Centroamericano (H1)
Finca Mercedes & Guadalupe shows that coffee and forest can grow stronger together. Spanning 700 hectares in the heart of Nicaragua's Boaco region, the farm dedicates more than half of its land, 300 hectares of native forest and 150 hectares of reforested land, to conservation, with just 250 hectares given to shade-grown coffee.
At 600 to 700 meters above sea level, coffee grows under roughly 20% shade among 10 to 12 native tree species, a system designed to let forest and crop strengthen each other rather than compete. Instead of fighting the coffee berry borer with chemicals, the farm relies on 12 to 14 natural predator species. Birds do the work insecticides would otherwise do.
The farm is also a place of livelihood and belonging: 100 permanent workers and more than 200 seasonal pickers, bussed in daily from surrounding communities during the November–January harvest, work plots designed with their safety in mind. Flatter ground, shorter carrying distances and natural shade. In a region where cattle ranching keeps driving deforestation, Mercedes & Guadalupe point the other way, proving hectare by hectare that coffee can help restore what ranching takes away.
Born into a coffee-growing family in Boaco, Edgardo holds a PhD in Agronomy and spent years helping other farmers navigate the transition to agroforestry before deciding to put that vision into practice on his own land.
At Finca Mercedes & Guadalupe, good coffee is never just about the cup — it's measured in the health of the land that produces it: living soils, expanding forest, protected water sources, and decent work for local communities. In a region where cattle ranching keeps stripping the landscape bare, Edgardo chose a different path — reducing pastureland, reforesting, restoring water sources, and using coffee itself as the tool for regeneration.
For him, the farm is both proof and experiment: evidence that an agroforestry system can be ecological, economically viable, and socially transformative all at once. Since 2025, that vision has taken a new step through the collaboration with Treerich Coffee — developing a specialty line, refining post-harvest fermentation, and connecting the farm directly with roasters who share the same belief in coffee as a force for regeneration.
a direct investment in people & nature.
Buying this coffee supports a working model of regeneration, where birds replace pesticides, forest outgrows pasture, and every lot funds the science that proves it works.
This is a relationship, not a certificate
