
This Yoro Biological Corridor Meeting Report marks a historical point in the Corridor’s development, as it finalized the legal framework to implement the progressive model
Integrated Open Canopy™ farms are restoring forest habitat by encouraging farmers to allow forest to regenerate on their lands (also known as “restorative coffee“). These buffer zones are left to grow wild (also known a “rewilding”) and, as natural forest areas are restored, and more farms adopt IOC™, these forest fragments become a defining characteristic of the landscape.
IOC™ coffee farms are mapped out in a way that links up the reforested areas of each coffee farm in order to create large forest corridors. These corridors support increased biodiversity as well as keystone species, in particular migratory birds …
Integrated Open Canopy™ farms have proven to provide forest habitat for migratory birds. Research has shown that IOC™ coffee farms support forest-dependent specialists not support by shade coffee farming, making IOC™ the next best thing to primary forest (or “natural forest”).
Another important advancement of Integrated Open Canopy™ farms is the carbon offset component. As of 2020, researchers are measuring the amount of carbon sequestration on IOC™ coffee farms and carbon avoided emissions with carbon-neutral processing and selling that carbon in over-the-counter sales of carbon offsets. This means that coffee growers are collecting additional revenue from the reforested area of their farms, providing them with a security crop and a long-term incentive to leave 50% of their farm’s forest intact.
Source: Information collected and summarized by Merchants of Green Coffee Inc. from our own corporate documents, in addition to those of our partners; Mesoamerican Development Institute (MDI) and the US Forest Service.