Indigenous U'wa Women’s Community Coffee Production in Colombia

This project takes place in the Guanuwa Reserve located in the Andean cloud forest of Colombia. The Community Coffee Production Project gives the U’wa Nation, a vulnerable indigenous people, the economic sustainability to support their long term strategies for territorial defense, human rights defense, food security and sovereignty, and cultural survival; while respecting and honoring their spirituality, culture and worldview. The U’wa women are at the frontline of these long term strategies. This project is born from their vision and strengthens their leadership role within the community.

The U’wa Nation is located in a conflict zone in Colombia, where economic interests, large extractive corporations, and armed groups converge. The U’wa are a peaceful people who have suffered various forms of violence and have lost lives in the process. After nearly 30 years of litigation, in December 2024, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a ruling recognizing that the Colombian State systematically violated the territorial and cultural rights of the U’wa Nation by imposing extractive projects on their territory without their consent. At the forefront of this legal process and the struggle to defend their territory have been U’wa women, who, overcoming cultural resistance, assumed leadership roles. While the community has many needs, for example in health and education, the women identify strengthening their nascent Community Coffee Production Project as a strategic priority to support the long term goals of theirs and neighboring indigenous communities.

The U’wa women dream of launching their own coffee brand reflecting their history and culture. A crucial first step is scaling up production to generate surpluses for reinvestment. Their post harvest process is entirely manual, which leads to production loss, lower quality, reduced prices, and much time and energy invested in labor intensive tasks. It goes against their principles to waste produce that comes from Mother Earth, and it does not make sense to grow more coffee if there is no capacity to processes it. This project enables them to mechanize key post harvest processes, which in turn allows them to increase the coffee output and price. The resulting sustainable income supports their indigenous school for children, their young leadership development program for territorial defense, their ancestral ways of growing food free from chemicals, their protection of ancestral seeds, and their harmonization work with non-indigenous neighbours.

Acquiring 3 drying Elba Houses and a multifunction machine that washes, pulps, and de-stems the coffee beans and performs an initial drying. The U’wa women grow the coffee together with other vegetables and herbs, following ancestral and chemical free techniques. Growing and harvesting food and coffee are fundamental community moments where the women transmit knowledge, culture, spirituality and worldview to the children and the community at large. The coffee nursery also hosts the Indigenous School for children and serves as a community focal point. The Coffee Production Project is accompanied by Leadership Workshops for young adults, to reinforce their ties to their culture and territory, and to prevent their exodus in search of better economic opportunities. A related action is printing several copies of the ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, so that the entire community knows and understands their rights and history.

University Pompeu Fabra from Barcelona, Spain.

This project increases the community annual coffee production from 5,000 kg to an estimate of 25,000kg. In addition, harvest loss is reduced from approximately 20% to at leats 5%. A significant amount of human time and energy are saved and allocated into other valuable community tasks. The Guanuwa Reserve is a community of 60 U’wa families. This project directly improves their livelihood, their means for territorial and human rights defense, and safeguards their cultural legacy. As the project grows, a neighbour U’wa community of 220 families will be included. Currently, 16 children participate in the Indigenous School, and 60 young adults participate in the Leadership Workshops. The U’wa commitment to protect their sacred lands is key to protect the health and biodiversity of their rich ecosystems and prevent further damage from extractivist activities and industries.

Our approach to conservation is community based, landscape based and decolonial. We develop long term and reciprocal relationships with local communities, and support them in implementing nature based solutions that are specific to their ecosystems and cultural background, and which contribute to the wellbeing and livelihoods of the community as well. We work in particular with women-led initiatives, as women tend to have a long term and collaborative approach, and to engage and benefit the community as a whole; all of which is key to successfully tackle the current environmental and climate crises. Furthermore, women tend to be more vulnerable to these crises, to have less rights, in many cases to suffer gender-based violence, and to receive less international support and funding.