A coffee for Amazonia

The project

In the heart of the Peruvian Amazonian rainforest, we are engaged with our Lavazza Foundation in a reforestation programme for the Madre de Dios region, in collaboration with the Peruvian Environment Ministry, local and native communities, and Cesvi, a non-governmental organisation that has been working on projects in these areas for over 20 years. The project has two main aims: to promote the conservation of the existing forest heritage through direct action by native communities, who in this way become “guardians of the rainforest”, and to replant the most degraded areas. There is a special focus on the Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa), an extremely valuable environmental resource because this species of tree can grow to up to 50 metres in height, live up to 700 years, and store around 64,000 kg of CO2 in its lifetime. 

The project also has an important social agenda, as it promotes the harvesting, processing and marketing of local natural produce (such as Brazil nuts) and the planting of fruit trees, which can give native communities a source of both food and income: this activity has so far enabled the conservation of over 30,000 hectares of virgin rainforest and the safeguarding of four local communities.

Our commitment

Reforestation, a central theme for the life of every species on this planet, requires urgent action by everyone, and especially by people like us, whose core activity is rooted in the land in the form of coffee. Our Foundation, which is currently supporting and funding 32 projects in 20 countries with over 130,000 beneficiaries, has in recent years been stepping up the development of projects that support reforestation, an increasing problem in all coffee producing countries. In partnership with non-governmental organisations and international institutions, the Foundation is now active on this front in Ethiopia and Peru with specific initiatives, and in Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Colombia with sustainability projects involving reforestation, among other things. In this way, the Lavazza Foundation has enabled the planting of over 15 million coffee bushes (2015-2020) and is committed to continuing in this direction.  

The documentary

Inspired by the Foundation’s project, “Amazonia - The Final Season” is the docufilm available on Amazon Prime Video in Germany (from April 29), Italy (from May 10), France (from May 16) and US (from June 5), in which the artist Ben Harper takes us on an intimate journey into the heart of Peruvian Amazonia, for an inspiring account of how water can continually change form to show its love for the rainforest.  The documentary is presented by Lavazza ¡Tierra! Bio-Organic: a range of coffee created in 2021 out of the Lavazza Foundation’s commitment to sustainable agriculture that respects the planet, people and coffee producing countries. The range features three different coffees for three of the Foundation’s projects focused on the provenance of the raw materials, on respect for the environment and on social sustainability.