Rebuilding a Coffee Estate as a Layer of a Rainforest Ecosystem Since 2019

Robusta coffee growing as a layer of the rainforest ecosystem at the Poomaale 1.0 Collective, Coorg

Picture this –

You are away from the cacophonic bustle of the city, sitting in a softly sunlit patch under a forest canopy. The ear-piercing traffic horns are replaced by the calls of a hornbill, and you wonder who is approaching you as the Malabar whistling thrush shyly sings for you from the haven of densely vegetated treetops. Every sound is less noise, more wonder. And every sight is less concrete, more green. It’s not a vacation, but your way of life, where you and your close ones, together with a closer community of ones like you, have built a place that is not only a 180-degree turn from the city life but also a place where you are secure with all things you need for a quality life.

Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?

Well, this was our dream too, and that of many others like us who joined us on this gratifying journey towards a sustainable life in harmony with nature. We can see the dream slowly manifesting with our 1st Wilderness Collective, the Poomaale 1.0 Collective. With a few years of effort and the teamwork of crowd funders (members of the Collective), sustainable development planners and locals, we now have robusta coffee cultivation, a wilderness guest house, and have begun the construction of the homes of the Collective members, getting a step closer to the dream – all led by a forest-friendly community on a 128-acre landscape!

But the picture was very different when we first discovered the enchanting landscape of Poomaale 1.0 Collective back in 2019.

Where it All Started – Discovering the Poomaale Estate

It started with the dream of yearning for a green space to call our own, which we soon realised was a dream of many. This formed the basis of why we conceived the idea of a Collective, which at the core is all about pooling our resources, aspirations and skills into a sea of possibilities – a life where people accept nature with open arms and nature does the same. With this seed of thought and a few like-minded individuals, we began our journey. The starting point, however, was to find a landscape we could manifest this dream upon, and that’s when we discovered the Poomaale Estate in Coorg.

Nestled in one of the 36 biodiversity hotspots of the world, the Western Ghats, we were ablaze with excitement upon discovering the estate but also had our share of challenges. Despite being in a biodiverse and water-rich area, the region (Coorg) has experienced difficulties due to heavy rainfall, leading to landslides and floods. We also learnt about the impact of monoculture, pesticide-laden coffee plantations on the soil and the forests that surround these plantations. 

One thing was clear – forests need to be conserved in order for us to sustain. However, the many market-dependent challenges of coffee cultivation have led to forest degradation as coffee growers push themselves (and their land) to extremes for survival. Although coffee farming was not the main motive for selecting Poomaale, but coffee is a gift of nature in this pristine location and one of the vital streams of economic returns for the community. Hence we did not want the fate of Poomaale to go along the same path, nor did we want to pressurise the landscape to yield more than its carrying capacity. That’s when we conceived another idea – reimagining a coffee estate as a layer of the existing rainforest ecosystem.  

The Journey – From an Inactive Coffee Estate to a Community Run Coffee Forest

Coffee is a key plantation crop in Southern India, for which forests have been cleared unhinged over the last few decades. But our dream of a life in sync with nature would defy itself if we were to do the same. We got thinking – is it even possible to cultivate coffee in a forest-like environment? And if it is, is it better to do it that way, for the sake of the ecology as well as for improving the quality of coffee? Several questions crossed our minds, but we had a strong conviction about building a ‘forest-friendly’ coffee estate. Thanks to the pre-existing wild character of the Poomaale Estate, which, before our step, lay abandoned in the depths of Coorg for over a decade, making its feel and vibe, even the functioning to an extent, forest-like. There could not have been a better location for creating a prototype of this concept, so there was no looking back.

Poomaale 1.0 Collective – Creating Precedents for Sustainable Development

Recognising the need for improvement in traditional coffee estate practices, we set out on a transformative journey. Our focus extended beyond coffee production to encompass holistic changes – soil building, weaving the estate in the layered threads of the rainforest, and embracing community-led development.

The creation of a coffee forest became our mission, and permaculture became our way to it. Combined with food forest creation and biodiversity conservation, we restricted construction to a mere 15% of the 128-acre and dedicated 50% of the estate as a minimal intervention wilderness zone. We had biosocial experts, like Dr Shekhar Kolipaka, join us in this mission and lead the biodiversity conservation facet. We have been conducting regular biodiversity surveys in the estate and monitoring the numbers, behaviour & movement of species in various seasons and times so as to improve our understanding of the unknown and live in peace with it.

Coffee growing since 2019, has also improved a great deal. From harvesting the first ‘completely wild’ produce of robusta coffee in 2021 to crafting a speciality robusta coffee grown the permaculture way and processed skilfully, uncovering the hidden flavours of the robusta bean – we have entered the league of speciality coffee industry and garnered appreciation for the methods, philosophy, as well as the taste. Read about the evolution of our Bewild Coffee in – Crafting Speciality Robusta Coffee: The Evolving Journey of Bewild Coffee.

Our aim of creating impact at a large scale was also reinforced when we built our first forest-friendly guest house, the Blyton Bungalow, in 2022 and opened it up for nature lovers to get a taste of this lifestyle and understand our work on a deeper level on ground. With only over a year of its opening, it has become a favourite of many who resonate with our philosophies of sustainable living and is becoming one of the must-experience coffee estate stays in Coorg. Being one of the first hospitality ventures of Beforest, Blyton bungalow is also a key stream of economic return for the community.

All this was built on the foundation of the team working on ground (farm operations, managers, permaculture designers, civil engineers, construction & farm workers), the support by the Members of Poomaale 1.0 Collective and our combined vision of making this dream come true the right way.

Inching Closer to the Dream & Beyond

While the other developments take shape and we wait to look forward to more possibilities, we have entered the stage at the Poomaale 1.0 Collective, where we close the gap between the dream and reality. We have begun construction of the homes of a few of our Collective members, and what the beautiful landscape has in store for them and us, we don’t know, but the anticipation is high!

Watch our members Arun & Gopika Vydianathan talk about envisioning a life at the Poomaale 1.0 Collective.

Poomaale 1.0 Collective’s journey has been a true testament to our motive of creating impact at scale & then scaling the impact. As more like-minded people reached out to us, who wanted to invest in wildlife habitat preservation and lead a sustainable lifestyle, we launched our 2nd wilderness collective – the Poomaale 2.0 Collective – a 100-acre landscape adjacent to the site of the Poomaale 1.0 Collective. It is currently in the formation stage and is 70% subscribed. If you resonated with our ideas, thoughts or philosophies and wish to invest in the conservation of forests while leading a sustainable lifestyle – check out the Poomaale 2.0 Collective and reach out to us.

Thinking about a different location? Check out all our 6 collectives across India!

If you are looking for more content on sustainable development, wildlife, farming, permaculture and similar themes, head to the Beforest Blog.