Shade-grown coffee plantations in northern Latin America: a refuge for more than just birds & biodiversity.

• Author: O'Connell, Denis A.

I.

AN INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABLE COFFEE

Historically, coffee in Northern Latin America (1) was planted in the shade beneath the canopy of native trees. Besides providing richer coffee and requiring little chemical fertilizers and pesticides, canopy trees also provide farmers with additional sources of food and income, and provide habitat for migratory songbirds and other species. More recently, a trend towards growing coffee under the full sun that began in the mid-1970s, driven in part by U.S. foreign assistance, has destroyed large tracts of coffee forests and their associated biodiversity. (2) This modernization of the coffee industry has allowed increasingly large volumes of coffee to be grown at faster rates. However, modernization has also resulted in reductions of vegetative cover and species diversity of plant communities and their associated faunas, and adverse environmental impacts from the application of agrochemicals (3) on lands previously unspoiled by such applications. (4)

Coffee consumers seeking to protect the flora, fauna, and small coffee growers that depend upon the traditional shade coffee plantation have been switching to certified coffee. The gourmet, or specialty, coffee industry has been subject to these social and environmental themes which were unimaginable a decade ago. As a result, organic, fair trade, bird-friendly, shade-grown, and the catchall sustainable coffees are now featured at coffee bars. (5) Buying sustainable coffee has become a way for consumers to assist in conserving biodiversity and create an income for peasant farmers (6)

However, coffee consumers presently face the problem of too many different certification programs. (7) The International Coffee Organization (ICO) should take a leadership role in the certified coffee market that will result in legitimate conservation of traditional shade-grown coffee farms. Such efforts by the ICO must be supported by non-governmental environmental organizations (NGOs) that must work in concert with the ICO for a common cause. Coffee companies must also support these initiatives by agreeing to purchase sufficient amounts of certified coffee to ensure that growing such coffee is economically profitable.

In addition to the ICO, NGOs, coffee companies, and their consumers, the governments of the coffee growing nations of Northern Latin America must take action to conserve shade-grown coffee farms. The Biological Diversity Convention called for its member states to "endeavor to provide conditions needed for compatibility between present uses and the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components." (8) Sound national policies that protect and conserve shade coffee farms will not only benefit small farmers, the biodiversity that their plantations harbor, and the programs that certify their coffee as sustainable, but also will serve as a means for nations to achieve their in situ conservation duties under the Biological Diversity Convention, (9) as well as the principles of Agenda 21. (10)

II.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE COFFEE BEAN IN THE NEW WORLD

Legend has it that coffee was discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi, who noticed that his goats were dancing and bleating excitedly after eating the red berries from a tree that he had never seen before. (11) Upon sampling the berries himself, Kaldi felt as if he were full of energy and was soon frolicking with his goats. (12) Whether this legend is true or not, coffee quickly spread to other countries from its original range in Ethiopia, and by about A.D. 1000 its popularity had soon spread throughout Arabia. (13)

Venetian merchants brought coffee from Constantinople to Italy in 1615, and by 1750 it could be found through most of Western Europe. (14) By the eighteenth century, coffee had also been introduced into the fertile growing areas of the New World tropics. (15) Under colonial rule, coffee cultivation increased dramatically throughout the tropics over the following centuries. (16) Coffee is now grown in nearly eighty different tropical and subtropical countries. (17)

Coffee's popularity in the United States can be traced back to the Revolutionary War. Rebellious colonists, resisting British tea taxes, dumped a load of tea into Boston's harbor and refused to buy any more tea from Tory sources. (18) By the end of the Revolution, coffee had replaced tea as an American mainstay. (19) Coffee has now become a national obsession. (20) Starbucks, a popular Seattle-based coffee house, has grown from eighty-four locations in 1990 to 4435 stores across America and twenty-one foreign countries. (21) Americans consume approximately one-third of the world's coffee. (22) According to the National Coffee Association, 52% of American adults drink coffee daily. (23)

III.

