JulieCraves

Background information / Coffee and the environment / Corporate coffee

The problems with sun coffee

Two species of coffee are grown commercially. Coffea canephora, or robusta coffee, is an often bitter species that is usually considered low quality and is used as a filler in cheap grocery store coffee. The higher quality arabica coffee, Coffea arabica, is an understory tree or shrub which naturally grows in shade. However, mostly with an eye toward profit, there has been a movement to find ways to grow arabica coffee in the sun.

Coffee is grown on nearly 10 million hectares in tropical regions around the world, areas that also harbor high levels of biodiversity. In the 1990s, farmers were encouraged to replace traditional shade grown coffee with sun cultivation in order to increase the yield of their coffee. In sun coffee systems, there is little or no canopy cover, and coffee trees are planted at high densities. In Latin America, 1.1 million of the 2.8 million hectares in coffee (41%) were converted to sun cultivation (Rice and Ward 1996). The impact of deforestation and conversion of shade coffee to sun coffee on biodiversity in these regions is much greater than the absolute levels of destruction would indicate.

While older arabica coffee varieties traditionally grown in the shade did not do well in the sun, they were replaced by hybrids that could withstand the sun and had more resistance to introduced diseases. But sun cultivation also has many other negative environmental impacts:

  • In shade plantations, dead leaves from the overstory trees provide nutrients to the coffee.  In sun plantations, these nutrients are not available, so fertilizers must be used, especially nitrogen (since many traditional overstory trees are nitrogen-fixing legumes). Sun coffee farms leach triple the nitrates into the local watersheds than shade farms.
  • There are fewer weeds in shade plantations, both because of the shade itself and due to the fallen leaves from shade trees acting as a natural mulch.  Herbicides are needed to control weeds in sun plantations.
  • Soils in sun plantations are more exposed to the elements, particularly drenching rains typical of tropical areas.  This leads to erosion of topsoil, and the leaching of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides into local watersheds. Soil erosion and acidification and water pollution are serious consequences of growing coffee on sun plantations.
  • Coffee plants in sun plantations grow faster and age more quickly than those grown in shade, and therefore must be replaced more often. Sun-grown coffee trees are typically productive for less than 15 years, while shade-grown coffee trees may yield for 30 years or more.

You can read more about the benefits of growing coffee in the shade in this post.

Donald, P. F. 2004. Biodiversity impacts of some agricultural commodity production systems. Conservation Biology 18:17-37.

Rice, R. A., and J. F. Ward. 1996. Coffee, conservation, and commerce in the Western Hemisphere. Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and National Resources Defense Council.

Background information / Birds and other biodiversity / Coffee and the environment

Birds and coffee plantations

Traditional, shade-grown coffee plantations harbor a diversity of many taxa — orchids, insects, and mammals, for example.  But it is the research that showed the importance of shade coffee plantations to birds that caught the attention of the public, and really kick-started the shade-grown coffee movement.

Over the last few decades, scientists noticed long-term declines in many species of Neotropical migrants — about 200 species of birds that breed in North America but winter south of the Tropic of Cancer. Researchers were prompted to examine the entire life cycle  of these species.  The ecology of the migrants on their nesting grounds here in North America was fairly well-studied, but more information was needed about the needs of these birds which spend most of their year in-transit or in the tropics. Searching for answers, researchers looked to the wintering areas of “our” breeding birds.

With so much habitat in the New World tropics being cleared for agriculture the importance of coffee plantations to wintering North American migrants (as well as resident species) soon became evident. The multi-layered vegetation of traditional or rustic shade-grown coffee plantations provides food and cover for birds which is in some cases very similar to native forest. In areas where farming has replaced natural habitat with stark pastureland and row crops, coffee farms are sometimes the only quality habitat available.

The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center’s fact sheet, “Why Migratory Birds are Crazy for Coffee,” notes:

In the regions most heavily used by migratory birds — Mesoamerica, the Caribbean islands, and Colombia– coffee plantation “forests” cover 2.7 million hectares, or almost half of the permanent cropland.

In southern Mexico, coffee plantations cover an area over half the size of all of the major moist tropical forest reserves, providing critical woodland habitat in mid-elevation areas where virtually no large reserves are found.

Under the category “Research on coffee growing,” you can find summaries of some of the research on bird diversity on coffee plantations.  Some facts gleaned from this research include:

  • The majority of bird species in shade coffee plantations are feeding in the shaded overstory, not in the coffee.  The coffee shrubs themselves offer few resources.  This is why sun coffee monocultures do not support a diversity of birds.
  • The value of coffee farms is dependent largely upon the diversity of  their canopy: both the number of different species and the structural complexity of the canopy.
  • Invertebrates, fruit, and nectar are the most important food sources for birds in coffee plantations, so coffee farms are especially important to bird species that feed on these resources.
  • Migratory birds are more flexible in their habitat requirements, and do better in coffee plantations than many resident species, which are more sensitive to habitat changes.
  • Use of coffee plantations by migrant birds is highly seasonal.  Of course, North American migrants are only present in the tropics during spring and fall migration and in winter.  However, even during winter some migrants, in particular those that feed on nectar or fruit, tend to increase in number from early to late winter in plantations where these resources are available.  Three North American migrants are strongly associated with the flowering of Inga trees (which are commonly planted in shade coffee canopy):  Baltimore Oriole (above), Orchard Oriole, and Tennessee Warbler.

