August 2015

Background information

Bird-friendly coffee short

SongbirdSOS Productions Inc. is a Canadian company that has produced a film about the decline of North American songbirds called The Messenger. It’s slated for worldwide release within the next year. The 90-minute film covers many bird conservation issues, including a segment on the connection between coffee and bird habitat. In that spirit, the producers have also created a video short on that topic, A Coffee Primer for Birds & People. Three minutes of my friend Robert Rice of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center talking about how and why of Bird-Friendly coffee certification, which they developed. It’s a great overview, with a lot of beautiful footage of birds on coffee farms. Take a look:

 

Research on coffee growing

Coffee berry borer research

The Journal of Insect Science recently published an open-access paper: A coffee berry borer (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) bibliography.  This updates previous compilations of research, and now contains nearly 1900 references from mostly peer-reviewed sources. This very useful resource can be downloaded from the journal home page here.

I also maintain a bibliography of peer-reviewed papers focused on coffee growing, biodiversity, certifications, and related issues on this page, updated periodically. I’ve included a link to the coffee berry borer paper there as well.