At the request of the Arhuaco producers’ association ASOARHUACO, and within the project for the conservation and regeneration of the sacred forests of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta supported by Sacred Forests and Original Beans, ECOTOP installed three learning plots in dynamic agroforestry with the communities of Singuney, Kankawarwa and Gunmaku in August 2026.
The plots replace the customary slash-and-burn preparation with a no-burn method (chaqueo sin quema) and combine annual food crops with cocoa as the main crop. Families, students, teachers and the traditional authorities took part in the workshops and the installation.
In the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, land use follows a cycle that has been repeated for generations: clear the fallow, burn, plant one or two cycles of maize, beans, cassava and plantain, then leave the land to pasture or abandon it until the next burn. All three plots started as degraded pastures with a history of repeated fires, compacted sandy soils and steep slopes.
The mission had three objectives: install one learning plot of 0.5 ha per community without fire, train producers, students, teachers and authorities in natural succession and DAF design, and demonstrate the safe use of pruning equipment for biomass management in established cocoa plots.
The traditional authorities approved the work three months in advance. That approval is what made the level of participation possible, and the cabildo of each community has taken on the follow-up of its plot.
• No-burn land preparation: selective clearing, conservation of the natural regeneration, chopped biomass as soil cover
• Installation of three plots on a 4 × 4 m grid with two complementary designs, successional nuclei and alleys, planted in high density and diversity with maize, beans, pigeon pea, cassava, taro, yam, plantain and sugar cane
• Theoretical and practical workshops in each community with the successional model, the erosion box and a dry-run design
• Training in safe tree climbing and pruning in an established cocoa plot
Cocoa, pruning species and fruit and timber trees are completed in the next phase, and a follow-up visit is being prepared with the association.
ASOARHUACO – Asociación de Productores del Pueblo Arhuaco de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the producers’ association of the three communities.
Sacred Forests / Original Beans – support the project for the conservation and regeneration of the sacred forests of the Sierra Nevada.
