GORONGOSA COFFEE
RUSSEL WASSERFALL
In the heart of Mozambique, Gorongosa National Park is a sanctuary of biodiversity once ravaged by conflict and environmental degradation. An unusual project is restoring the decimated forest and its wildlife, while offering hope to people, especially rural women, displaced by a decades-long civil war. The secret to this turn-around is coffee.
Because it sits on the sub-tropical belt which is perfect for cultivating the world’s favourite caffeine source, using coffee to rebuild the park made sense to the founders of the Gorongosa Coffee Project. Even though the fifteen year conflict officially ended in 1992, the region saw years of intense poverty and instability, including threats from armed gangs of former fighters.
The slopes and surrounds of Gorongosa Mountain are being reforested through the Coffee Project
Image by Brett Kuxhausen
By the early years of the last decade, thanks to the efforts of local government and international aid and development agencies, calm had returned and some future-planning could be set in motion. Launched in 2014, Gorongosa Coffee has transformed the landscape by planting over 260,000 coffee bushes and 20,000 indigenous trees. Along the scenic paths leading to Mount Gorongosa, the air is filled with the rich aroma of coffee and the earthy scents of the surrounding forest which now supports both teeming wildlife and local livelihoods.
Image by Brett Kuxhausen
Image by Augusto Bila
Image by Augusto Bila
Patches where indigenous trees were felled for local cooking fires are being reforested piece by piece.
Nurseries are set up for the coffee seedlings under the forest canopy
When they reach a certain size, the coffee is planted out in cleared patches. As many as 260,000 coffee bushes now hold the soil on the slopes around Gorogosa.
Over 40% of the farmers trained and working on the coffee scheme are women who were either displaced or widowed in Mozambique’s civil war and the instability which followed.
Image by Augusto Bila
The journey to Gorongosa is uplifting. It’s not just about the hit of caffeine from freshly roasted beans, there’s a sense here of being connected to the land and its people. Visitors can engage with local farmers, learn about sustainable farming practices, and witness the impact of their efforts. The coffee harvest, which runs from April to September, is a perfect time to visit, as the community comes alive with activity, picking the coffee cherries and processing the fruits of their labour.
Images by Augusto Bila
Harvest and sorting of the coffee is very much a cooperative community affair.
Gorongosa Coffee Project provides training and resources to local farmers, enabling them to cultivate coffee sustainably while preserving the vital forests that supply water and support biodiversity. Profits from coffee sales are reinvested into the community, funding education and health initiatives that uplift families and break the cycle of poverty.
Cultivated under shade trees in agroforestry systems, the arabica beans deliver a coffee that somehow tastes better than any other coffee because of the tangible good it is doing. When roasted and cupped, these beans tell a story of resilience, hope, and the intertwined fates of people and nature.
To ensure the best quality coffee, only the ripe red cherries are picked and graded.
Images by Augusto Bila
After harvesting, the coffee cherries are husked using communally owned equipment, and the discarded fruit is gathered for composting.
Image by Brett Kuxhausen
From the air, the drying tables of the coffee project are a blaze of colour on the forest floor.
Waiting for transport back to their homes after a day at work in the plantation.
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