The Chiapas Landscape is located along the coast of Chiapas, Mexico, between the Sierra Madre mountains and the Pacific shoreline. It spans an intervention area of 339,000 hectares, encompassing the La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve (REBIEN) — one of North America’s most important biodiversity hotspots. The region includes a mosaic of natural coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves, which provide a wide range of ecosystem services to the entire coastline.
In that area, over 100 communities rely on the natural resources for their livelihoods, practising various forms of production activities. Chief among these is oil palm cultivation, which has improved the economic conditions of many families. However, within REBIEN itself, some producers are located in non-permitted areas where conditions for palm are less than ideal, resulting in low productivity and unprofitable harvests.
The Landscape also accounts for the largest palm oil supply zone in Mexico, known as Soconusco. Although oil palm cultivation has brought economic benefits to the region, ensuring its long-term sustainability remains a significant challenge.
In response to these challenges, the Chiapas Landscape Project was launched in 2020, aiming to establish a long-term sustainable landscape management model. The approach integrates regenerative agricultural practices and responsible sourcing across the palm oil supply chain in La Encrucijada and surrounding areas.
“With this approach, we go beyond supply chains,” explains Matilde Rincón, Chiapas Landscape Manager at Earthworm Foundation. “We are able to strengthen or revive actions that help communities and producers adapt [to global changes like climate change], while fostering synergies with institutions and organisations striving to improve local resilience and strike a balance between livelihoods and conservation.”
Earthworm Foundation’s work in the region began in 2013, initially focused on building relationships with palm oil mills and refineries. Between 2015 and 2019, the organisation conducted a detailed diagnosis of the challenges and key actors within the supply chain. This analysis formed the basis for the Chiapas Landscape Action Plan 2020–2025, which is built upon four key pillars: the development of regenerative agriculture, transformation of the supply chain, forest protection and restoration, and strengthening farmers’ resilience — particularly focusing on smallholders.
After four years of implementation, the project has consolidated a sustainable management model through comprehensive plot management plans covering 518 hectares, trained 301 individuals in sustainable natural resource management, and successfully restored six hectares of critical wetlands, among other achievements.
All of this has been made possible thanks to the support of the project’s financial partners, such as Cargill, who joined the effort. Those companies have made strong commitments to respect both people and nature within their supply chains and are actively collaborating on a continuous process of improvement and innovation.
Partnering up with Cargill
The partnership between Cargill and Earthworm began in 2010 and was solidified in 2013 with the launch of their first joint project, aimed at helping Cargill meet its palm oil commitments — particularly in markets such as the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil.
In 2014, Cargill updated its responsible palm oil policies and officially became a member of Earthworm to reinforce its commitment to regenerative supply chains that benefit people and the planet. Since then, Earthworm has supported Cargill in transforming several of its supply chains and advancing landscape-level projects.
This alliance also includes capacity-building efforts to improve the practices and policies of Cargill’s suppliers, alongside initiatives addressing labour issues and deforestation risks within the supply chain. Under the framework of this partnership, the 2024–2027 Triennial Master Agreement aims to strengthen responsible sourcing and implement regenerative agricultural practices among 250 oil palm producers in the Chiapas Landscape.
Revitalizing soils and waterways
Oscar Roblero, a 52-year-old palm farmer from the Consuelo Ulapa commune in Acapetahua Municipality, has witnessed firsthand the transformation underway. Since his parents migrated from neighbouring Oaxaca, his family has cultivated tobacco, corn, watermelon, mangoes, and raised livestock. Like many others in the region, they turned to oil palm production in the early 1990s, encouraged by national government incentives promoting the crop. Today, Roblero manages two and a half hectares of oil palm.
“With Earthworm implementing good practices, people are feeling more motivated,” says Roblero. “They’re starting to see that making an effort benefits not only the producer but the planet as well. And without proper guidance, we’d just keep repeating our old ways.”
Roblero points to one practice that has captured producers’ attention: the distribution of Supermagro. “Here, everyone’s used to chemicals. They buy a mix, apply it, and that’s it. But I tell them: one 20-litre bucket of Supermagro is equivalent to five bags of Triple 17 [a chemical fertiliser] and the results are better,” he adds. Supermagro is an organic-mineral biofertiliser made through the fermentation of organic matter and minerals, and its production and use have been promoted through the Chiapas Landscape Project.
