Proyecto Palo helps farmers on degraded soils in Nicaragua to initiate and maintain an agroforestry unit on their land, thus providing for additional long term income, and help to diversify.

A vicious circle of forced long-term cattle grazing, compacting soils and declining livestock farming yields has become predominant. Cattle farmers do not have the knowledge and contacts to make a switch to sustainable land use, and certainly do not have the financial resources to support this change.

Transition financing of carbon sequestration can be a turning point to this vicious circle of exploitation: farmers can restore the disappeared forests as a revenue model, creating financial space for the farmer to differentiate, restore the soil and further invest in sustainable land use, making their positions as land owners future-proof.

About Finca Julia

Julia Gomez Gutierres is the owner of the family farm Finca Julia in Nicaragua. After becoming a widow and being ill with Covid19 in 2021, Julia was forced to abandon her cattle farm. With the land being left alone, natural regeneration of the land started to take place. In 2023, her small family started to clean the farm to go back to cattle breeding, removing the regenerated vegetation. Proyecto Palo offered Julia an alternative. Firstly, enrichment planting on 3.7 hectares of land, with the extremely fast-growing Cordia alliodora, Vochysia guatamalensis and Vochysia ferruginea. Secondly, on the densely re-vegetated area the planting of organic cacao, creating a cacao agroforestry system. Through planting cacao the economical value of the small forest is increased and its canopy is used as shade for the cacao plants. The cacao will start production within 4 years, and close to Julia’s house there are cooperations where cacao farmers aggregate value to the product. Proyecto Palo is aiming for the cacao agroforest and the reforestation to form a lasting forest isle in the area infested by the African palm industry.

About Proyecto Palo

Proyecto Palo is a collaboration between the entity of Desarrolladora Agrofesteria S.A., local cattle farmers and the Dutch entity Lamain Holding B.V. They are dedicated to capture atmospheric carbon in agroforestry systems.

Website

https://proyectopalo.com/

See Documentation:

https://oncra.org/pypl003/

Finca Julia

Total

For sale

Holding