WWF and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship to support community businesses in Oaxaca

More than 1 500 inhabitants of Oaxaca, mostly Zapotec natives, will benefit from a program to be developed by WWF Mexico and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship, with the support of Nature Pays, a global initiative of WWF created to strengthen community businesses supported by the conservation organization.

The initiative will implement a socio-ecological model based on the creation of productive enterprises that impact the rural communities of the area in a sustainable way, creating an example of how to work in harmony with nature.

IKEA Social Entrepreneurship will contribute funds to the three-year program, supporting 13 Community Conservation Enterprises (CCE) in the Copalita-Zimatán-Huatulco (CZH) basin, comprising 285 people, from which 152 are women and 133 are men. Out of these enterprises, six are cooperatives composed solely of women and one is a mixed enterprise headed by a young Zapotec woman. A central part of the project will be to promote the inclusion of women and youth as decision makers, with the capacity to mobilize their communities and produce positive changes.

Another 1 362 people, mostly family members and employees, will benefit indirectly with better income from the sale of sustainable products derived from good production practices and good water use.

The area where these communities live ranges from 0 to 3 750 meters above sea level, which makes the CZH basin a unique center of endemism, with temperate forest, cloud forest, dry tropical forest, mangroves and, finally, coral reefs. Its inhabitants belong to the Zapotec ethnic group and to the pre-Mayan Chontal civilizations.

The 13 companies are mainly dedicated to agriculture and the cultivation of plants for reforestation. They also support the use of agro-ecological systems that restore the land and implement sustainable agricultural production practices.

Agroecology allows them to establish resource management systems through the cultivation of fruit trees in their operations and lands. In this way, they diversify and maintain production that increases social, economic and environmental benefits in rural areas because food supplies, income and health improve.

High value crops, such as vanilla and coffee, will be introduced along with traditional crops like corn and mushrooms. The cultivation of medicinal herbs and sustainable mezcal and avocado production will also be supported. CCEs will improve their organizational and governance structures, as well as the market access potential of their products. Companies have different levels of development, therefore, objectives include expanding them to a homogeneous level of governance and operational structures, implementing business plans for all, and building marketing capabilities, as well as an effective monitoring and evaluation strategy, while respecting their values and culture.

Through the program, the 285 CCEs members will be prepared to improve their operational and management capabilities: development of business and marketing plans, access to markets at lower costs and better performance.IKEA Mexico will support WWF and this program through volunteering and mentoring. There will be visits to the communities and continuous work for the possible integration of these products in the value chains and in the next IKEA Mexico stores.

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