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Jerry is a rainforest conservationist, chocolate entrepreneur, and independent filmmaker primarily based in Ecuador.
RAINFOREST CONSERVATION: In 2007, he co-founded Third Millennium Alliance (TMA), a nonprofit conservation organization working to preserve and restore the Pacific Forest of Ecuador - the most endangered rainforest on Earth. TMA's flagship project is the creation of the Jama-Coaque Reserve, which protects 2,500 acres of rainforest in one of the last surviving remnants of this ecosystem. (www.tma.earth)
LUXURY CHOCOLATE: Jerry's agroforestry work with TMA is how he started farming cacao trees and making chocolate. As an offshoot of that project, he then co-founded To'ak Chocolate in 2013. To'ak uses the world's rarest and most prized cacao variety to make extremely limited editions of single-origin Ecuadorian dark chocolate. It has been featured in National Geographic, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Robb Report, Vice Magazine, Mongabay, Huffington Post, and dozens of other publications across six continents. (www.toakchocolate.com)
REGENERATIVE CACAO: TMA and To'ak have since joined forces to create a regenerative agroforestry project called Capuchin Cacao, which was recently featured in Smithsonian Magazine. It's a partnership between cacao farmers, conservationists, and chocolate companies to help regenerate the forest rather than than cut it down. Farmers restore deforested land by planting a combination of native shade trees, fruit trees, and heirloom cacao trees, and premium chocolate companies like To'ak purchase their cacao at 3x the standard market price. It's a way to restore biodiversity, remove carbon from the atmosphere, and boost farmer livelihoods. (https://www.tma.earth/2023/06/20/using-chocolate-to-restore-the-rainforest/)
FILM: Last but not least, Jerry is a part-time filmmaker. He wrote and directed "Kissing Gaia" (2021) and "The Life and Death of Gaia" (2022), which are allegories of ecological consciousness and resurgence. He is also the director of the International Avant-Garde Film Awards in New York City.