Bob Taylor’s – World Forestry Tour (video)

Posted on April 30, 2017 by juanbronson

Izabal Agro-Forest recently had the privilege of hosting Bob Taylor and an impressive group of influencers in the wood business, in Guatemala. Their visit was part of a world forestry tour that Bob Taylor has been planning for some time now, the main objective is/was to learn. The group is planting trees in Cameroon, Hawaii, and Washington, and they wanted to see examples of forward-thinking forestry operations, in the hopes to exchange ideas and meet people with similiar visions of what the tonewood & forestry sector will look like in the future.

We spent the day reviewing our operations in Izabal, and had a great day listening and learning from this very inspiring group of individuals (listed below). Thank you to the talented Paul Akers for documenting the visit:

If you would like information about Izabal Agro-Forest’s sustainable investments please contact us here.

1. Bob Taylor – Co-ower/operator Taylor Guitars, Crelicam, a Cameroonian ebony company and Paniolo Tonewoods, an Hawaiian company focused on growing several wood species, including Koa (TaylorGuitars website)
2. Steve McMinn – Owner and operator of Pacific Rim Tonewoods, a spruce supplier (Pacific Rim Tonewoods website)
3. Kevin Burke – Pacific Rim Tonewoods, primary log buyer and project manager
4. Scott Paul – Previously an important forest campaigner for Greenpeace, current Natural Resource Sustainability Director for Taylor Guitars
5. Vidal De Teresa – The is the owner and operator of Madinter Tonewoods as well as partner in Crelicam, a Cameroonian ebony company (Madinter website)
6. Nicholas Koch – Forester with 14 yrs experience, Forest Solutions website
7. Paul Akers – he is an entrepreneur, author, speaker. He is the founder and president of FastCap. Paul Akers website

Pay your cacao farmer well!

Posted on January 11, 2016 by juanbronson

Cocoa beans from a Theobroma cacao tree

There is a troublesome trend in the farm world; small farmers are throwing in the towel and big farms are getting bigger. Naturally, these massive operations have effects on the environment, food costs, human health, communities, and more.

This year we had an experience that made this trend personal. To be honest, we’ve had an awful harvest when we didn’t expect it. As a medium scale operation, the income that our harvests bring can be a critical element to our financial sustainability. We want to do things right, and that costs money.

Last November when our “winter” harvest usually comes in we had a series of weather phenomenons that threw a big fat wrench into our cacao efforts. Climate change for us, has felt very real this year. In fact we estimate a 70% decrease in production when compared to last year. Thankfully we have good clients and we’re diversified; for example we’ve been able to sell lumber and services to make up the difference, but what about the small farmer? How does one who already lives marginally cope with these situations? Does he/she give up to go work for the industrial farms?

Most Cocoa farmers, the majority of whom live in West Africa, live in poverty. In Guatemala, where most of the cocoa is grown by cooperatives, the socio-economic situation is not bad, but its still marginal.

For the poor farmer that eeks out an existence and is burdened with the risks of climate change and commodity prices, something has to change. And part of that is to address the value chain and to recognize that we can pay our farmers a little bit more given all of the warmth and goodness that chocolate brings us.

Recently Izabal Agro-Forest conducted a market study for cocoa and found that a substantial increase in the commodity price for cocoa who would have almost no price effect on the consumer, which is crazy! What the message here?: Let us pay our farmers more:

Andrew Miller (of IAF & Big Leaf) comments:

“Higher cocoa prices need not result in proportionally higher chocolate prices as cocoa represents just 5% of the retail price (see table below). Even if this percentage were to double to 10% in 2020, as projected by Euromonitor, chocolate prices could remain roughly flat.”

Small to medium sized chocolate makers generally understand that quality and social sustainability are critical elements of supporting good quality cacao and its farmers. We just need the industrial guys to catch on.

Pay your farmer well!

Izabal Agro Forest’s field staff

Posted on September 10, 2014 by juanbronson

The heart and soul of any forest operation, today I would like to honor IAF’s field staff:

Francisco Chacon Age: 26 Place of Residence: Seja Languages Spoken: Spanish Time Spent on Izabal Agroforest: 9 years Jobs: Prunes and takes care of the cacao. Is an all around boss. Other employment: Has worked on other farms Future plans: work on the farm, marry girlfriend Opinion on Izabal Agroforest: Close to Seja, makes it easy to get to work. It’s a large farm with many different trees and there is always work available.

