Female empowerment project aims to protect the environment and promote biodiversity in Colombia’s Caldas region
Wakate, an avocado producing company belonging to Colombia’s GreenLand Group, has joined forces with the Caldas Coffee Growers Committee in an initiative to empower rural women, raise environmental awareness and strengthen rural communities.
The ‘Women Coffee Growers Sowing Sustainability’ programme will bring together 18 women from the municipalities of Aranzazu and Neira to maintain more than 18,000 native trees and plant approximately 7,350 plants through the collection and germination of seeds of native species from the conserved forests of the Wakate farm.
The initiative – which GreenLand said aligns with its sustainability strategy – aims to complete the reforestation of 1,299ha, equivalent to more than 50 per cent of the company’s farm area, to conserve ecosystems and biodiversity while promoting gender equality by giving women other ways to make an income.
Víctor Manuel Henríquez, principal manager of the GreenLand Group, commented: “The collaboration between sectors connected by agriculture, such as coffee growers and avocado growers, reflects our ability to generate strategic alliances that promote the care of biodiversity.
“In addition, the social approach is materialised with the creation of jobs and training opportunities for women, strengthening their role in local development and increasing their roots in the region”.
The project is expected to last approximately six months and will seek to involve the communities of the Caldas region during all its phases. “With these actions, Wakate of the GreenLand Group seeks to cultivate a greener and more equitable present, where nature and people unite in harmony and prosper together,” the company said.
GreenLand Group is Colombian agribusiness group that includes leading banana company Banacol, with a strong focus on environmental sustainability and rural development.
