Post by account_disabled on Mar 12, 2024 22:30:22 GMT -7
Said Rainforest Alliance’s Daniel Domínguez Monzón, who worked closely with the communities throughout the initiative. “They know how to analyze the smoke and activate the response protocol in which they were trained.” Business skills A crucial part of the initiative’s original plan was to improve the business processes of the cooperative to which the communities belong. But over the years the Rainforest Alliance team in Mexico had come to realize that the customary practice of sending in a consultant for a few discrete workshops was not producing the best results. For one thing, asking a cooperative to open its books to a stranger was a big ask; trust had to be established first. The team also determined that a more rigorous and thorough follow-up schedule was needed. First, the Rainforest Alliance took the time to build relationships with key figures at the cooperative, Unión de Productores Región Fraylesca Oro Verde.
Only then did we introduce a consultant, who stayed every day for four weeks to learn about Oro Verde’s processes and challenges and to create more effective ways of working. The consultant then left, returning for a week every two months, over a period of six months, to support implementation of the new structures. Everything from management of the cooperative’s extensive plant nursery to invoicing procedures to trading practices underwent rigorous streamlining and strengthening. With significantly improved financial and administrative BYB Directory processes in place and a tighter business model, Oro Verde is better equipped to continue increasing profits. Health and nutrition Two communities at risk of malnutrition received classes on how to grow, preserve, and cook mushrooms. Under an ambitious new sustainability strategy, our partner ofi had a mandate to support good nutrition in the communities.
After performing an assessment, ofi found two communities, La Ramona and Nuevo Mitontic, to be at particularly high risk for malnutrition and obesity. To address this concern, the Rainforest Alliance’s Domínguez, who had ties to UNICACH, the local university, reached out to Professor Vela-Gutiérrez, a food science expert there. The professor was eager to collaborate and involve colleagues and students, who gave classes on nutrition and food handling and storage to members of the two communities. The UNICACH team created and handed out materials in both Spanish and Tzotzil (the first language of many community members) on nutrition, recipes, and hygiene. We again called on BIOMASA to help establish 16 mushroom plots, and the team from UNICACH gave workshops on preparing mushroom-based meals and on preserving mushrooms. Chiapas’s ministry of environment and natural history, SEMAHN, also offered trainings on local herbs and edible plants, since the people of La Ramona and Nuevo Mitontic are relatively new to this ecosystem and its species, having arrived here less than twenty years ago after fleeing violence in their ancestral lands.
Only then did we introduce a consultant, who stayed every day for four weeks to learn about Oro Verde’s processes and challenges and to create more effective ways of working. The consultant then left, returning for a week every two months, over a period of six months, to support implementation of the new structures. Everything from management of the cooperative’s extensive plant nursery to invoicing procedures to trading practices underwent rigorous streamlining and strengthening. With significantly improved financial and administrative BYB Directory processes in place and a tighter business model, Oro Verde is better equipped to continue increasing profits. Health and nutrition Two communities at risk of malnutrition received classes on how to grow, preserve, and cook mushrooms. Under an ambitious new sustainability strategy, our partner ofi had a mandate to support good nutrition in the communities.
After performing an assessment, ofi found two communities, La Ramona and Nuevo Mitontic, to be at particularly high risk for malnutrition and obesity. To address this concern, the Rainforest Alliance’s Domínguez, who had ties to UNICACH, the local university, reached out to Professor Vela-Gutiérrez, a food science expert there. The professor was eager to collaborate and involve colleagues and students, who gave classes on nutrition and food handling and storage to members of the two communities. The UNICACH team created and handed out materials in both Spanish and Tzotzil (the first language of many community members) on nutrition, recipes, and hygiene. We again called on BIOMASA to help establish 16 mushroom plots, and the team from UNICACH gave workshops on preparing mushroom-based meals and on preserving mushrooms. Chiapas’s ministry of environment and natural history, SEMAHN, also offered trainings on local herbs and edible plants, since the people of La Ramona and Nuevo Mitontic are relatively new to this ecosystem and its species, having arrived here less than twenty years ago after fleeing violence in their ancestral lands.