According to Leonardo Castro, Earthworm’s Field Officer, “almost all the producers we work with have eliminated herbicide use entirely.” While nitrogen fertilisers like urea are still used, he notes that “in recent times, the use of these chemical fertilisers has decreased in favour of organic-chemical combinations.”
Similarly, Rodrigo Hernández, an 81-year-old farmer who owns a one-hectare plot in El Herrado community — located within REBIEN’s core zone — shares how soil quality has improved thanks to organic fertilisers and training provided by the project. “I used the fertilisers Leonardo taught me to make and applied them everywhere. I have about 35 trees now. I’m very grateful to them [Earthworm],” he says.
Beyond agrochemical use, soil degradation in REBIEN and its surrounding areas stems from sediment accumulation in coastal lagoons, caused by erosion, human activities upstream, and shifts in river courses that carry large quantities of soil downstream.
“This affects biodiversity, hydrology, and ecological flows, and reduces surface water levels, meaning the depth of estuaries is decreasing. There are lagoons that no longer exist — on maps they appear, or people tell us they once were lagoons,” Castro explains, warning that this phenomenon, known as siltation, is the most serious environmental issue facing REBIEN. Not only does it reduce the availability of freshwater for crops, but it also alters the natural exchange between freshwater and saltwater, increasing soil salinity, reducing fertility, and expanding the agricultural frontier.
To address this, one of the key actions promoted by the Chiapas Landscape Project is removing oil palm cultivation from non-permitted areas within the Reserve and restoring native vegetation along riverbanks and near other water bodies. According to Matilde Rincón, the project seeks to revitalise approximately 80 hectares along two of REBIEN’s six rivers — improving water connectivity, freshwater availability, and soil fertility.
These measures also aim to improve the productivity and profitability of smallholders, ensuring their businesses are sustainable in the long term. As Oscar Roblero puts it: “I don’t think sustainable cultivation is costly. It’s just about dedicating the time it requires to reap more benefits for workers, families, and the community. Prices may sometimes drop, but we always recover something from what we produce. You’ve got to invest time in palm to make it more productive.”
Building sustainable supply chains
Another major focus of the Chiapas Landscape Project is crop diversification — a regenerative agriculture practice that also enhances the sustainability of supply chains. For palm producers, it offers a supplemental income alongside their palm harvests. For those choosing to transition away from oil palm, it ensures responsible land management. Additionally, it not only helps recover soil quality and prevent the spread of pests and diseases, but it also increases plot profitability and strengthens farmers’ resilience against market fluctuations and food insecurity.
Rodrigo Hernández has participated in a crop diversification pilot for the past two years. Thanks to this initiative, his farm now produces “crops to sell — habanero, guava, pineapple, papaya, rosemary, cassava, lemongrass, radish, cucumber, squash, milpa corn, sesame, and beans.” These pilot programmes are part of a broader strategy, not only to diversify crops but to replace oil palm in critical areas — particularly within REBIEN and along riverbanks.
Leonardo Castro leads this process, noting that in the first two or three years after removing palm, most producers struggled with poor corn harvests and other crops due to severe soil degradation. This forced them to implement recovery techniques — organic fertilisers, biofertilisers, microorganism injections, and, most notably, vermiculture, a low-cost and highly effective method.
“All these experiences we’ve had with producers help us make a stronger case to mills,” says Rincón. “They show that palm can indeed coexist with other crops, and that supporting producers in diversifying is crucial for aligning with market demands.”
Gustavo Pérez, Project Manager at Pro Palma Oleosur — a company specialised in palm oil extraction and refining — believes the nature of Mexico’s production model makes it essential for companies to support smallholders in meeting sustainability standards like RSPO certification.
In Mexico, unlike other countries, the vast majority of palm growers are smallholders — some with less than one hectare, Pérez explains. In Chiapas, about 90% of the roughly 5,000 palm producers fall into this category, and most lack the financial capacity to cover environmental studies and other certification requirements.
