What is Shade-grown Coffee & Why it should be important to North American Bird Watchers : by Conservation Chair, Bob Berghier |
"Shade-grown" coffee is grown under a canopy of diverse species of shade trees on small farms in Mexico & Central America using traditional techniques. Among the many benefits of using shade-grown coffee production methods, in contrast to sun-grown coffee, are that it provides food and shelter for songbirds, as well as habitat for numerous other species of animals and plants. Many of these songbirds are migrants from North America such as many species of warblers, & tanagers among numerous other species. |
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When coffee arrived in the New World, it was cultivated in the shade of native forest trees. This is the way coffee plants were grown for almost two hundred years. The original varieties of coffee brought to the New World are relatively intolerant of direct sunlight, and require the filtering effect of shade trees to protect the leaves from burning. In the last 30 years, however, new sun tolerant coffees have been developed. Unfortunately farmers are now encouraged by international development agencies to convert their growing practices to sun-grown systems. While Sun coffee produces substantially increased yields, it requires additions of chemical fertilizers, as well as a range of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. In addition, the lack of tree root structures in the soil of Sun coffee plantations causes increased erosion and toxic run-off. Since more Sun bushes can be cultivated per acre, and each plant produces as much as three times more coffee than a shade bush in a given year, the transition from Shade to Sun coffee makes sense economically. However, it was soon discovered that sun coffee farms had serious environmental side effects.
c. Lynn C. Jackson
The vegetation in coffee plantations ranges from traditional rustic cultivation (most complex - most similar to pristine forest) to un-shaded monoculture (least complex - composed only of coffee plants), and everything in between. Traditional rustic or "mountain coffee" is the system with the highest diversity of plants and the least impact on the original ecosystem. Coffee plants replace the shrub-like and herbaceous plants of the forest, but the original tree cover is maintained. Monoculture, with coffee plants growing in direct sunlight, is the other extreme. No tree cover at all requires high inputs of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, use of machinery, and an intensive workforce year round. It also produces the highest yield of coffee per acre, though the soil in most plantations requires that the fields often sit fallow. Shade-grown coffee plantations can continue to produce year after year.
The forest-like structure of Shade coffee farms provides habitat for a great number of migratory and resident birds, reptiles, ants, butterflies, bats, small mammals & primates, plants and other organisms. Focusing solely on birds, shade coffee fields shelter up to two-thirds of the bird species found in natural pristine forests in the same geographic areas. In contrast, Sun coffee fields shelter less than one-tenth of bird species. Among transformed land, shade-grown coffee is most likely the crop that supports the highest diversity of migratory birds, native flora and fauna.
 c. James Sinclair, 2007 |
An excellent example of the benefits of Shade coffee farms is currently taking place on the El Jaguar Coffee Farm located in a highland region of Nicaragua. This relatively small patch of forest (105 acres) of protected cloud forest and managed Shade grown coffee forest has an impressive bird list including the only known population of the three-wattled bellbird in Nicaragua and the largest number of migrant golden-winged warblers in the region. However El Jaguar Coffee Farm does not turn a profit on its coffee. What keeps El Jaguar profitable is eco-tourism not sales of its Shade grown coffee. Otherwise the owners would have to convert their land to Sun-grown coffee. |
That should be a wake-up call for USA bird watchers. Shade grown coffee is more expensive to produce and therefore costs more to purchase than sun grown coffee. The bird watching coffee consumer has the choice of paying more for their “shade grown” grown coffee. Paying more for Shade grown coffee will protect the wintering habitat of North American migrant birds. The next time you purchase a cup, bag or jar of coffee take some time to think about the choice you as an individual are making. Is it worth it for you to spend a few more cents or an extra dollar to protect the birds you find so interesting each Spring, Summer & Fall.