The Alto Caura and its incipient cocoa route
By Yuly Carreño
The Caura river basin is considered one of the most important wooded areas in the world, given its great variety of animal and plant species, its powerful water flow and its cultural diversity.
It is located in the southwest part of Venezuela and it includes the municipalities Sucre and Mariño of Bolivar state, the largest of the country. It is a territory of five million hectares that houses areas under the Special Administration Regime (ABRAE) as important as the Jawa Sarisariñama National Park and the Forest Reserve El Caura, as it was established since 1969 due to its valuable forests.
According to data managed by various institutions, such as La Salle Foundation, the Caura River basin holds 32% of the animal species recorded in Venezuela, including 168 mammals, 475 bird species and 441 species of fish; Additionally, 17% of the country’s vegetable diversity.
Scientists consider it “one of the planet’s last rain forests boundaries that remains unspoiled,” a quality that allows it to combat the effects of global warming by producing more than 700 million tons of carbon and about 0.14 percent of the planet’s oxygen.
Although Alto Caura is not a traditional cocoa-growing area (Bolívar state is not even listed as a cocoa-producing entity in the country), several indigenes communities, mainly the Yekuana ethnic group, have opted for this sector to strengthen their economy.
Route of adventure
The route is not easy. It is a long and exhausting journey, but an unforgettable experience at the same time, full of extraordinary views and contact with the culture of a unique territory in the world.
We started the route from Ciudad Bolívar to Maripa, capital of the municipality Sucre, one of the 11 municipalities of Bolivar state. It is necessary to take the trunk 19 approximately 232 kilometres and drive for about three hours. Then, from the Port of Maripa, it begins a demanding trip on dugout canoe by the Caura river flow, the third largest river in the country.
It is a 12 hours non-stop journey, sailing along the river. It’s such an adventure. It is accompanied by fascinating and magnificent landscapes. From there one can distinguish communities such as Las Trincheras, Nichare and El Playón camp, the last place of navigation on the river (the basin of Salto Pará).
Aripao, Bejuquero, Cochino, La Colonial, Por La Mar, Puerto Cabello, La Poncha, Chaparro, Fortuna, Palmar and Zuapire are other nearby communities inhabited by indigenes from different ethnic groups such as Pemones, Yekuanas and Sanemas, located on the banks of the Caura river .
A unique waterfall
The main tourist attraction in the area is the Salto Pará, which they also call Salto de Las Pavas or Salto Cuyuvi. It is estimated that it contributes a flow of 2050 cubic meters of water per second. This admirable waterfall can only be reached on foot after a walk of at least three hours.
The challenge of walking in the middle of the jungle, in contact with an invaluable territory of privileged flora and fauna, sometimes it may be left behind when discovering this impressive waterfall which, in rainy season, surpasses Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe in Africa, and the Iguazu Falls on the border between Brazil and Argentina.
A genuine interest
After this waterfall, the journey continues for a few more hours, passing through the area called Entre Ríos, where the waters of the Caura and the Erebato rivers converge until arriving at the community of Anadekeña Sodiña (which in the Yekuana language means Boca de Piña (pineapple mouth) located in the upper basin of the Caura river.
It is still a very incipient area compared with other producing regions of the country, but here the indigenes producers have a genuine interest in learning about cocoa. This is demonstrated by their initiative to create the Association of Cocoa Producers of the community of Anadekeña Sodiña, with a common goal: to take advantage of the benefits of the legendary fruit.
Although the Caura basin is better known for the environmental effects, due to the illegal mining rather than for its agricultural production, in some areas there is potential for cocoa production which, under suitable conditions, might allow a sustainable development of its inhabitants.
At least that’s what they believe in Chocolates El Rey. The Agricultural engineer Francisco Betancourt has visited this distant geography, who, on behalf of this renowned company, made a diagnosis of the technical situation of the cocoa plantations and their quality.
In Anadekeña Sodiña stand out “Trinitarian genetics plants of no more than 10 years old with no pruning of any formation, with between three and five pods per plant during low harvest season, which is a good sign. The planting distances are regularly 3x3m and some 3x4m, with almost no missing plants. In some cases with excessive shade and in others with insufficient shade, without important diseases as witch’s broom or gout, which are the most common in cacao under this condition,. This is doubtlessly, a good sign “the also Agricultural Manager of Chocolates El Rey explains.
Assistance to improve
Given the lack of knowledge of how to properly deal with cocoa, the producers of Anadekeña Sodiña handle it in the same way as they handle an allotment, through felling, burning and cleaning the area.
For Francisco Betancourt, it is necessary to apply some techniques to improve the quality of cocoa cultivation, such as “not felling the entire forest as well as performing a selective pruning of permanent shade trees that do not serve. The truth is that no one had told them what should be done. That shows that they are in need of a lot of technical assistance. “
The interest of cocoa communities includes other aspects such as the process of grafting, fertilizing, drying and fermenting grains.
Fermentation and drying
Among the cocoa samples of these indigenes communities, F1 cocoa (first grade fine cocoa consisting of a fermented grain) and some insufficiently fermented F2 (second grade fine cocoa corresponding to unfermented grain) are distinguished.
“We have detected some faults, such as very low drawers that hinder the fermenting mass from reaching adequate temperatures and therefore insufficient fermentation. Only five days of fermentation in some cases and lack of standardization of the drying parameters.”
In spite of these shortcomings, the producers in the area have managed to maintain a very well-organized grain storage in which “the bags are ordered and marked with the name of each producer. They carry a notebook with the production data annually, in addition to a monthly control of weighting losses. The sacks are initially wrapped in plastic bags and then in a white porous plastic bag. According to my opinion, they are stored with humidity below 8%. They are packed in this way because they must be transported by the same river, streams and mountains.
Transfer and financing
The associated costs to transfer is another fundamental issue for cocoa farmers, considering the long distances that separate them from Maripa, where cocoa is sold, among others, to the renowned Agropecuaria Aprocao.
This, among other aspects are essential for the definitive improvement of the quality of cocoa produced not only in Anadekeña Sodiña but also in other communities such as Santa María de Erebato, where producers are also interested in being trained in the agronomic management of cocoa.
The initiative that natives of these communities have had requires a great boost. The funding for a storage infrastructure in Maripa, the donation of pruning tools (such as extensible chainsaws or scissors) as well as to establish direct commercial relationship with some companies interested in buying the cocoa produced there, as Chocolates El Rey, exemplify some of the needs of the Yekuan producers.
In these times of austerity and fluctuating prices in industries such as oil and mining, Alto Caura cocoa stands out as a mythical and legendary plant jealously taken care by native towns who seek to preserve their cultural heritage.
Perhaps led by God to the far-off places of this ancient territory, it certainly hopes to become an important source of livelihood for the future of this and new generations.
