Cacao and Conservation

Ya'axche Conservation Trust is a community-orientated NGO that couples conservation with sustainable development to advance integrated landscape management in southern Belize. Since its inception in 1998, the organisation has focussed on:

- protected areas management,
- biodiversity research and monitoring,
- sustainable land-use management, and
- strategic advocacy and awareness.

The focal geographic area of Ya'axche's activities, the Maya Golden Landscape (MGL), extends from the Maya Mountains to the Port Honduras Marine Reserve in the Caribbean Sea, and forms part of the largest remaining contiguous areas of broadleaf forest in Central America. The MGL includes Ya'axche's Golden Stream Corridor Preserve and the Bladen Nature Reserve, which is co-managed by Ya'axche and the Belize Forest Department. In addition to managing the protected areas, Ya'axche puts an equivalent focus on the livelihoods of the surrounding communities. The Livelihoods Programme incorporates integrated farming, organic produce, apiary, and agroforestry into the communities' set of standard practices, in order to provide economical and sustainable alternatives.

The production of organic cacao in an agroforestry environment is one of the most culturally, economically and environmentally appropriate income generating options in Toledo. Cacao is best grown under the forest canopy, negating the need to clear-cut farmland, and can be inter-cropped with a diversity of other native and high value species (such as vanilla). Growing cacao therefore helps to reduce unsustainable natural-resource use, land erosion and encroachment whilst also improving general household nutrition and incomes.

Ya'axche is assisting over 80 farmers to convert to and maintain permanent organic cultivation of cacao. The agroforestry extension officers help farmers to transplant new cacao seedlings from Ya'axche's tree nursery, to undertake seasonal pruning of the cacao trees, to monitor pest, disease and weed control, and to ensure organic methods are upheld. In addition, they support the farmers to meet the Fairtrade criteria as required by Green & Blacks to whom the Toledo Cacao Growers' Association sell the vast majority of their product.

For more information on Ya'axche's work, visit their website at www.yaaxche.org