UCA Miraflor R.L.

The Unión de Cooperativas Héroes y Mártires de Miraflor (UCA Miraflor) is a secondary level multi-sectorial cooperative located in the municipio of Miraflor, in the department of Estelí in northern Nicaragua. UCA Miraflor has well over 400 members in 11 cooperatives who produce coffee, basic grains, raise cattle and manage community eco-tourism projects. The organization has had a long trajectory of community development and environmental stewardship in the region.

The 1980s was a decade of significant  cooperative development in Nicaragua. The Sandinista government enacted major land reforms upon their arrival to power following the 1979 Nicaraguan Revolution, and sought to empower rural communities by supporting the creation of local cooperatives.  In the 1990s, the government shifted away from socialist policies with the democratic transition to the administration of Violeta Chamorro. Many cooperatives dissolved as they began to lose support from the government. However, UCA Miraflor’s founding general manager - Porfirio Cepeda, encouraged farmers not to sell their lands. With a vision of environmental stewardship he sought to organize a community tourism project, and thus UCA Miraflor was founded in 1990. As a multi-sectorial secondary level cooperative, UCA Miraflor promoted income diversification projects and by the year 2000, there were 12 member cooperatives devoting themselves to tourism, environmental projects, basic grains (corn, rice, beans and others) agriculture and ranching. 

UCA Miraflor’s ecological vision and work in developing community tourism projects in the Municipio of Miraflor, helped set the groundwork in order for the government of Nicaragua to recognize the 45,000+ hectare Miraflor Nature Preserve in 1999. This has become a great point of pride for UCA Miraflor members.

By the early 2000s UCA Miraflor sought to increase income by expanding into coffee cultivation and developing it as a core business model. Their ecological vision, held since it's inception, made organic certification a natural fit. In addition to organic certification, local biodiversity, shade cultivation and tree diversity in farms has allowed UCA Miraflor to certify all their organic farmers under SMBC Bird Friendly certification.  UCA Miraflor has over 200 coffee producers of which over 50 are organic certified. UCA Miraflor has profiled their organic production areas to offer more tailored quality to customers, managing 7 different types of regional quality profiles.