Francisco Chacon
Age: 26
Place of Residence: Seja
Languages Spoken: Spanish
Time Spent on Izabal Agroforest: 9 years
Jobs: Prunes, grafts, and takes care of the cacao.
Other employment: Has worked on other farms
Future plans: work on the farm, marry girlfriend
Opinion on Izabal Agroforest: Close to Seja, makes it easy to get to work. It’s a large farm with many different trees and there is always work available.

Vicente Pan
Age: 45
Place of Residence: Seja
Languages Spoken: Español and Kekchi
Time Spent on Izabal Agroforest: 20 years
Jobs: Grafting, fertilizing, pruning, clearing underbrush, planting kudzu and cacao
Other Employment: Vicente has worked on other Farms before Izabal
Future Plans: To continue working on the Farm and live in Seja
Opinion on Izabal Agroforest: A beautiful farm with a large variety of species in both flora and fauna.

Conrado Rodriguez Age: 57 Place of Residence: Fronteras, Izabal Languages Spoken: Spanish Time Spent on Izabal Agroforest: 27 years Jobs: Supervisor field operations Other employment: has worked on other farms Future Plans: For now just continue working on Izabal Agroforest Opinion on Izabal Agroforest:The work is best here

Conrado Diaz
Age: 57
Place of Residence: Fronteras, Izabal
Languages Spoken: Spanish
Time Spent on Izabal Agroforest: 27 years
Jobs: Supervisor field operations
Other employment: has worked on other farms
Future Plans: For now just continue working on Izabal Agroforest
Opinion on Izabal Agroforest:The work is best here

Name: Miguel Angel Chacon Chacon
Age: 19
Place of Residence: Seja
Languages Spoken: Español
Time Spent on Izabal Agroforest: 2 months
Jobs: brush control,
Other employment: worked in a carpenter’s shop
Future plans: continue working and eventually marry girlfriend
Opinion on Izabal Agroforest: Lots of different jobs to do and its closer to Seja than other farms

Name: Jose Alvez
Age: 22
Place of Residence: Seja
Languages Spoken: Español
Time Spent on Izabal Agroforest: 5 years
Jobs: Brush control, planting seedlings, prune cacao
Other Employment: Has worked on other farms
Future Plans: He says he’s hoping for good luck in the future, so he can provide a nice life for himself.
Opinion on Izabal Agroforest: He says they different plants here, and lots of different types of work to do.

Name: Arnulfo Chacon
Age: 34
Place of Residence: Seja
Languages Spoken: Español
Time Spent on Izabal Agroforest: 20 years
Jobs: Taking care of the trees, working in the nursery, fertilizing plants
Other Employment: only worked on izabal agroforest,
Future Plans: plans to just keep living and working on the farm
Opinion on Izabal Agroforest: He says that for its size, it has a lot of different rare and special trees

Agusto Chaco Age: 60 Place of Residence: Rio Dulce Languages Spoken: Kekchi and Spanish Time Spent on Izabal Agroforest: more than 20 years Jobs: maintain the garden, mow the grass, clean Other employment: worked on other farms when he was much younger Future plans: might take some time to go travel Opinion on Izabal Agroforest: There are more animals here, snakes, insects, etc

Agusto Chocoj
Age: 60
Place of Residence: Rio Dulce
Languages Spoken: Kekchi and Spanish
Time Spent on Izabal Agroforest: more than 20 years
Jobs: maintain the garden, mow the grass, clean
Other employment: worked on other farms when he was much younger
Future plans: might take some time to go travel
Opinion on Izabal Agroforest: There are more animals here, snakes, insects, etc

Name: Adelso Yavani
Age: 20
Place of Residence: Seja
Languages Spoken: Español
Time Spent on Izabal Agroforest: 5 Years
Jobs: Brush control, planting trees, trimming cacao
Other Employment: Worked as campesino on other farms
Future Plans: His plans for the future are to keep working and save money so he can have a good life ahead of him.
Opinion on Izabal Agroforest: this farm is better because it has more trees and animals

Name: Victor Manuel Ramirez
Age: 40
Place of Residence: Seja
Languages Spoken: Español
Time Spent on Izabal Agroforest: 5 years
Jobs: Grafting, Brush Control, looking after the trees
Other Employment: Has worked on other farms
Future Plans: No plans as of yet
Opinion on Izabal Agroforest: The woods they grow here are different, they are rare woods that not a lot of other people grow

Pending are: Juan Castillo, Victor Castillo, Javier Sosa, Marta Estrada, Juan Tiul, Luis Chacon y Rigo Chacon.

Gracias hermanos.

Thank you to Jasper Lyons & Jack Betz for photographing and interviewing IAF staff members.

