In Sumatra, 88 football fields of rainforest vanish due to clearance for tropical woods or space for plantations – EVERY HOUR! Which means roughly 1.36 million acres less natural habitat per year. Every year. Those who don’t profit from the forest leave it or, lacking a better alternative, hire out to destroy it. When coffee expert and managing director of the Speicherstadt Kaffeerösterei Timo Drews and the Swiss biologist Regina Frey, who has been fighting for decades for the conservation of the tropical rainforest and the protection of the last 6.000 Orang-utans living there, travelled to Sumatra together, they had a genius idea. The Orang-utan-coffee-project supports farmers who have been cultivating their coffee plantations in the Gayo Highlands organically for generations and have committed themselves to relinquish the clearance of forest and to protect its plants and wildlife. In return, the families receive a bonus of 0,50 Euro per kilo of green coffee. A further bonus of 0,50 Euro per kilo of coffee goes to support the Sumatra Orang-utan protection programme founded in 1999. So the project solves two problems at once. The farmers are given a sensible incentive to conserve “their” rainforest and are not forced to sell it to palm oil producers. And, furthermore, the last forest people (translated, Orang-utan roughly means person of the forest) are actively protected. Oh yes, and we get great coffee from delicious Arabica with a matchless note of liquorice! On June 18th, 2013, the Speicherstadt Kaffeerösterei officially roasted the first batch of coffee for the project and became the first roaster for the project. Others followed. As of now, 70 small coffee roasters are supporting the project. And that number is rapidly increasing. We are giving away 5 sets of delicious, Speicherstadt-roasted Orang-utan Coffee and a matching, sustainable mug made from glass and finger-friendly cork. Send us an Email headlining ‚DRINK RESPONSIBLY!’ to hurra@muxmaeuschenwild.de.
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Orang Utan Coffee | support and drink | Facebook | Photo: Nick Lobeck

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