For Biodiversity: Buy Shade-grown Coffee

by Ken Wilson

Since World War II, the amount of land under coffee cultivation has doubled. The increase in production has been even greater, however, due to a change in farming practice. Since 1972, many coffee growers, with the help of the US government and chemical companies, have begun growing "sun coffee." Forests and fruit groves have been removed from nearly half of the coffee acreage in Central America since 1978.

Traditional, or shade, coffee is grown under a diverse canopy of 40 to 50 trees, chosen because of their ability to cast even shade, improve soils, and provide fruitwood and other products for the farm household. Shade coffee plants live 15 to 50 years, are slower to mature, producing better flavor, and are a long-term, healthier farming practice.

Sun coffee production involves the removal of all vegetation and habitat and is a short-term enterprise with plants lasting only 12 to 15 years before replacement. The use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides causes water pollution and jeopardizes worker safety. The lack of soil cover exposes soils to heavy tropical rains, and causes erosion. The result is a diminished ecosystem similar in some ways to the effects of wine culture on our local environs.

A third of all migrating songbirds that breed in the United States winter in the coffee-growing areas of Central America and the Caribbean. Over the past forty years Central America has lost two-thirds of its rainforests to various causes. This is the single biggest factor, along with pesticides and feral cats, in the decline of songbirds.

The importance of shade coffee plantations is contained in their ability to sustain a high diversity and density of migrant and resident birds. Studies in Eastern Chiapas, Mexico, show shade coffee supporting more than 150 species of birds, a figure exceeded only in undisturbed tropical forest. In contrast, sun coffee supports only 20-50 species.

During the dry season both resident and migratory birds are dependent upon shade coffee habitat. Some of the migrant birds which use this habitat are tanagers, flycatchers, gnat-catchers, vireos, thrushes, orioles, warblers and hummingbirds. Among the resident birds are trogons, woodcreepers and toucans. Other creatures using the habitat include small cats, otters, Howler Monkeys, bats, reptiles and amphibians. A Mexican study shows mammal numbers ranging from zero in sun coffee to 24 species in shade coffee, a figure comparable to natural areas. In Costa Rica similar studies show a direct relationship between the number of insects and the percentage of shade in a habitat.

Due to the high concentration and large numbers of birds in Central America, any habitat changes there reflect over larger areas such as our temperate zone. Studies show that a third of Wood Thrushes have disappeared, and the Baltimore Oriole, which is more common in older shade coffee than in any other habitat, has declined by 20 percent in the past 10 years.

Responding to this situation, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center recently hosted a Sustainable Coffee Congress and established the International Sustainable Coffee Coalition for the purpose of promoting a graded labeling system for environmentally healthy, organic, shade-grown coffee. In addition, some shade coffee companies are putting money back into local farm communities and contributing percentages of sales directly to bird conservation.

Some of the coffee companies that are promoting and marketing organic shade-grown coffee and sustainable farming practices are: Thanksgiving Coffee, SBC of Seattle, Sanctuary Coffee, and Cafe Audubon--- a product licensed by the National Audubon Society that will soon be on the market.

As we confront the results of deforestation throughout the world it becomes more important than ever to support agriculture that creates and preserves vital habitat for our wildlife. To demonstrate our support we can request, promote and purchase organic, shade-grown coffee.

Sources: Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, Tea and Co, ee Trade Journal, Birding Magazine, Bioscience Magazine, Audubon Magazine, and La Tangara Newsletter (the international newsletter of Partners in Flight).