Bean dreams.

U.S. gourmet coffee chain Starbucks has expanded deep into Latin America, opening shops as far south as Santiago. But the caffeine purveyor is no marketing slouch. Aside from selling more coffee, it's also promoting environmental conservation in the countries it is entering.

Starbucks has given Washington, D.C. environmental group Conservation International US$4 million in aid and loans to help capitalize its Verde Ventures global fund, which provides financing and agricultural training for small businesses in Latin America. Conservation International Director Matthew Quinlan says the main goal of the Starbucks partnership is to conserve biodiversity and to provide better economic opportunities for small coffee farmers, which have been hard-put to compete as global prices for coffee beans have plummeted.

The program in Mexico, the Chiapas Coffee Project, has benefited farm workers--in part by giving them and their families new options. "We are not going to eliminate poverty," says project coordinator Santiago Arguello in Chiapas. However, Arguello says, the Starbucks-backed fund has allowed many of the farmers to send their children off to college.

Starbucks and Conservation International expect the project to continue in the long term. Farmers want it to last, too, since the fund provides them with training and know-how they might otherwise never receive--and hope for the next generation.