ECO O.K. Coffee
Give the Rainforest a Coffee Break with ECO-O.K. Coffee
Coffee, a shade-loving plant that evolved in the forests of Africa, has long
been a major economic, political and cultural force in the Americas. At first,
farmers simply thinned patches of rainforest and planted coffee bushes in the
warm twilight under the forest canopy. In recent years, agronomists have
promoted new ways to grow coffee, using a few species of heavily pruned shade
trees and even planting dense hedgerows of coffee in open fields. These
"full-sun" farms produce more coffee beans, but at a terrible cost to the
environment.
The Rainforest Alliance, the ten year-old nonprofit environmental group based
in New York, and a coalition of conservationists in Central America want to
save traditional coffee farms, which in the view of many ecologists, are the
next best thing to rainforests. The coalition helps farmers meet a strict set
of environmental standards. Coffee from farms that meet the requirements sports
the ECO-O.K. seal of approval.
Shade-grown Coffee Promotes Biodiversity
Old-fashioned farms have dozens of kinds of trees, some natural and some
planted by the farmer to provide wood, fruit, fibers and other products. The
exuberant flora provides homes for abundant wildlife, ranging from frogs in the
leaf litter and ocelots hunting the partridge-like tinamous, to parrots
squawking overhead.
Biologists from the Interamerican Foundation for Tropical Research (Spanish
acronym FIIT) in Guatemala inventoried birds, bats, bugs and reptiles in coffee
farms, showing that traditional shaded farms were rich in biodiversity. In
comparison, says Luis Gaitan of FIIT, "full-sun coffee is a biological desert."
Other scientists have corroborated the dramatic differences in biodiversity
between shaded and unshaded coffee farms. Ivette Perfecto, now at the
University of Michigan, sampled beetles, ants and other insects in Costa Rican
coffee farms. She found, for example, 126 species of beetles in a traditional
farm compared to 29 species in a "full-sun" farm.
Daniel Katz, Executive Director of the Rainforest Alliance, says, "in the face
of continuing rainforest loss, the traditional coffee farms become increasingly
important refuges for wildlife."
Switching to Sun-grown
A growing number of farmers are bulldozing their shaded plantations and
switching to the new, open-field system. This concerns conservationists,
because coffee is the dominant crop throughout the highlands. About 44 percent
of the permanent cropland is in coffee, totaling about 7 million acres
throughout Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and Colombia. Most of the
region is already deforested. Mexico loses another million acres of forest
every year. An equal amount is destroyed annually in Central America.
Coffee is almost the only "forest" left on some Caribbean islands and densely
populated countries such as El Salvador. Miguel Eduardo Araujo, formerly El
Salvador's secretary of the environment and now an author of the country's plan
for sustainable development, argues that the republic still has an amazing
array of wildlife in large part due to the extensive area in coffee.
ECO-O.K. Certification
In order to win ECO-O.K. certification, a farmer must maintain forest cover
over his coffee plants, control erosion, carefully manage agrochemicals (most
shaded coffee farms use few if any pesticides) and take prescribed measures to
protect surrounding forests, streams and wildlife. Workers must be paid
according to the law, treated fairly and given environmental education and
training. All solid, liquid and organic wastes must be properly managed. The
standards cover every aspect of production that could affect the environment.
Specially trained teams of biologists and agronomists inspect candidate farms
and give producers the information they need to make the necessary changes.
Final certification is made by an independent committee, based on the
inspection team's reports. The ECO-O.K. program is co-managed by the Rainforest
Alliance and local, nonprofit conservation groups who work with producers to
reduce the eco impacts of banana, orange, sugar and cocoa farms.
Certified eco-friendly coffee is now available from wholesale companies and in
some coffee shops, including Sustainable Harvest Coffee Company (California),
Thanksgiving Coffee (California) and other
sources.
The Rainforest Alliance is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to
the conservation of tropical forests for the benefit of the global community.
Our mission is to develop and promote economically viable and socially
desirable alternatives to the destruction of this endangered, biologically
diverse natural resource. We pursue this mission through education, research in
the social and natural sciences, and the establishment of cooperative
partnerships with businesses, governments, and local peoples.
© Copyright 1996 Rainforest Alliance, all rights reserved.
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