GFA launches contest of ideas for preserving biodiversity
On 15 February, GFA successfully launched the first contest of ideas for banana and pineapple farmers in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. The contest focuses on how they can better preserve biodiversity in production, processing and commercialisation of bananas and pineapples.
The activity is part of the BMU/IKI initiative “From Farm to Fork” that is implemented by teams from GIZ, the German NGO, Global Nature Fund, and GFA with its consortium partner Solidaridad. The pilot project’s budget is € 735,000 and will run 21 months.
Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic are important biodiversity hotspots. Protecting the variety of species is a responsibility of each and every one of us – from farmers, traders, processers to consumers in Germany and elsewhere. The project challenges producers to come up with innovative ideas on how to preserve biodiversity. For example beekeeping, organic pesticides or using drones to map ecological corridors. We will then use our extensive expertise together with materials and trainings to help put the best ideas into practice.
The program works together with ministries, certifiers, universities and with supermarket chains in Germany to make sure that these innovations have a lasting effect. Banana and pineapple producers have already expressed high interest in the contest of ideas. We are enthusiastically working together with all actors to make biodiversity conservation in the banana and pineapple value chains a reality.
