i Patrick W. Staib Anthropology This dissertation is approved, and it ...

Danilo’s fields as we talked with the workers about the differences in Las Grietas since
organic farming was introduced. Longtime Las Grietas resident, coffee picker, and our
neighbor Doña Mari, explained.
Antes, las quebradas se llenaban de miel. Se sentía el olor podrido por
dondequiera. Ahora vienen los aves. Antes no, los muchachos los tiraban con sus
jueyletas. Ahora la gente sabe no tolerar el abuso a la fauna, es nuestro medio
ambiente y lo tenemos que proteger nosotros! (Before, the streams would fill up
with coffee juice. You could smell the rotten odor all over. Now the birds come.
Before they didn’t, the boys shot them with their slingshots. Now the people
know not to tolerate abuse of the fauna; it’s our environment, and we are the ones
who have to protect it!).
Many cooperatives led trainings to help farmers redefine their relationship with wildlife
and other aspects of the natural environment. One campaign specifically focused on
convincing children not to shoot birds with slingshots. The many colorful species that
inhabit the organic farms of Las Segovias, including toucans, oropendulas, quetzales, and
guardabarrancos, have become a welcome sight.
Farmers receive an incentive in price premiums for producing certified organic
coffee. This certification ensures that farmers do not use toxic chemicals on their farms
that can harm natural ecosystems or water sources. These farmers are the descendants of
the indigenous populations that fled armed conflict to the safety of the inhospitable,
remote mountains of Las Segovias. The shift in transnational development discourse
reevaluates the role of smallholders in the wild lands they inhabit. The global
development elite invests in development programs that designate el campesino
nicaragüense as the protector of the remaining lush mountaintops that for centuries were
exploited, deforested, mined, and bombarded to serve the interests of elite sectors of
society. The most abject populations have answered the call to value their ecosystem and
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