Your next cup of Joe could help strengthen Boise’s ties to this Mozambique park. Here’s how

The ties between Boise and Gorongosa National Park have been tightened as the rich coffee grown on the slopes of the park’s rainforest-covered mountain is now roasted and shipped from here across the nation.

Gorongosa Coffee has established its fulfillment center for online sales of the coffee in Boise. The coffee is roasted by Iron Mule, the company behind Cafe Mule and Ironside, and it’s first imported from Mozambique. Proceeds from the sale of the coffee go to protect wildlife, help lift the lives of girls and improve the economy of the people who live around the national park.

In addition to its online site, Gorongosa coffee is available at the Boise Co-op’s two locations. Previously it was available at Zoo Boise and will be again when it reopens.

Gorongosa Coffee grew out of Idaho philanthropist Greg Carr’s ambitious partnership with the Mozambique government in southeast Africa to combine conservation and human development in and around the national park. Carr, originally from Idaho Falls and now of Sun Valley, had already partnered with Zoo Boise in promoting the park’s breathtaking restoration project.

The establishment of the coffee business center in Boise expands on the connections between Mozambique and Idaho.

“We want to be a local institution … as well as a global institution,” said Matthew Jordan, director of development for the Gorongosa Project, the organization overseeing management of the 900,000-acre park.

The coffee project is one of many development programs Gorongosa operates to lift up the lives of the 150,000 Mozambicans who live around Gorongosa National Park. Jordan also is executive director of Gorongosa Brands, which also runs its tourism and forestry businesses.

He has moved to Boise as his American base along with Evan Lyman, who heads operations of the fulfillment center. Michel Sousa, a Mozambique student at Boise State University, serves as an intern.

The Gorongosa Project has built schools, clinics and helped farmers improve their crops. It also enrolls 2,000 girls from 12 to 16 years old in an innovative program aimed at empowering them to further their education.

The girls club inspired one of the coffee brands: “Girls Run The World.” Other brands highlight the programs to restore lions, elephants and other wildlife in the park. The profits from the coffee support those programs.

Now 600 farmers who grow the coffee are getting paid for their product. This year’s harvest has begun and another 200 people harvest the cherry-like beans and pack and process them on Mount Gorongosa.

“It’s already changing lives,” Jordan said.

Mount Gorongosa has been the center of on and off civil conflict in Mozambique from 1977 through 2019. RENAMO (Resistência Nacional Moçambicana) rebels, armed opponents of the government, had their base there, and the ruling party FRELIMO, (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) finally reached a peace agreement in August in a ceremony on the mountain.

The project not only helps lift the people out of poverty, it also is critical to restoring the rainforest, which catches 79 inches of rain annually. Planting coffee in the shade of native trees, planted in lands degraded by slash and burn agricultural practices, allows the rainforest to return and helps restore the soil.

Mozambique weathered two devastating cyclones in 2019, one hit Gorongosa and its surrounding villages in one of the worst cyclones to hit central Mozambique in history. Now, like the rest of the world, it is caught in the coronavirus pandemic.

Coronavirus in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park

The pandemic closed the park to the public and limited international travel to Mozambique. But the park continues its health and wildlife protection programs using the same social distancing strategies used here. Villagers are encouraged to wash their hands often, and the pandemic has not yet peaked, Jordan said.

Boise State’s Albertsons Library has contributed to that effort by donating 200 face shields built by volunteers on 3-D printers.

Intern Sousa, who is pursuing a career in public health, has worked in clinics in Mozambique and sees the connection. Protecting 200 caregivers will help tens of thousands of Mozambicans.

“It is true that a virus can spread around the world,” she said. “But an act of kindness will also spread.”