Fairtrade and Organic Certified association, and is one of 6 associations that comprise the UOPROCAE group.

Located in the coastal Esmeraldas region of Ecuador, EcoCacao is committed to preserving and regenerating the forests of Punta Galera, which is the last reasonably sized humid tropical forest next to the sea in the country.

Several NGOs have worked with EcoCacao and other UOPROCAE members since 2005 on environmental and cacao related projects, most notably a practice known as regenerative agriculture. The aim in this type of farming is to actually restore rainforest within cacao farms, rather than deforest in order to plant cacao. Since 2016, there has not been explicit funding for the regenerative agriculture project, and it has become obvious that for it to survive, the cacao needs to sell at a price that can sustain the training program, management, and audit of the regenerative practices that cacao farmers within EcoCacao are using. Uncommon Cacao partnered with Endorfin to pay regenerative premiums so this important project can continue.

TERROIR

In order to preserve the best varieties, EcoCacao is marking the best trees at all of the farms. They use seeds from those trees to grow saplings to plant in other areas. That helps them be certain that they are selecting for genetics that do really well in this micro- climate. Climate change is heavily affecting cacao in the area.