Green World Campaign

An Agroforestry Partnership for Cocoa Production

Green World Campaign (GWC) is collaborating with nonprofit international agriculture specialists ACDI/VOCA on an exciting new project in the Philippines.  ACDI/VOCA  has managed agroforestry projects in the Philippines since 2002. They offer  an invaluable resource to Green World Campaign’s mission to reforest our planet, raise the living standards of the rural poor, and combat global climate change.  Existing and upcoming cocoa and agroforestry projects will be managed and geo-tagged by ACDI/VOCA, with the GWC contributing to capacity-building, verification,  funding, carbon offset evaluation, public participation, and other activities.

The specific regions that reforestation efforts will be concentrated is western Mindanao, Davao and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).  These regions offer favorable growing conditions for the plants, and are in need of reforestation as the high poverty rates in this region create considerable pressure on the forests.

This collaboration will focus on implementing the 2006-2009 SUCCESS program (Sustainable CoCoa Enterprises for Smallholders) and the upcoming CoCoPal (Coconut, Cocoa and Palayamanan [integrated rice systems]) project (2009-2012) in the Philippines. The Philippines SUCCESS Alliance is distributing 1.2 million seedlings of improved cacao varieties to farmers, for planting as part of biodiverse cropping systems featuring cocoa, coconuts, fruit trees as well as other agroforestry tree species. CoCoPal will also add a food security component by adding  tree-cropping and marketing products, both forest and crop-related) to farming systems now based on rice, maize and tubers. Under CoCoPal, several million plant seeds and seedlings will be distributed to farmers. The emphasis will be to distribute plant materials that are compatible to the food and income based farming systems concept, called Palayamanan.

Activities include technical assistance, establishing nurseries, gardens, demo farms and Farmer Field Schools, performing the monitoring and evaluation, supplying administrative support, and coordinating with the local government and non-governmental organizations to carry out the reforestation activities.

The Goal: Plant 1.2 million seedlings of improved cacao. Add new agroforestry crops and sustainable forest products. Implment rigorous geospatial monitoring.

"Palayaman" is a system of farming for rice, cocoa, and coconut, and will integrate the planting of three important species: Moringa oleifera (Malunggay) , Swietenia sp. (Philippine Mahogany) and Cannarium Ovatum,  (Pili nut) into a farming system. These tree crops provide a variety of services including food, shade, herbal medicine, soil nutrients, and animal feed.  When planted and established, they also provide an extensive range of environmental services including watershed protection, soil protection, carbon fixation, and promotion of biodiversity.and will fit very well into the following thre- tiered farming system:

Tier 1: Tall trees (>15 m), such as coconut, pili nut, and mahogany;
Tier 2: Intermediate height trees (5-15 m) such as moringa, fruit trees;
Tier 3: Lower trees and crops (ground level to 5m):bananas, rice, cocoa, tubers, maize, vegetables.

This system, sustainable by virtue of its nutritional, financial and ecological benefits, would be supported and promoted through methods employed successfully by ACDI/VOCA in Southeast Asia, South America and West Africa. These methods include participatory training and extension methods in the integration of a value chain approach, sustainable farming, sloping land agricultural technology, partnerships with private and public groups, and institutionalization of the activities, learning and support at local government levels.

The Green World Campaign is presently in dialogue to supply cocoa for co-branding of fair trade and organic chocolate consumer items.