Asociación Defensores del Monumento Natural Zona de Los Santos (Association of Defenders of the Natural Monument Zone of Los Santos) was founded in 2023 in San Pablo de León Cortés, San José Province, operates in a mountainous landscape vital for providing water to 30,000 people. The territory faces degraded soils with 85% low fertility and critical erosion after decades of intensive coffee farming, losing up to 20 tons of soil per hectare annually.
With the “From Coffee Plantations to Living Fences” project, 15 pilot farms will serve as models of regenerative coffee farming. The Association is implementing agroforestry systems that break with the monoculture model by planting 9,525 Paraíso Amarillo coffee trees (a resilient variety) and 900 trees (300 citrus) that provide regulated shade and biomass to the soil. They are complementing this with banana trees and beans for nitrogen fixation and food sovereignty, as well as 450 shrubs for living fences. This not only stops erosion but also reactivates soil microbiology and diversifies income, demonstrating that coffee production can be the driving force behind landscape restoration. The Association also participates in activities where the community and corporate volunteers restore rivers near coffee-growing areas.
The community is the driving force behind the Association. In a coffee-dependent region, they actively involve youth and producers in a transition that guarantees environmental justice. Their aim is for the Natural Monument and its buffer zone to be a model of resilience, where collective participation heals the relationship between people, land, and water, ensuring the sustainability of an ecosystem that sustains their local culture and lives.
In the Los Santos region, restoration began both in homes and on coffee plantations. In the El Estadio neighborhood, local women took on the role of environmental promoters, supporting families in changing their habits related to waste management and environmental stewardship. Simultaneously, on nearby farms, coffee growers initiated a transition to regenerative practices, incorporating trees and new soil management methods. By connecting waste management, agricultural production, and water conservation, the community demonstrated that restoration is not an isolated action, but rather an everyday process that originates with the people and transforms their relationship with their land.
To date, the initiative has achieved concrete progress in community-based ecological restoration in the Los Santos region, integrating productive and community-based actions within the same territory. Fifteen coffee farms are participating, each contributing 2,000 square meters to a transition process toward regenerative agroforestry systems, with 9,525 coffee saplings currently being established. These actions are complemented by the planting of other trees and shrubs for shade, as well as planting living fences, and the protection of rivers and streams. Citrus trees add productive diversification, and complementary crops are also being incorporated. At the same time, women from the local area are being trained as environmental promoters and support 175 households in home-based environmental education programs, reaching approximately 550 people. This initiative has strengthened waste separation and composting practices, allowing organic waste to return to the soil and contribute to the regeneration of the same production systems and restored ecosystems on the farms. Waste composition studies have shown an estimated reduction of between 46% and 50% in non-recyclable waste in the participating households.
Costa Rican Coffee Institute (ICAFE) – technical support, training, and agronomic validation in regenerative coffee farming
Municipality of León Cortés – land coordination, waste management, and institutional support
Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) – tree donation and support for ecological restoration efforts
CoopeTarrazú R.L. – technical coordination and participation in training programs on regenerative coffee and industrial composting
Compost making
Tree planting
Food growing
Erosion control
Soil building
Habitat creation
Agroforestry
Community building
Restoration of livelihoods
Waste Management
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