Growing Pataxte

Posted on June 2, 2014 by juanbronson

Young Pataxte tree, IAF, Izabal, Guatemala

We recently started planting Theobroma bicolor, an overlooked, and uncommon relative of cacao. “Pataxte” as its known among the Kekchi communities near our farm, has been used by the Maya for at least 1500 years; and most likely longer.

I would say the taste is similar to cacao but less “chocolatey” with more coffee notes, more astringency and something like a sweet buttery-lemon element. It’s smell is more delicate than cacao and it has an all-white seed.

For the few people that actually use Pataxte, it may be prepared like cacao; that is fermented, dried and roasted; oddly though, I’ve found that most Mayan growers skip the fermentation step.

Apparently it has a higher fat content than Theobroma cacao, and according to my archaeologist father, was prized by the Aztecs for its foaming qualities. Which is of course, a good thing when you’re making hot chocolate 🙂

Pataxte (theobroma bicolor) pod

In Belize and Northern Guatemala it is referred to as Cacao Silvestre (Wild cacao) or balam-te’ (Jaguar tree in Yucateco Mayan); unlike cacao, most Pataxte seems to be directly descended from its original Mayan lineages as it was never exported or hybridized. As a comparison, I would say that 95% of the world’s chocolate derives from genetically “improved” hybrids. (That figure by the way, is not to be quoted, it’s just a semi-educated guess)

What really intrigues me about Theobroma bicolor is that (unlike its more popular cousin Cacao), it can be grown in broad daylight without shade. So not only can we plant it on the edges of our forests, where Cacao might whither, we can also plant in areas of low shade or simply in an open field.

We decided to plant it under our tropical cedar trees (Cedrella adorata), which lose their leaves in the dry months so totally inadequate for Theobroma cacao. This experiment is important for us because, if successful, all of a sudden our “plantable” areas are greatly increased.

Dwight Carter, from Frutas del Mundo, whom kindly supplied us the seedlings, suggested that with proper pruning the Pataxte could actually function as the shade-giving agent for a cacao plantation. If successful, (and I think it could be given its height and broad leaves), growers could potentially have an all-theobroma plantation, which is fun. I would love to hear if anyone has done this by the way!

Interestingly, the sacred maya book “Popol Vuh” mentions it as one of the foods of Maya paradise: “This will be our food: maize, pepper seeds, beans, cacáo & pataxte…

Theobroma bicolor

The Final Warning Bell

Posted on April 2, 2014 by juanbronson

In Brazil deforestation repesents 70% of the country’s carbon emissions (photo courtesy of the WWF)

The final warning bell has been rung by a UN Climate Change report. The ongoing destruction of the remaining tropical rain forests and the advance of the pine beetle into the extreme north has contributed to 1/5th of the carbon being delivered into our precious atmosphere, much more than all the motorized vehicles, ships and factories on the planet. Agriculture is the main polluter and negative factor in this equation. Here in Guatemala, just to mention an example, at certain times of the year, the burning of the cane fields on the Pacific coast, is enough to darken the sky and cause an ash fall of choking dimensions in nearby communities.

The question is why has forestry not been able to play a more important and sustainable role in mitigating climate change? One obvious reply is that the global public is kept in the dark by a disinterested media, passive educators and politicians looking only as far as the next vote.

But then what about reforestation companies and the forest investment companies? Why are they not playing a greater role in the sequestration of carbon and so the salvation of our planet as we know it. Again the answer is painful: enormous areas covered by mono-cultures of short term tree crops for mainly pulp or biomass using species (e.g. Pine,Eucaliptus or Melina) that are most often foreign to the tropics with negative effects on the soil. Sustainable agroforestry is one answer. India has just passed more progressive legislation that removes many of the bureaucratic restrictions on the planting and use of new forests by farmers,that is expected to increase the forest cover there by millions of hectares. Both investors, forestry companies and governments need to pay more attention to native forest species for lumber and food while considering the infinite possibilities of sub-canopy planting.

In addition, especially Universities should be playing an important role in environmentally correct reforestation and habitat recovery, but sadly most often their endowment funds invest in mono-cultures and doubtful short term returns, while their scientists preach another story. It is a dysfunction that every responsible citizen and especially foresters need to urgently correct before we are obligated to send a flotilla of arks to Bangladesh, a country that lies almost entirely at sea level.

