Coffee for Water

A biodiverse rainforest on a sacred mountain is in peril. Slash-and-burn agriculture has stripped Mozambique’s Mount Gorongosa of almost half its trees in the last fifty years, threatening the watershed that sustains the wildlife of Gorongosa National Park, and the people living around it. But a passionate team of scientists, development experts, and local farmers is working together to save this precious wilderness by trying something new: encouraging people to plant a cash crop—shade-grown coffee—that actually depends on restoring the forest to thrive. To make the program work, the park is providing free saplings, training, and support, planting the seeds for a more sustainable and prosperous future for humans and wildlife alike.