Catholic Relief Services announced today it will help farmers adapt to the impacts of climate change on coffee production in Latin America using a $200,000 grant from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc.

The Coffee Under Pressure (CUP) project, a partnership between CRS and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), will forecast the effects of climate change on coffee-growing communities in Mexico and Central America and help farmers develop strategies to adapt.
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An alliance of major national Catholic organizations today announced an unprecedented campaign on climate change, asking Catholics across the country to join and take action to reduce our carbon footprint and raise our voices on behalf of Creation and the poor. The impact of climate change falls heaviest on the poor, and our faith invites us to ‘tread lightly’ and ‘act boldly’.
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This is a longer follow up to a post published Monday. Please note that voting ends Friday.

Our proposal to help family coffee farmers in Latin America adapt to climate change has been selected as a finalist in the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Climate Challenge!

Many thanks to all those who voted to support our project concept during the first round of voting. Now we are on to the second round, and you have only until Friday, April 3, to vote to make it a winner! (Note: click on the “Support it” button.)

The Issue.
Climate change is changing the face of agriculture all over the planet. Since a specific crop can only thrive under certain environmental conditions, the increases in average temperatures and the radical changes in rainfall are changing our understanding of what can grow well where—what we call “land-use patterns.” The outlook for coffee farmers in Mexico and Central America is pretty grim…
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Here’s another important note from our friends at the CRS Fair Trade blog:

Thank you for taking action to help CRS and CIAT research ways coffee farmers can prepare and respond to the changing climate. This will help coffee farmers maintain their coffee crop, their livelihood AND keep their delicious coffee flowing straight to your cup.

The voting isn’t over yet and the contest is close because, let’s be honest, there are a lot of great ideas that deserve some funding. Thankfully, you have 10 votes you can cast to support your favorites. Make sure you cast your votes by this Saturday when the voting will end.

Years of deforestation have left Haiti’s mountains bare. Photo by Brian Tabben for CRS

CRS staff in Haiti have provided us with photos of deforested mountains in the Seguin area of Haiti. Photos by Brian Tabben for CRS.

Severe deforestation continues to force Haiti into a cycle of disaster.

With 99 percent of its mountains plucked clean, annual storms cause immeasurable damage to low-lying cities and villages. We saw this with the past succession of storms–Faye, Gustav, Hanna and Ike–which affected each of the island-nation’s 10 departments.
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On September 5, Monsignor Yves Marie Péan, bishop of Gonaives, Haiti, sent an urgent appeal. Flooding from four successive storms trapped about 500 people at his residence. Today he writes about the slow rebuilding process in his city.

The port city of Gonaives suffered severe damage after storms, including Hurricane Ike, dumped several feet of water in the city. Now, after the flooding, residents of Gonaives must dig out from under tons of mud. Photo by Donal Reilly/CRS

My first wish for the people of Haiti is I want them to experience that they are not alone, that they have not been abandoned by providence or by God. God always sends people to help, to accompany them, to show them how God is merciful.
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A delegation of 14 US-based CRS staff members and Church partners are currently visiting projects in Ethiopia. Steve Pehanich, senior director of advocacy and education for the California Catholic Conference, shares more from the field.

Much of the lowlands we visited are deforested, forcing pastoralist communities to take their livestock further east or south for grazing.
Photo by Steve Pehanich for CRS

After seeing the midlands and highlands near Dire Dawa on Tuesday, we toured the lowlands Wednesday — much hotter, with a rocky road that was incredible to travel. It took more than an hour each way on the road, which added to the tiredness of the day.

Before reaching the project site, we stopped on the grueling road to look at the surrounding desert. Zemede Abebe, program director for Haraghe Catholic Secretariat (basically the local equivalent of Catholic Charities and CRS’ partner in the area), explained that a watershed is a self-contained micro environment. Start at the top of a mountain and follow the water down until you get the lowest point — a valley is a good example. Then picture a series of valleys, each with its own micro-shed. All of them combined form a macro-shed.

The watershed along the road had been destroyed by deforestation and overgrazing, resulting in stunted plant growth and barrenness. Zemede wanted us to note the conditions here so we could appreciate the difference when we arrived at the community of Legedini.

First, though, we stopped at a man-made pond where livestock drink. Cows, sheep and goats were coming and going like clockwork. It was quite an idyllic setting and soothing to see the animals come and go.

The community of Legedini is now an oasis due to watershed protection efforts. Photo by Steve Pehanich for CRS

Finally we arrived at the community of Legedini, the site of many CRS-supported projects. By helping Legedini residents to manage their watershed, HCS has been able to return the land to its original state before it was deforested. One of the things I found most startling was the coolness. We went from a hot desert to a pleasant temperature just by crossing a ridgeline.

The protected watershed has recharged the groundwater, providing the community with clean water for multiple uses. Crop yields and the health of livestock have also improved as a result. One of the farmers told us that he had substantially improved his family’s condition by growing crops and raising and selling livestock with CRS’ and HCS’ support. Through income gained by selling some of these assets, his children now attend school. It’s amazing how little additional work it takes to transform the life of a family in Ethiopia — hard work for sure, but no harder than what these people are already used to.