Colombia: In search of Green Gold

Choco. 30,000 square kilometers of untouched forest. Only 1% of it protected. We arrive at Quibdo airport, the capital. And walk straight into the biggest party in town, the Festival of San Pacho. 40 days of partying, then one day "for reflection". San Pacho is the local name for San Francisco, Choco's patron saint, whose Franciscan monks are said to have offered support to the African slaves brought to Colombia in the 1600s to mine. And the festival is a blend of Catholicism, African and indigenous Colombian culture beliefs. "Everything is allowed", a local woman explains to me, dancing by, "except suffering". Next come a troupe of 50 men, naked apart from loin-cloths, their bodies dyed cobalt blue. In one hand they each hold an axe. In the other, the decapitated head of a Barbie doll, her blond hair matted with blood, her Barbie eyelashes batting to the beat. I have a sense I may get out of my depth. Felipe Arango, the sustainability consultant who knows Oro Verde is going to be vital.

That night we go to see an illegal mine in action. It's one man, all alone in the cabin of the digger, plucking out the trees from the forest like teeth from the mouth of a child. They say he's getting about $25. One of the loneliest things I have seen.

Next day we visit Americo's mine. He's 53, has 10 kids, 41 grandkids, and is one of the founders of Oro Verde. The moment you enter his land the ecosystem changes. From sweltering, barren sand dunes, to an intact and cool forest canopy. He uses local plants, not mercury, to separate out the gold. The water is clear. The vegetation is regrowing all around on terraces. Wendy, his 9 year old daughter is there with white beads in her hair. And I realise he's not doing this to be a sustainability guru. He is not a pioneer. He's just doing what his family has done for generations, working to preserve the one asset he has got, his land. It's not his innovation that is noteworthy to him, but our idiocy.

An hour later we make it to the next valley. And we see the competition in action. It's Dante's inferno. An illegal pit, the figures of hundreds of men, women and children doubled over in the grey, mercury-tainted water, scrabbling for traces of gold and platinum. And down among them I hear the logic. With gold prices so high, who can afford to use laborious green practices? There are families that need feeding. I wonder what I would do.

Downtown Medellin is like Switzerland. But packing up at Holiday Inn, and saying goodbye to the fantastic Colombian team of Alex, Irene, and Felipe, I am filled with a melancholia that is straight out of Garcia Marquez. This place-its people, and its music-has got to me. I will spend the next week YouTubing Reggaeton videos.

Next stop is London, where we assemble the crack World Challenge team to help turn Oro Verde around. Solitaire Townsend, Head of Futerra, the sustainability communications group, Christian Cheesman, from CRED, one of Oro Verde's key customers, and two PwC colleagues, Ray Mills, hard as nails, who knows corporate finance inside out and is passionate about social enterprises, and Chris Knight-who is a specialist in forest carbon. Can we get a premium in the market for Oro Verde? Can we use this premium to motivate more miners to adopt Oro Verde techniques. Can we get them microfinance to invest in water pumps to double production? And is there a forest carbon revenue stream to transform the economics and create a model for protecting the Choco? It's all to play for..

Posted by Leo Johnson