Sustainability is a word that we use a lot these days.
It can mean a lot of different things.
In the case of shade coffee, the choices that we’re making about the coffee we buy, are
directly affecting the livelihoods in the Andes.
What we are doing now, here in Colombia, is that we are trying to understand the environmental,
economical, and technological impact of growers who participate in the specialty coffee markets.
We are using the data that we are collecting with Dr. Amanda Rodewald to understand these
interactions between socioeconomic aspects and environmental protection.
In order to understand what the outcomes of different coffee management decisions are
for the environment, and people, and the economy, and the quality of coffee, we’re working
with a really diverse group of people.
From people who are good at knowing the quality of the beans, to economists, to biologists,
educators, social scientists…so it really is a team effort to try and better understand what
we need to do to be more sustainable.
Something that is very important in our research is that we are involving young people in order
to help us to make the surveys and to analyze the coffee landscape.
Once the young people arrive to the field they start
with an interview.
In this interview we have different sections.
Socioeconomic questions, questions about the community, and questions about coffee production.
After that they do transects, they count three by three the numbers of coffee trees.
Also, the trees different than coffee and with the GPS we are taking altitude
and after that they try to identify to bird species that are on that particular farm.
So basically, we are integrating all the variables for each grower.
With all this data, we are trying to find interactions.
Interactions that highlights that coffee is not just a product for income
or just a product for environmental protection, but it’s a program where you can integrate
these aspects in a sustainable way.
It’s important to find approaches to conservation where we can provide good habitat for birds
and other biodiversity, but at the same time, find ways that people can use the landscape
productively.
If there are more trees on a coffee farm, there will be less production, but it will
be of a better quality.
Sun grown coffee will produce more, but it will be of a lesser quality.
On the other hand, with trees, there will be less production, but better quality.
Shade trees also provide many environmental benefits.
They prevent erosion and landslides, and nutrients and store carbon, and provide habitat for
birds and other species.
There is an opportunity for growers who produce, higher qualities, but to participate in this
kind of markets, they also have to make some investments.
The problem is the investment that they need to do, the risk that is involved in this kind
of production.
The benefits that you are going to receive are only long-term benefits.
But for smallholder growers who are poor, they need those benefits and this income soon.
They definitely need some support at some point, and the support not only comes from
institutions or from government, but also from consumers.
Knowing that when you pay for that cup of coffee you are paying a producer to do things
the right way.
Like in all businesses there are always difficulties and we have identified one of those main challenges
is making coffee production profitable and sustainable so that new generations will want
to coninue working in the coffee industry.
If you can buy coffee of the highest standards, yeah, do that, that’s great.
But if you can’t, it’s not worth giving up completely, because every little bit helps.