PRESS RELEASE, Sunday, March 7, 2004
CONTACT Lonna Harkrader, President
Sister Communities of San Ramón, Nicaragua
info@san-ramon.org
919 489-1656
Developed since 1998 by a local non-profit, Durham-San Ramón Sister
Communities, to showcase environmentally sustainable tourism, Finca Esperanza
Verde received the award from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Tourism and German-run
FODESTUR (Promotion of Sustainable Development Through Tourism in Central America).
The lodge and coffee farm exhibit meticulous attention to protecting the local
environment while stimulating local economic development. An abandoned coffee
farm when purchased by the Durham, North Carolina-based organization, reforestation
with native hardwoods and production of shade grown organic coffee have been
integral parts of the farm's development.
Groups from the Triangle area which have visited Finca Esperanza Verde include
scientists from the NC Museum of Natural Science, members of the NC Audubon
Society, returned Peace Corps Volunteers, Durham Academy, Raleigh Charter High
School, and East Chapel Hill High School. Educators consider a week's visit
to the farm and town of San Ramón a unique opportunity for their students
to experience the culture and Spanish language, and to learn about issues of
economic justice such as fair trade coffee and sweat shops and the role the
United States has played in Nicaraguan history.
Ecotours to San Ramón are organized by former tourists who want to introduce
others to rural Nicaraguan where a casual horse back ride can turn into an opportunity
to visit the horse ownert's farm to meet his family. And where a hike through
the shade grown coffee farm can turn into a lesson in how to cure rashes and
stomach ache with herbal medicines growing along the path as well as a dip in
a secluded pool below a water fall. All the income from ecotours stays in San
Ramón for community development projects, to support the farm and to
pay for a broad array of services including Doña Adalila's cooking classes,
San Ramón Youth Band performances, and home stays with local families.
Finca Esperanza Verde has strong ties with the Museum of Life and Science in
Durham which has imported butterfly pupa raised on the farm and leaf cutter
ants for live insect exhibits. Other supporting organizations include the Southwest
Durham Rotary Club which has donated over $100,000 to community development
projects in San Ramón over the past 10 years including $50,000 to build
a new water system for the urbanized area. Eno River Unitarian Universalist
Fellowship, Watts Street Baptist Church and Durham Friends Meeting, three of
the congregations founding Sister Communities of San Ramón, Nicaragua in 1993,
continue to support projects including a free music school, programs for children
and senior citizens, schools and the health center to name a few. Other supporters
include Duke Chapel Congregation, East Chapel High School and Durham Academy.