This is Part 1 of the mini-documentary about our expedition through the Peruvian Biosphere to help with sustainable coffee farming.

Our direct relationships with coffee producers often take us to wild places. A small group from our coffee team recently journeyed to Peru's Bahuaja-Sonene National Park and the neighboring farms that make up CECOVASA co-op, the source for the third coffee in our Biosphere Reserve Series, the appropriately named Organic Expedition.

CECOVASA (The Organization of Agrarian Coffee Cooperatives of the Sandia Valleys) was founded in 1970, when a group of Peruvian coffee farmers in the Lake Titicaca region came together to avoid selling their beans to exploitative middlemen, and instead process and export their beans collectively. CECOVASA now includes eight coffee co-operative communities that are comprised of mostly Quechuan and Aymara indigenous peoples near the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park and the Tambopata-Candamo Nature Reserve. These communities are very remote, 10 to 15 hours by truck from Juliaca, the nearest city.