– Richard Bronson

Palm monoculture in Guatemala

Agrforestry parcel, IAF, Guatemala

My Hormigo Guitar

Posted on January 2, 2014 by juanbronson

My new Hormigo guitar, built by Taylor Guitars, wood (back & sides) from Izabal Agro Forest

I started playing the guitar when I was 14 years old. When my Dad bought me my first classical guitar, a Yamaha G-230 (that I still have!) from black market guitars in San Francisco I was thrilled. I remember looking at the mahogany back, wondering about the workmanship and incredible quality of the wood. 21 years later I commissioned my first custom-made guitar. The idea, from the beginning was to use woods grown on our farm, initially I thought we would use some of our plantation Mahogany or Rosewood, but my Dad suggested we do something more experimental. “Why not Hormigo?” he said. Hormigo, Platymiscium dimorphandrum, is a rich gold and brown tropical hardwood, what was intriguing about his idea however is that in Guatemala it is considered the finest tonewood for marimbas. Naturally then, we thought it would make a good guitar.

With the decision made, we had a piece cut with our Hudson bandsaw, and sent it over to my friend Chris Cosgrove, wood buyer for Taylor guitars in California. I gave them the specifications and a few weeks later we received this beauty in the mail. The tone is beautiful and rich, and I’ll let the images speak to the quality of the finish.

For more information about our tonewood plantation please visit: izabalagroforest.com

Hormigo body and sides, mahogany neck, spruce soundboard, with Cocobolo inlay

Using the sapwood adds to the natural beauty of the Hormigo grain.

The first of many instruments to be made from lumber sustainably grown lumber at Izabal Agro-Forest

Hormigo grain, Platymiscium spp.

The front of the guitar was made from Norther Spruce, however the inlay around the sound hole was made from Cocobolo

Thank you to all the good folks over at Taylor guitars.

Hormigo-made marimba

Real Mitigation

Posted on December 19, 2013 by juanbronson

I recently attended an latin-american expo-conference for the mining industry and its providers. I was there because one of the company’s I am consulting with has been contracted by an important nickel and gold mining company to manage a few of its environmental restoration projects; Most countries have laws that stipulate environmental mitigation for damage caused by mining operations. The quality of compensation varies wildly of course and is too often conducted so as to reach the minimum requirement and with little long-term environmental or social fore-sight.

I took a taxi to the event and when I told the driver where I was going, he chuckled a bit and said verbatim “Oh you’re against the Indians”. Wow, what a sad perception the mining (& hydroelectric) industry has set for itself. Not that I was surprised, by simply perusing the web for mining news, there always seems to be an indigenous resistance going on, particularly in the Americas. As someone with a lifelong affinity for the forest and the people that live in the forest, I am almost unequivocally opposed to mining operations that cross a certain threshold of environmental, and of course social, damage. However, I understand the need. I drive a car, I have a mobile phone, those minerals are useful and an essential part of my daily life. Socially responsible mining, with universally accepted standards, must become the norm. Since it is difficult to imagine an end to all mining activities I would like to see is a better mechanism for protecting mitigation forests. Simply plantings a few trees is not enough, there must be a critical discussion made about the cause of deforestation and what we can do to create real, perpetual, environmental compensation. The problem with reforestation is that if it is done in an area that was once deforested (which is normally the case), it tends to be threatened for the same reasons that it was originally deforested.

In the tropics, reforested areas need value to be conserved, whether through tourism, carbon sequestration, or for timber, (yes timber); Planted conservation forests (with the exception of National Parks) need to managed and designed by both environmentalists and economists. My theory is that it is possible to manage and protect a forest through either low-impact harvesting or by allocating a small percentage of that forest to intensive commercial reforestation and logging. The revenue from either of these can be used to conserve and protect the greater forest, possibly through a foundation. Ideally, the forest could be even expanded through the acquisition of adjoining lands. Additionally a system like this could/would create a sustainable source of jobs and income for local communities.

If the mining industry and other environmental offenders can create real mitigation programs that are perpetual and realistic perhaps they can reduce some of the stigma that they have been given.

Indigenous land rights protester

Open pit mining is cheap, productive, and highly damaging to the environment

Embera protesters in Panama

Standard forestry vs agroforestry

Posted on November 3, 2013 by juanbronson

Cacao in Cocobolo grove: Izabal Agro-Forest

Over the years I’ve had many conversations about the benefits and so-called disadvantages of agro-forestry, and I’ve found that people with a forestry pedigree tend to be skeptical. The question always comes down to whether or not there is a financial or biological burden when double cropping land. It’s understandable, as a forester you probably want to prioritize tree silviculture, so the idea that you may have to adjust your method so that the other crop coexist in a healthy way is a no-go for some managers. To be clear, there are sacrifices. In a monoculture your management is 100% oriented around the success of one species, there are no other considerations. For example, you can plant your trees as intensively as possible, (1100+ trees per hectare), personnel can focus on one set of skills, and possibly there are other considerations.

