In the dark, early January morning of a northern winter, there is nothing so welcome to many as the smell of freshly ground, freshly brewed cup of coffee. Coffee is that magic elixir that manages to both appease tension while at same time providing a physical stimulus of a caffeine injection. And while you savour that morning java, know that you’re not alone. Of all the world’s agricultural commodities, coffee is number one, generating over $55 billion a year world wide.
Coffee’s origins are as an understory tree from montane tropical ecosystems of sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. However, our thirst has led to industrial scale monocultures of sun-drenched plantations in attempts to raise production. As a result, coffee plantations in the northern Andes Mountains of South America suffer some of the highest deforestation rates in the neotropics.
Thankfully, demand has grown for “shade-grown” coffee over the past decade. It is now widely available at pre-brewed at local coffee shops and in most grocery stores. Most shade-grown coffee comes with the added benefit of being a “Fair trade” product as well.
Shade-grown coffee is cultivated under the conditions to which coffee trees are adapted – beneath a canopy of trees, often themselves of direct economic benefit. Beyond the advantages of requiring less irrigation, pesticides and fertilizer applications, there are a host of social and ecological advantages to fostering a strong shade-grown coffee industry. Most say it tastes better too.
One of the tags often used on shade-grown coffee is “songbird friendly”. This is because many of our neotropical migrant birds – the small, colourful songsters that migrate north from tropical wintering ground each spring – are reliant on the montane ecosystems where coffee is cultivated throughout Central and South America.
A recent paper in the scientific journal Biological Conservation reports on the implications of shade-grown coffee plantations on the Cerulean Warbler. Unfortunately, Cerulean Warblers are not found in the East Kootenay at any time of year. They are a brilliant blue bird that nests in the mixed deciduous forests of Eastern Canada and the US. In the winter, their core range directly overlaps with coffee plantations of Venezuela and Colombia. Habitat loss on their wintering grounds may account for the 83% decline Ceruleans have suffered over the past 40 years.
The research, led by Marja Bakermans at Ohio State University compared population density, body condition and survival of neotropical migrant birds in shade coffee plantations to those in primary forest sites in the Cordillera de Mérida of Venezuea’s Andes mountains. [as an aside, this brought back memories of Kari & I visiting Mérida, Venezuela, in 1995. A great town and wonderful place]
They found songbird population densities were up to 14 times higher in shade coffee plantations than nearby forest, while the body condition of birds in plantations steadily increased throughout the “winter” season. This measure is particularly important because Ceruleans and other species migrating north each spring face daunting physiological stress. Birds leaving their wintering grounds in better condition arrive on breeding grounds sooner and are more successful at rearing young.
Better body condition helps survival too. Bakermans and her colleagues banded 20 Cerulean warblers in the first season on shade plantations and recaptured or resighted 13 (65%) of those the following winter. When only adults were considered, that rate increased to 89%. That’s an excellent return rate for a small bird with a short life span traveling thousands of kilometres twice a year.
The research demonstrates the importance of agro-ecosystems. Birds were more abundant in shade coffee plantations than primary forest, so protection of the dwindling pristine forests alone will not stem songbird declines. But demand for shade-grown coffee must be maintained and increased. Bakermans and her colleagues cite reports that 40-50% of shade coffee plantations in Latin America were converted to sun coffee in the 1990’s, including 70% in Colombia.
The research suggests we can have our coffee and maintain functioning ecosystems at the same time, but to do so, we need to support shade-grown coffee producers. Ask for a cup next time you’re in a coffee shop or pick up a pound at the store. Then relax, close your eyes and drift off to tropical mountains, warm breezes and colourful birds.
It’s almost enough to forget its January.