Bird diversity in rustic or heavy shade plantations sometimes rivals that of natural forests.  These plantations always have a significantly higher bird diversity (as well as a diversity of other species) than do sun coffee plantations. Shade coffee plantations offer important refuges for species in areas where natural habitats are quickly being converted to agriculture.

It is essential to understand the different degrees of shade under which coffee is grown, because some growing methods even if technically “shade grown,” are not beneficial to birds.

A summary of the eco/bird-friendly, sustainable coffee movement and its associated certifications is within the paper “In pursuit of sustainability: lessons from the coffee sector” by Robert Rice of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.  Annotated PDF here.

Baltimore Oriole photo by Cindy Mead of Woodsong Nature Photography; used with permission.

Certifications

Shade grown coffee certification

As explained in the introductory post on shade grown coffee, there is no set definition of the term “shade grown.”  Coffee may be labeled shade grown even if it is grown under minimal overstory that does little to preserve biodiversity.

The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has made the most well-known effort to establish criteria for shade grown coffee.  In order to carry their trademarked “Bird Friendly” label, coffee must be grown under a minimum shade cover of 40%, and the overstory should include at least ten different species of shade trees, with no more than 70% of the trees being Inga species.  Pruning of the overstory and the removal of epiphytes is discouraged, and buffer zones are encouraged. These are the most stringent environmental criteria. Bird-Friendly certification is primarily focused on growers in Central and South America, but expanding to Africa. A description of Smithsonian’s Bird Friendly criteria is here.

The Rainforest Alliance has a certification program (using standards of the Sustainable Agriculture Network) which they apply not only to coffee, but to other crops as well. For coffee, it deals with an array of ecosystem issues such as water conservation, and as well as use of chemicals, community relations, and fair treatment of workers. Certification is awarded based on a score for meeting a minimum number of an array of criteria. More information on Rainforest Alliance standards can be found here.

Unlike Smithsonian’s Bird-Friendly standards, RA has no required criteria for shade management. Therefore it is important to note that Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee may NOT be shade grown. The requirements for shade that are one of the optional criteria under ecosystem conservation can be seen in comparison with Smithsonian’s criteria here. There are seven other criteria relating to ecosystem conservation in the RA standards.

There are pros and cons to the certification process, including the cost to the farmers and roasters (particularly expensive in the case of SMBC), and problems with applying one-size-fits-all biodiversity criteria to different regions. Coffee farmers, particularly small producers, are ultimately in the business of growing coffee to support their families. They are not in the biodiversity preservation business. If we want them to do so, we have to respect that and be willing to make it profitable for them.

Some roasters offer shade coffee that is not certified, but evaluated in various ways. Some say they use independent auditors, or visit the farms themselves.I don’t know how many, if any, of these evaluators have experience in actually assessing biodiversity, from a scientific viewpoint. For more on this topic, please see Who evaluates non-certified coffee?

Background information / Certifications

Shade grown, Organic, Fair Trade: how do they relate?

If it’s certified Fair Trade…
Much of the coffee certified Fair Trade in the U.S. (by TransFair USA) is also “shade grown”, although the volume is often overstated.  However, Fair Trade certification itself has no shade and few ecological requirements; see this post for details. Organizations that certify shade grown coffee are the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and, in many cases, the Rainforest Alliance.

Nearly all of the coffee certified Fair Trade in the U.S. is also certified organic (various organizations provide organic certification). Those Fair Trade certified coffees that are not also certified organic are often passive organic.  For example, they are still required, under Fair Trade certification, to use integrated pest management (which cuts down on use of chemical pesticides), and Fair Trade farmers also use other soil and water conservation measure which help preserve biodiversity. In the Fair Trade system, certified organic coffee receives a per-pound premium, a strong incentive for farmers to go organic.

If it’s certified organic...
It’s likely to be Fair Trade as well. Over half of all organic coffee is Fair Trade certified.

Sun cultivated coffee relies heavily on chemical inputs of fertilizer and pesticides to produce successfully. Organic coffee is very difficult to grow without the presence of shade trees to provide habitat for beneficial insects, birds, and other organisms; to provide natural mulch; to aid in nutrient cycling; and to help in weed suppression.  Therefore, if coffee is organic, it is more likely to be shade grown, at least to some degree. While certification varies, organic coffee is usually grown completely free of synthetic chemicals, and have been for at least three years.

If it’s shade grown…
It is always also certified organic, if it has Bird-Friendly certification. Rainforest Alliance certified coffees have no organic requirement, and other “shade grown” claims that lack a certification are anybody’s guess. Read about shade grown certification here.

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Fair Trade, organic, and shade-grown.  The three work can together to protect the environment, biodiversity, and the economies of small farm cooperatives and coffee growers.  It is very important that the labels don’t just say organic or shade-grown, but actually show a certification label. There are many coffees on the market today that are “triple certified.”

See our Guide to Coffee Certifications page for a ton more information.