THE BIOLOGY AND ECONOMICS OF COFFEE

Coffee is a woody shrub, and some species can grow thirty-two feet high given the proper conditions. (24) Coffee is a member of the genus Coffea in the family Rubiacaea. (25) Of more than twenty different species, two account for the majority of coffee consumed worldwide: Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora var. robusta. (26) Generally speaking, arabica is grown in Central and South America, and robusta is grown in West Africa and Southeast Asia. (27)

Northern Latin America has the climatic and ecological conditions required for peak production of arabica coffee: rich soil, reliable rainfall, and ideal altitudes between 3000 and 6000 feet (900 and 1800 meters). (28) These ideal conditions also include plenty of sunshine, average temperatures between sixty and seventy degrees Fahrenheit, and freedom from frost. (29) By and large, arabicas are more susceptible to poor soils and diseases than robustas. (30) Because of this, and because they are considered a tastier bean than robustas, arabicas bring a higher price and are most often used in specialty coffees. (31)

Coffee plays an integral part in the world's economy. (32) In dollar value, coffee trails only petroleum as the world's most important legal export, with revenues from coffee sales exceeding $10 billion per year. (33) The annual yield of the three certified sustainable coffees (organic, fair-trade, and shade-grown) is roughly 36 million pounds and is valued at $490 million. (34) Although substantial, sustainable coffee only represents less than 1% of global coffee sales. (35)

Northern Latin American countries rely upon coffee as a key source of export income. (36) Mexico is the world's fourth largest coffee producer after Brazil, Colombia, and Indonesia. (37) Mexican coffee exports to the United States alone account for about one-third of the country's entire agricultural exports to the world. (38) In turn, coffee follows oil and steel as the third most common commodity imported into the United States. (39)

IV.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL, SHADE-GROWN COFFEE AND TECHNIFIED, SUN-GROWN COFFEE

Coffee is produced in many of the world's biologically richest regions, and contributes either to the endangerment or the protection of these regions depending upon how it is grown. (40) There are two fundamental ways to produce coffee: industrially in the sun, and traditionally in the shade. (41) Throughout Northern Latin America and other parts of the world, coffee has traditionally been planted in the shade beneath a canopy (42) of native trees. (43) This method has been utilized because it causes coffee beans to mature more slowly, creating a higher sugar content than sun-grown coffee beans and giving them a richer, fuller flavor when they are roasted. (44)

The canopy trees, also known as overstory or shade trees, play an important part in the ecology of the traditional coffee farm. Canopy trees fix nitrogen into the ground, resulting in fertile soil that requires little or no additional fertilizer. (45) Organic matter dropped from shade trees provides natural mulch, which in turn reduces erosion, inhibits weed growth, and prevents the accumulation of toxic metals in the soil. (46) The canopy trees protect the land beneath them from the impact of rain and wind. (47) Pesticides are unnecessary for growing shade coffee because the large number of birds that thrive in the overstory feast on any insects in the area. (48) The trees in the overstory can also provide additional food and insurance crops to small coffee growers, including timber, firewood, and fruit. (49)

The switch from shade-growing techniques to a sun-grown coffee system is known as technification, or modernization. Growers originally modernized in the early 1970s to save their coffee plants from coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix), which thrives in moist conditions, because sun plantations generally have drier soil than their shaded counterparts. (50) However, coffee leaf rust never proved as destructive as anticipated. (51) Presently, the major motivation behind modernization is increased production. (52) Modernization employs a hybrid coffee plant that grows in full sunlight and allows growers to produce coffee three times faster than the traditional method. (53)

While sun-grown coffee cultivation produces substantial yields, intensive management is needed to sustain these increased yields over a number of years. (54) Soil nutrient levels decrease because there are no leguminous, nitrogen-fixing trees in the canopy to provide fertilizing leaf litter. (55) Because of the lack of nitrogen in the soil, sun-grown coffee requires a steady diet of additional fertilizers and chemicals. (56) Because of the absence of a leafy over-story, sun plantations do not have insect-eating birds, and therefore insecticides are needed to protect the ripening crop from insect pests. (57)

Sun-grown coffee plants often suffer a premature death in environments with a marked dry season, and they need to be replaced much more frequently than plants in shaded areas. (58) Conversion to sun coffee appears to result in soil erosion and acidification, and...