“The company [Oleosur] handles transportation from the plots, so that cost doesn’t fall on the producers,” he adds, emphasising that such support fosters producer loyalty and ensures their participation in sustainable supply chains.
Most producers, Pérez notes, commit exclusively to a single company. “The majority of producers work with one company, supplying them only. And through initiatives like this, companies are saying: ‘We want to start piloting ways to monitor impacts, to see if carbon footprints are really being reduced,’” he shares.
This kind of support represents a valuable opportunity for companies, helping ensure product traceability in a market increasingly orientated towards sustainable consumption. “If that’s the direction things are headed, you’ve got two choices,” Pérez concludes. “You can resist change or you can align yourself, move forward decisively, and gain a competitive and comparative advantage over your competition.”
Juan Carlos Castro emphasises the need for stronger mechanisms to ensure traceability throughout the entire supply chain, as a means of combating deforestation and the encroachment into protected ecosystems.
“If we wanted to achieve full seed traceability, it would be a major challenge,” Castro notes. “First, because proving that the oil being purchased doesn’t come from La Encrucijada is extremely difficult. And second, because if one extractor refuses to buy from producers cultivating inside the Reserve, those producers will simply sell to another intermediary, who will take the product elsewhere in Chiapas, or even across Guatemala. It’s something that will be nearly impossible for companies to control unless all of them come to an agreement and collectively implement that certification.”
Mangrove restoration and crop conversion
Juan Carlos Castro, Director of La Encrucijada, part of CONANP (Mexico’s National Commission of Protected Natural Areas), points to one of the Reserve’s most pressing environmental concerns: so-called “invasive palm” — palm trees that spread through natural seed dispersal, rather than formal cultivation. “There are places where African oil palms have invaded, and people come in, clear out the surrounding vegetation, and what was once mangrove becomes an area dominated by African palm. But it wasn’t cultivated. And people still live on that land,” explains Castro.
REBIEN is home to more than 32,000 hectares of mangroves, some reaching heights of up to 35 metres — placing them among the tallest in North America. Their disappearance is alarming, as mangroves provide a wealth of ecosystem services: controlling coastal erosion, buffering storms and hurricanes, supporting fisheries that thousands of families depend on, and capturing more carbon than terrestrial forests.
As part of the Chiapas Landscape Project, Earthworm is working closely with CONANP to eliminate invasive palm. “Ultimately, we reached an agreement with mills, the government, La Encrucijada, and CONANP to fund brigades to remove the palm,” explains Matilde Rincón.
“Through this partnership, we’ve also developed a model for crop substitution and secured funding for a pilot. Now, we’re seeking additional resources to scale this model to other interested producers. Collaboration with other organisations has been key. We’re currently part of an initiative aiming to restore 350 hectares of mangroves and replace 100 hectares of palm or invasive palm cultivation within the Reserve’s core zone,” Rincón adds.
The main challenge, according to Juan Carlos, is finding productive alternatives for producers already operating in the area. “Ideally, it would involve agroecological management, or better yet, ecological restoration — but they also need a way to make a living. We haven’t yet found that solution. Guaranteeing them benefits while they remain there is very difficult.” He also believes that the government should financially support this transition, much like it previously promoted the expansion of oil palm cultivation.
“The palm supply chain is the only one that is concerned with helping producers transition to other responsible crops. Say what you will about palm elsewhere — in Soconusco, palm is being managed responsibly, ensuring producers aren’t left stranded with a crop they can’t sell because it doesn’t meet market requirements,” Rincón concludes.
All the actions under the Chiapas Landscape Project reinforce and complement one another. By improving productivity on already cultivated land and reducing pressure on surrounding forests, the need to deforest for crop expansion diminishes. Simultaneously, restoring soil health, waterways, and native vegetation — like mangroves — contributes to protecting both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, while safeguarding the well-being of communities that depend on their services.
Conserving La Encrucijada is a complex, multifaceted challenge. It requires the cooperation of communities, businesses, government institutions, and environmental organisations alike to develop solutions that protect this vital ecosystem without leaving behind the populations who depend on it. Transitioning towards sustainable production models is possible, but it demands long-term commitment, significant investment in education, infrastructure, and financing.
