Above the small town of El Aguila, a coffee-producing community that straddles a mountainous ridge with sweeping views of valleys and forest-cloaked slopes, a handful of farmers are freeing up portions of their land used for coffee cultivation, hunting and logging. The goal: helping to restore the natural habitat of the spectacled bear.
In return, they are receiving support and financial help that allows them to maximise productivity and grow higher-grade coffee on smaller plots of land.
The coffee growers are part of We Conserve Life, a collaboration between local farmers, the nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the government agency National Natural Parks of Colombia (PNN) and a small collection of other public and private entities.
“We’ve learned about the bears and how to conserve their habitat. But as coffee producers, it’s also been a huge benefit,” says Liliana Grisales, as she tends to the carefully planted rows of coffee plants in front of her house.
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