This paper looked at the diversity and abundance of frogs and salamanders in an area of tropical montane cloud forest, shade coffee farms, and corn plantations in southern Mexico.
Revised on November 14, 2019Research on coffee growing
Coffee rust (Hemileia vastarix) is fungus that is one of the most devastating coffee diseases in the world. Native to Africa, it is now present in every coffee-growing nation. Infected […]
Revised on November 29, 2020Intensifying production while conserving biodiversity Food security and the ability of agricultural lands to feed over 9 billion people by 2050 is an increasingly-discussed topic. Part of this issue is […]
Revised on January 8, 2022A research paper that could have used a more accurate title, and more depth in the discussion.
Revised on November 28, 2020Coffee farmers don’t need to rely just on the presence of landscape-level forests to provide pollinator resources. Their own farm management can have strong impacts on local bee abundance and diversity.
Revised on November 14, 2019As has been found in previous studies, birds on Jamaican coffee farms reduce insect pests, providing an important ecosystem service worth 12% of the total crop value.
Revised on October 30, 2020Earlier this year, the news of the “discovery” of a caffeine-free species of coffee from the Cameroon created a bit of a stir. This species was actually first collected in 1983, but remained unstudied and not described to science until…
Revised on October 30, 2020The water footprint of coffee and tea consumption in the Netherlands. 2007. Chapagain, A.K., and A. Y. Hoekstra. Ecological Economics 64:109-118. This is not a newly published paper, but I found it well worth summarizing here. “Footprint” evaluations — ecological,…
Revised on January 7, 2022Attitudes and knowledge of shade-coffee farmers towards vertebrates and their ecological functions [PDF]. 2009. P. LÁ³pez-del-Toro, E. Andresen, L. Barraza and A. Estrada. Tropical Conservation Science 2:299-318. The authors of this study interviewed 36 Mexican shade coffee farmers regarding their…
Revised on January 13, 2022Climate change will likely alter the distribution of the world’s worst coffee pest, a minute beetle called the coffee berry borer (CBB), Hypothenemus hampei.
Revised on November 14, 2019Bakermans, M. H., A. C. Vitz, A. D. Rodewald, and C. G. Rengifo. 2009. Migratory songbird use of shade coffee in the Venezuelan Andes with implications for the conservation of the cerulean warbler. Biological Conservation 142:2476-2483. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2009.05.018 Most studies of…
Revised on November 14, 2019A study from India measures the invasiveness of coffee into forest fragments from adjacent farms.
Revised on November 28, 2020Comparing tree diversity and composition in coffee farms and sacred forests in the Western Ghats of India.
Revised on November 14, 2019Three decades of deforestation in southwest Sumatra: effects of coffee prices, law enforcement and rural poverty. 2009. D. L. A. Gaveau, M. Linkie, Suyadi, P. Levang, and N. Leader-Williams. Biological Conservation 142:597-605 . I’ve written in the past about Sumatra’s…
Revised on April 23, 2021Ethiopian coffee cultivation — Implications for bird conservation and environmental certification. This is probably the first peer-reviewed paper specifically about coffee growing/shade coffee and birds in Ethiopia.
Revised on November 14, 2019
