Biodiversity Conservation in Coffee: the Opportunity of Sustainability Certification

Leif Pedersen

Coffee Program Manager

Rainforest Alliance

Coffee has been grown sustainably in Central America for decades. Traditional shaded coffee farms have maintained many of the characteristics of original ecosystems and represent diverse production landscapes with a high value for local biodiversity. These coffee farms serve as habitat for a large number of species, as buffer zones to protected areas and as biological corridors connecting remaining natural areas. Sustainable coffee production is a key element of conservation efforts in Central America, and coffee landscapes are essential to the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

Due to price fluctuations on international coffee markets as well as a general increase in world coffee production, which recently led to a severe crisis that shook the coffee world, the traditional low-impact biodiversity-friendly production methods are not guaranteed survival. As coffee farmers fail to earn acceptable incomes, shaded coffee farms are being converted to full-sun technified production, or to non-agricultural use, resulting in a dramatic drop in species diversity.

Some traditional donor-financed conservation and development efforts have promoted sustainable production methods on coffee farms, leading both to environmental and social benefits. Some of these efforts have failed, though, in maintaining farmers’ long-term commitment to change, as farmers have little economic incentive to continue the efforts once project financing dries up.

Sustainability certification of coffee farms has emerged as an important tool to help farmers increase sustainability on farms and bolster them to withstand fluctuations on international coffee markets. Certification has meant new alternatives for many farmers as the demand for certified coffee is increasing sharply.

Of the four major NGO-led coffee certification schemes (Fairtrade, Organic, Utz Kapeh, and Rainforest Alliance), Rainforest Alliance’s is unique in setting strict conservation as well as social standards on coffee farms as a prerequisite to certification. In return for the efforts, the certified farmer is rewarded in the market place through better prices, preferential treatment and better access to international coffee markets. The farmer’s efforts to get certified typically also lead to efficiency gains and better management practices on farms.

Certification is a tool that capitalizes on consumers’ preference for sustainably grown products and it has the potential to catalyze huge shifts in coffee companies’ sourcing practices. Presently, major coffee companies are shifting their buying policies towards certified sustainable products and thereby provide incentives to tens of thousand of coffee farmers to implement sustainable production practices and protect wildlife on farms.