Social enterprise Banolmi is planning to extend its rainforest coffee model to additional indigenous communities across the Cordillera region, aiming to raise farmers' incomes while advancing forest conservation and safeguarding indigenous heritage, according to co-founder Daniel Maches.

The Philippines, despite having highland regions well-suited to arabica cultivation, imports most of the coffee it consumes — a shortfall driven in part by low farmgate prices, limited processing infrastructure, and weak smallholder links to premium markets that Banolmi's model seeks to address at the community level.

Banolmi was created as a marketing platform for sustainably grown products following the launch of Barlig Rainforest Coffee in Mountain Province in 2021.

"Our goal is to be able to showcase products that are sustainably grown, mainly starting with coffee," Mr. Maches said in an interview.

"We started Barlig Rainforest Coffee as an approach to plant quality coffee while at the same time protecting our rainforest and pushing for our cultural integrity as indigenous people," he added.

The enterprise began with a focus on specialty coffee and has since broadened its offerings to include heirloom rice, forest products, honey, and wild foods — all sourced from indigenous communities.

"As we engaged more communities and more indigenous youth to engage in agroecological coffee farming, we decided that we needed a marketing platform to showcase our produce from these communities," Mr. Maches explained.

The name Banolmi is drawn from the Kankanaey words banol (word) and mi (us), meaning "our word," reflecting the enterprise's deep ties to indigenous identity and ancestral land.

"Banolmi is not just a social enterprise of coffee, heirloom rice, forestry, honey, or wild foods. It's also our identity, a reflection of our connection to the land as indigenous people," he said.

Mr. Maches recalled that one of the greatest challenges in the early years was persuading farmers to resume coffee cultivation. Many had abandoned the crop due to persistently low prices and a lack of access to premium markets — a pattern mirrored across the Philippine coffee sector, where smallholders frequently exit the crop during price downturns.

"In the past, there was a lot of coffee in our community, but it was cut down because of low prices. They were berated by local traders at that time, and they didn't have knowledge or access to premium markets," he said.

Farmer interest increased after Banolmi took part in local and international trade exhibitions, which helped demonstrate the commercial value of sustainably produced specialty coffee. The global specialty coffee sector has seen rising consumer demand for single-origin and shade-grown beans, which typically command higher prices than commodity-grade coffee.

Financing, however, has emerged as the company's most significant constraint as it works to scale operations.

"Our community members are interested to join, but they also want support," Mr. Maches said.

"Right now, it's mainly the financial aspect that is limiting our capacity to expand and involve more community members," he noted.

At present, Banolmi collaborates with approximately 30 indigenous coffee farmers in Barlig, Mountain Province, along with communities in Kabayan and Kapangan in Benguet province.

The company intends to replicate two established farm models — the Barlig Mountain Forest Farm and the Ikalahan Heritage Farm — in other communities to promote agroecological coffee farming.

"These are proof of concept that we developed to show the community that sustainable coffee works," Mr. Maches said.

He emphasized that Banolmi sets itself apart by embedding environmental conservation directly into its business model.

"It's always about bridging practical or economic opportunity with nurturing and taking care of the land," he said.

Coffee cultivated beneath rainforest canopies matures more slowly, yielding sweeter and more complex flavor profiles, he added.

"When you drink our coffee, you're tasting the richness of the rainforest," Mr. Maches said.

Looking ahead, Banolmi intends to involve more indigenous youth in agroecological farming as a core component of its conservation strategy.

"Our goal is to engage more communities, especially indigenous young people," Mr. Maches said.

"As we do so, we are ensuring that more of our remaining rainforests are protected and preserved," he added.

He pointed out that only about 7% of the country's intact rainforests remain, with most located within indigenous ancestral domains in the Cordillera. Global conservation research has consistently found that indigenous-managed lands tend to experience lower rates of forest loss than areas under other forms of governance. This reality, he said, drives the company's advocacy for agroecological farming as a means to rehabilitate degraded mountain landscapes while generating sustainable livelihoods.

— Kaizzer Angela Marie V. Manuba