The Páez (also known as the Nasa) are indigenous to Colombia’s southern highlands and are one of a large number of different ethinc groups who inhabited Colombia’s territory prior to occupation by the Europeans. This reserve in Meta (one of 567 countrywide) was declared by the Colombian government more than 50 years ago in the foothills of the Andes, in Colombia’s Sierra de la Macarena region.
The inhabitants of this spectacular and remote area have suffered for several decades due to the presence of illegal armed groups, but over the past four years government troops have helped secure and open up the region. Long may this last - indigenous communites in Colombia are among the worst affected by insurgent violence as they tend to live in remote, rural areas, where illegal armed groups seek both cover and control of lucrative coca-growing lands (for production of cocaine).
Around 40 families live in this particular community in Meta, whose main source of income is coffee and cocoa production. Each family also farms their own bananas, yucca and fruit trees for their own consumption. The Páez people have a long tradition of living off the land while maintaining its natural ecological balance, and a huge amount of care is taken by the community when producing their coffee.
Some 40 hectares of the reserve’s land is under coffee, which grows at between 1,300 and 1,700 meters above sea level. The main harvest runs from September until February, although the unpredictable heavy rains of the past two years have reduced and interrupted harvests.
All work during harvest is carried out collectively by the entire community. The cherries are picked by hand and then fully washed in an ecological wet mill donated to the reserve by the Colombian Coffee Growers’ Federation (FNC). The washed beans are then dried either in the sun on patios, or on raised screens in polytunnels if it is raining.
This coffee was placed in the Cup of Excellence competition in 2004.