WILD NEIGHBOURS CAFE

The high density of plant species on bird-friendly, shade-grown coffee plantations can support a higher animal and insect life diversity than un-shaded plantations. This biodiversity also brings ecological stability.

Within shade-grown coffee plantations, insects act as pollinators and food. Birds eat these insects, providing valuable organic pest control against bugs that may feed on coffee bushes.

• In Costa Rica, farms with greater flowering plant density have higher bee diversity than those without.
• Areas with higher honeybee populations and greater honeybee pollination see higher coffee yields.
• In Jamaica, when birds were excluded from coffee plantations in a study, researchers found a 70% increase in the coffee berry borer, an insect detrimental to coffee plants.
• The presence of birds in coffee plantations can significantly reduce insect populations, with studies showing a 64-80% decrease.
• A 40% canopy cover can reduce harmful weeds by 40%, thus reducing the need for herbicide use. Canopy cover also reduces the spread of some plant fungal infections.
• The pollen and seed-dispersing animals in shaded farms help native trees maintain reproduction and gene flow.

In the precipitation-rich and mountainous terrain often conducive to coffee growth, tree cover stabilizes slopes, minimizes soil erosion, and prevents leaching.

• Traditional shade-grown coffee cultivation requires less tillage, which helps maintain soil structure.
• In Nicaragua, carbon levels, a key indicator of soil fertility, were 18% higher in bird-friendly, shaded plantations.
• Leaf litter is a protective mulch but decomposes, adding the organic materials needed to maintain healthy and nutrient-rich soils.
• The pollen and seed-dispersing animals in shaded farms help native trees maintain reproduction and gene flow.
• There are significantly fewer hurricane-induced landslides in farms with complex vegetation structures.

The abundance of trees within bird-friendly plantations helps protect the quantity and quality of water supplies.

• Reduced insecticide and herbicide use in organic, bird-friendly farms helps minimize water contamination.
• Soil moisture in shaded coffee plantations can be 42% higher than in non-shaded farms, and they have 50% less soil erosion.
• Complex vegetative structures produce less runoff, are less susceptible to flooding, and positively affect the water storage capabilities of an area.
• Shaded areas experience less fluctuations in daily temperature, which helps increase humidity and decrease evaporation from soil.

It is estimated that global warming could shrink viable coffee-producing land by 30% as soon as 2050. As with natural forests, the shade trees of bird-friendly plantations sequester carbon. Pulled from the air, this carbon remains in the wood and roots of the tree until the tree is removed or dies; the decomposition process then returns the carbon to the soil. Trees not only keep carbon out of the atmosphere but act as a potential buffer to climate-change-induced temperature increases.

• In Indonesia, a study found that shaded plantations had 58% more carbon stock in the upper 30 cm of soil than non-shaded plantations.
• In Costa Rica, the carbon sequestration for a shaded coffee plantation was calculated at 99 tons per hectare! In comparison, a stand of pink oak sequesters 70 tons per hectare.