In October 2013, the Coca-Cola Company and its local bottlers, Bepensa Dominicana, Arca Continental, and Coca-Cola–FEMSA, joined the Latin American Water Funds Alliance to create the "Water for the Future" program. This program aims to promote and finance conservation projects in six countries in the region (Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, and the Dominican Republic), with the goal of replenishing or returning to nature the volume of water equivalent to the amount used in the production of its products.
Specific goals were set in each country through 2020. In the Dominican Republic, the target was to supply 561,555 cubic meters of water. This work is being carried out in the Nizao, Haina, and Yaque del Norte river basins, through conservation activities on 558 hectares.
The main activities implemented are:
– The establishment of shade-grown coffee or cocoa agroforestry systems.
– Conservation of native forests.
– Assisted restoration (reforestation with native and endemic species).
– The restoration of riparian corridors.
– The establishment of silvopastoral systems.
All of these actions also help improve the conditions of the watersheds that supply water to the populations of Santo Domingo and Santiago. The initiative also contributes to strengthening the Yaque del Norte and Santo Domingo Water Funds.
These activities have different impacts, both economic, social and environmental, that directly benefit communities.
Economic impacts:
– Support for local initiatives related to community water use and ecosystem restoration.
Social impacts:
– 724 direct beneficiaries in marginal areas.
– Improving productive capacities, resilience, and risk reduction.
– 1,090,652 people benefited from water from reforested basins.
Environmental impacts:
– 318 conservation agreements signed.
– 689 hectares intervened.
– Estimated volume of replenished water 935,400 m3.
– We replenished 167% of the water consumed during 2019.
At Bepensa, as part of this movement, we have been able to carry out all this valuable work thanks to our strategic alliances with the support of the Latin American Water Funds Alliance, made up of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the FEMSA Foundation, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and more than 200 local partners in different countries in the region.
In this way, we align ourselves with four of the Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations 2030 agenda:
– Goal 6. Clean water and sanitation.
– Goal 12. Responsible production and consumption.
– Goal 13. Climate action.
– Objective 15. Life of terrestrial ecosystems.
We implement best practices in a comprehensive manner, positively impacting the areas where we operate. This is why we were recognized in the first edition of the Catalog of Promising Practices, created by the National Council of Private Enterprise (CONEP) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
