-Reyna Isabel Mamaniluque, Inambari Cooperative
CECOVASA (The Organization of Agrarian Coffee Cooperatives of the Sandia Valleys), was founded in 1970, when a group of Peruvian coffee farmers in the Lake Titicaca region came together to avoid selling their beans to exploitative middlemen, and instead process and export their beans collectively. CECOVASA now includes eight coffee co-operative communities that are comprised of mostly Quechuan and Aymara indigenous peoples near the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park and the Tambopata-Candamo Nature Reserve. These communities are very remote, 10 to 15 hours by truck from Juliaca, the nearest city.
