Giant Trees for Climate Change Mitigation in India

Dear Supporter,

In the last quarter, we came across an interesting and innovative progressive farmer from village Devghar near Devrukh in Sangameshwar block, Ratnagiri district- geographic focus of majority of our activities in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra. He informed us that besides growing Black pepper, Cinnamon, and Arecanut, he has also started growing coffee. This was a pleasant surprise for us. Thus we immediately visited his orchard and indeed saw many healthy and fruiting coffee plants. According to him, he had planted some 1000 coffee plants two years ago and they were all producing coffee beans. An important factor influencing the production of the coffee was that his orchard was home to more than 40 Giant native trees. These Giant trees not only provided much needed shade for the coffee but also facilitated the pollination process by attracting bees and other pollinators to the orchard. I had heard about a 500 Million USD climate fund launched by a big corporate coffee company to deal with impact of climate change on coffee plantations owned and managed by the company few years ago. The main goal of the climate fund was to identify and collaborate with cofffee farmers who have shade trees on their farms. When we connect these dots, the picture becomes very clear and we understand how important the Giant trees are for making an economically important crop such as coffee climate resilient. 

We acknowledged his efforts in conservation of giant trees and felicitated him with the certificate of appreciation. He was glad to know that he will be receiving a token amount towards appreciation of his efforts. 

While our investment in saving giant trees through your support is miniscule compared to Starbuck's climate fund but it is timely and will go long way in spreading the message about the importance of giant trees in building resilience of our agriculture sector and further the cause of giant tree conservation.

We would like to thank you for your continued interest and support to the Giant tree conservation campaign.

Best regards

Jayant