Promoting biodiversity while creating additional income

We expect a significant increase in cocoa yields in the Dominican Republic over the next few years. To ensure that this growth doesn’t come at the expense of species diversity, an innovative community project is promoting biodiversity in cocoa-growing areas of the Dominican Republic and generating valuable additional income for smallholder families at the same time.

Our subsidiary company YACAO has been active in the Dominican Republic since 1999 and works in close cooperation with the producer association FUNDOPO. A wide range of measures to increase cocoa quality and yield have been implemented in the country over the past few years.

Increasing cocoa production – but not at all costs

Factors such as a high demand for organic cocoa, process automation and the ability to buy seedlings at cost price from FUNDOPO’s own tree nurseries are paving the way for much-welcome revenue increases. But these economic gains should not come at the cost of the Dominican Republic’s cocoa-growing agroforestry areas, all of which are very extensively farmed at present. After all, a cocoa monoculture would damage biodiversity, cause pests and diseases to multiply and lead to farmers becoming completely dependent on a single cash crop. The set of measures outlined below aims to promote the exemplary biodiversity of cocoa farming in the Dominican Republic and go beyond the requirements of organic and fair trade labels. 

Diversify tree populations

Until recently, the smallholder organisation FUNDOPO provided its members exclusively with cocoa seedlings and trained them in how to look after cocoa trees. The association now offers seedlings for other species of tree – all of which have valuable additional benefits – and the training required to cultivate and maintain them.

• Shade trees: Shade trees ensure that cocoa trees grow healthily in the agroforestry system, increase local biodiversity and prevent pests and diseases from spreading as easily. What’s more, nitrogen-fixing trees species and fruit trees help improve soil fertility and enable smallholder families to generate valuable additional income by selling their own fruit.
  
  
• Tropical timber: One way in which smallholders can really invest in their future is by growing tropical timber. These species also act as shade trees, and can be harvested and sold after ten to twenty years. In addition to identifying and propagating suitable tree species, FUNDOPO also trains farmers to manage the administrative processes that they will have to comply with in order to fell and sell tropical timber under the Dominican Republic’s strict forestry legislation. As valuable tropical timber is rarely used to make charcoal but is prized as a high-quality parquet flooring material, this subproject can contribute to trapping carbon dioxide.
  
  
• “Súperarboles”: These so-called “super trees” make it possible to restore agroforestry systems from a large gene pool of native plant species. FUNDOPO currently produces its own seedlings from ten tried-and-tested high-yielding cocoa varieties drawn from around the world. This subproject aims to significantly increase forest diversity using the local tree gene pool. Smallholders’ most prized trees, many of which have special characteristics such as high yield potential or resistance to disease/extreme weather conditions, are propagated, monitored and, after reselection, used to produce seedlings.
  
  

Local actors will require specialist knowledge and expertise to implement these measures for fostering diversity. In spring 2024, many of FUNDOPO’s technical consultants will receive training from the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), one of the world’s leading research institutes in its field, and pass on the latest knowledge in organic cocoa agroforestry directly to smallholders.

Plant vegetable gardens to diversify revenue streams

As most cocoa plantations are located away from urban areas, many smallholders dream of setting up their own allotments closer to home. Having a vegetable garden gives families a welcome source of additional income, literally brings new, healthy options to the table and usually requires very little in terms of resources. This subproject gives smallholders access to training courses on how to grow their own vegetables and provides them with seeds, fencing and other types of support.

Diversity and resilience for the whole region

This innovative biodiversity project aims to give the region a real “diversity boost” that benefits the local environment, community and economy, encourages further growth and improves resilience.

For the next two years, PRONATEC will receive financial support for the project from the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (SWISSCO) as part of the Platform’s project support for innovative value chains.