Theobroma Foundation Project

Theobroma Foundation Project is a creation of Volker Lehmann, with the aim to tackle the main problems of reduction of wild cacao production in the Itenz region of Bolivian Amazon and to stop further degradation of the “Cacao Forests called Chocolatales” in the medium run and increase again on average the productivity of the Chocolatales long-term. The Tranquilidad estate forms integral part of the project and is the place where most on-farm research has been carried out in the past 20 years. It holds over 300 hectares of a Cacao Forest Reserve. Most of the knowledge is ready to be expanded to other Chocolatales, to start an urgent broader ecological mitigation process.

The Itenez province holds about 38 Chocolates – man influenced forests (Somarriba et.al.) – encompassing over 20.000 hectares and dating back thousands of years as source of food for a vast amount of native people that lived there before colonization (Pruemers, Erickson et.al.) First reported by a Jesuit priest (Padre Eder) in the 18th century as home of the best cacao shipped to Europe from the New World. The Beni department of Bolivia, and mainly the Itenez province, including Baures as capital of the wild Beniano cacao, is the largest and most productive natural wild cacao harvest area in the Amazon and threatened through climate change and mismanagement. If no action is taking the damage might be irreversible.