But of course I see this from a different perspective, first and foremost I see agro-forestry in terms of risk mitigation.

Timber, agriculture, cacao, livestock, apples, papayas, they all have risks; the most common are disease, fire, natural disaster and market volatility, a farmers life is full of ups and downs. Trust me I know. But rarely do these risks affect crops in the same way, whereas fire may wipe out a forest floor crop like cacao, only a concentrated extremely intense fire could kill a hardwood tree. Similarly, diseases, common in fruits and vegetables rarely affect trees in the same way, particularly hardwoods. Market prices for any commodity will see good years and bad, but rarely across the whole spectrum. And unlike fruit crops, you don’t necessarily have to harvest your timber trees if there is a market lull, you can wait the bad prices out (and in the meantime they continue to grow!). It has been been said before, as long as the sun shines and rain falls, trees grow.

The biggest disadvantage with timber investment is the long, (sometimes very long) wait it takes a tree to grow to a good, harvestable size. For tropical hardwoods the time-frame is usually estimated between 20 and 30 years, depending on the species of course. But therein also lies the beauty of the symbiotic relationship that a forest floor crop (like cacao or coffee) and a longterm tree crop: One provides you the cash-flow to continue operations and receive income, the other functions as the life-jacket that provides a low-risk and historically reliable investment.

There are other factors as well of course: A poly-culture will look and function more like a natural forest than a standard monoculture. Agro-forestry is more likely to provide consistent, long-term, employment to community members, there are at least two streams of revenue and I should also mention that in a world where high-quality land capable of producing food is extremely limited, it’s just the right thing to do!

Mahogany & cacaogrove on my farm, Izabal Agro-Forest

Cacao, Izabal Agro-Forest

Hardwood trees with cacao understory – izabalagroforest.com

An old story

Posted on September 4, 2013 by juanbronson

Embera girls holding cacao pods

Over the last few months I’ve heard a lot of hype about where the Cacao market is heading. Huge investments are being raised in response to rising demand. And its true the outlook is good, especially considering the growing premium market and untapped Asian markets that have barely begun consuming chocolate. 60% of the world is Asian so, there’s reason to be optimistic. But… I’m seeing a tendency toward the mistakes of the past.

Although Cacao is originally from the Amazon basin, it was most famously consumed by the Mayans in Southern Mexico, and Central America. Today most of it is grown in Western Africa and consumed in the North America and Europe. These are huge mono-cultures stretching across thousands of kilometers. Countries like Ghana and Madagascar seem to be providing a steady supply of good quality fruit, but others have struggled and the cacao industry is rife with problems, political and biological. Once again we’re seeing this industrial tendency to do things as big and as cheap as possible, leveraging economies of scale to the bitter end.

Broadly speaking, mono-cultures by their very nature are more susceptible to disease and insect attacks, which makes organic or low impact agriculture very very difficult. Throughout cacao’s industrial history, we’ve seen huge single year drops in production due to out of control diseases. They also tend to be one dimensional in that if you have a biological disaster or the market tanks, that’s it, your financial model breaks. Its one of the many reasons I’ve been a proponent of agroforestry for so long, I just can’t wait until we see it at an impact scale.

I’ve seen proposals for industrial projects throughout Latin America and its really just a repeat of the past, basically the attitude is: let’s take the latest, hottest commodity and plant it to the end of the horizon. When I see these, I can’t help but wonder what kind of technical advice these proposals are based on? Why aren’t these proposals more diversified? What are the environmental and social impacts?

A productive cacao tree is sensitive, requires consistent phytosanitation and silviculture; basically it is generally susceptible to biological risk. In my opinion an industrial cacao plantation should not exceed 200 hectares and larger projects would do well to geographically separate farms. There’s a reason most of the world’s cacao is grown by small scale farmers, its never worked as an industrial crop. Cacao fund managers should carefully assess management teams and conduct thorough feasibility studies, or they might see an old story repeat itself. Don’t get me wrong, I think cacao is wonderful and has huge upside, I’m actually planting a lot of it, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the accepted (institutional) model can be improved.

(Click images for a higher resolution view)

My farm’s tri-level approach to cacao cultivation

A shoot grafted with heirloom stock in our nursery

Young Mahogany and cacao mixed species stand

Diseased Cacao tree, location not cited

Ah monoculture…

Cacao supply by country

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Standard forestry vs agroforestry