The collaboration between the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Government of Ecuador, and Lavazza has been selected as a finalist for the World Economic Forum’s GAEA Awards in the Moving Business for Climate Impact category, recognizing its efforts to address forest loss from coffee-related agricultural expansion.
The partnership has introduced the world’s first nationally certified, deforestation-free coffee, supporting over 400 smallholder farmers in Ecuador’s Amazon region. It enables farmers to protect forests while accessing global markets through a fully traceable supply chain. The initiative combines sustainable land and forest management practices, national certification standards, and digital tools such as QR codes to ensure transparency. In 2024, Lavazza launched a special edition under its ¡Tierra! brand, allowing consumers to trace their coffee back to the farm, and over 85 tons of deforestation-free coffee have since reached international markets through Ecuador’s coffee cooperative FAPECAFES.
Financing from the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility helped UNDP coordinate public policy, farmer action, and private sector engagement, while supporting digital traceability and commercial agreements needed to scale the model. The initiative operates under PROAmazonía, Ecuador’s Amazonian Integral Forest Conservation and Sustainable Production Programme, which has restored 15,023 hectares of Amazonian land and is led by the Ministry of Environment and Water and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock with UNDP support.
Aligned with Ecuador’s national REDD+ strategy and climate commitments, the deforestation-free coffee model is now being adapted for cacao and livestock supply chains and is being prepared for expansion to Costa Rica, Colombia, Ethiopia, Honduras, and Viet Nam.
Being named a GAEA Awards finalist highlights the consortium’s demonstration that climate and nature solutions can be scaled globally through partnerships that integrate public policy, private sector incentives, and grassroots leadership.
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