What’s All This Fuss About Wildlife Habitat?
The Small Stuff You Do Really Does Matter Part 2
By Chuck Blair, Wildlife Ecologist
As I explained in my previous blog, not spraying bugs and weeds around your house can make a significant positive difference for birds and other wildlife on a local, and even a regional or global scale. And, by setting an example, you can often engage your family, friends, and neighbors to also do small, but meaningful, things to help protect the critters we love.
Here’s another easy step you can take that requires no additional effort on your part but that can help protect tropical biodiversity, including our migratory birds that winter in Central and South America. And it just requires a small change to something that you probably already do on a daily basis. So, sit back with a cup of coffee and learn about a small step you can take to make a big leap for biodiversity.
Yellow Warbler by Ken Miracle
Protect Yellow Warblers With Each Cup
The little thing I’m talking about is that cup of coffee in your hand. What if the beans for that coffee were grown under the canopy of a native tropical forest rather than in neat rows in a field that’s been cleared of all the natural vegetation? Those coffee beans grown under the intact forest canopy are known as shade-grown coffee.
Yellow Warblers will thank you. They are a favorite spring and summer bird in Idaho, but they head south to Central and Northern South America for the winter. Golden Eagle Audubon works to protect their habitat in Idaho, and by purchasing shade-grown coffee from Golden Eagle Audubon or elsewhere, you can help protect their southern habitat. Grey Catbirds and Common Yellowthroats also live in coffee plantations in the winter.
Shade-Grown vs Conventional
Have you considered satisfying your caffeine habit with shade-grown coffee rather than any old brand off the shelf? There are many very good reasons to take the plunge. For starters, to the right is a photo of a typical coffee farm. It’s row-crop monoculture with no shade in sight.
By contrast, the photo below is a coffee farm in the foothills of the Andes in Antioquia, Colombia, where coffee trees grow beneath a layer of native canopy trees on a shade-grown coffee plantation. The dark green plants in the understory are the coffee trees. The difference between the shade-grown coffee farm and the row-crop monoculture couldn’t be more dramatic.
Conventional coffee plantation by wsfurlan/Getty Images
Shade-grown coffee by Guillermo Santos
What is Shade-Grown Coffee?
Shade-grown coffee is grown in the understory of shade-bearing trees like those in the photo to the left. There are several categories or grades of “shade-grown” coffee, depending on the type and amount of shade provided by the shade trees and how extensively the native forest has been altered. Shade-grown coffee production systems that most closely mimic an intact forest structure provide much better habitat for birds than do full-sun coffee growing systems, as shown in the photo above. And, as is the case in all situations, shade-grown systems grown under the most intact primary forests provide substantially more ecosystem benefits than those grown under more altered forests.
Ecological Benefits of Shade-Grown Coffee
Protection of the Natural Ecosystem. Shade-grown coffee works with the natural ecosystem, contributing to and receiving help from the system. Shade trees provide many nutrients to the coffee plants and the surrounding soil, natural predators help control coffee pests, and the shade trees help protect the coffee crops from frost.
Preservation of Natural Biodiversity. Migratory and tropical birds, reptiles, ants, butterflies and a host of other organisms and plant life call the forest canopy home. This biodiversity has positive impacts on the overall environment, beyond the local canopies under which the coffee is grown. There’s also a local/global connection. A significant percentage of the migratory birds that breed in Idaho spend the winter in the coffee growing countries of Central and South America. So, switching to certified shade-grown coffee can improve the quality of your birding experience here in Idaho.
Pest control. Birds and other natural predators that live in the shade trees can help control coffee pests, which can reduce the need for pesticides. This translates to less pesticide applied to the landscape and less pesticide residue on the coffee that you enjoy. And, as you’ll see later, coffee that qualifies for the most stringent shade-grown certification must also be grown organically, so there’s no pesticides in the forest or in your cup.
Pollination. With their diverse flowering plants, shade-grown polycultures can attract bees, which can increase pollination for both the shade trees and the coffee plants. This can lead to higher fruit set and yields for local small coffee farmers.
Soil enrichment. Shade trees provide nutrients to the coffee plants and the soil and help enrich it with organic matter can help prevent erosion and landslides.
Protection of Local Water Supplies. The roots of the coffee plants help trap runoff water, keeping the local water supplies clean and pure. Shade-grown coffee can also help protect waterways by reducing the amount of chemicals that end up in lakes and rivers when it rains compared to crops that have been sprayed with pesticides and fertilizers. Trapping runoff water also helps to prevent erosion.
Carbon Sequestration. Shade-grown coffee helps decrease deforestation by leaving the canopy trees standing, which can help maintain carbon sequestration.
Cooler Temperatures. Shade grown coffee berries grow and ripen more slowly under the cooler forest canopy. This can result in a more complex taste and is more flavorful than other coffees, i.e. a higher quality cup of coffee.
Coffee Farmers Benefit Too
Small farmers can also benefit financially by shifting part of their production to shade-grown coffee (Hernandez-Aguilera, et al. 2019). Highlights of their findings summarized by Turner (2019) include: that shade-grown coffee beans are often considered higher-quality in the market and can provide a price premium to farmers that offsets the comparatively lower yields of the shade-grown system. Shade-grown production systems mimic a forest structure and provide much higher quality habitat for birds and other critters than do full-sun systems. Both the birds and the shade trees provide ecosystem services to the coffee plantations, and these services can replace fertilizer and pesticides and save the farmer money. More birds mean more predators of insect pests that can jeopardize a farmer’s coffee crop. The Grey Catbird breeds in Ada County and elsewhere in Idaho before heading south where it can be found gobbling insects in coffee plantations. Estimates suggest a single bird could help save 23-65 pounds of coffee beans per hectare from pests every year.
Grey Catbird on the Boise River by Ken Miracle
Can You Trust the Claims on the Labels?
Different producers and sellers of “shade-grown” coffee set their own criteria for what qualifies as shade-grown, and some criteria are much less stringent than others. I’ve seen a few retailers around town selling bags labeled as shade-grown coffee. However, there is no certification. I contacted one local seller and after enduring several layers in a phone tree I was able to get to someone who could answer my questions about their product. The bottom line was “we grow it on a shade grown plantation but the cost of certification was too high, you’ll have to trust us.” So, you’re left with taking them at their word without any credible information to back up the shade grown claim. Or you might see coffee that’s 30% “certified shade-grown” and 70% some mystery coffee. This is not the shade grown coffee that I’m talking about.
However, there are some very good tools to help you know that you’re getting what you pay for in terms of ecosystem benefits. The gold standard is the Bird Friendly® certification by ecologists at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. This is where Golden Eagle Audubon purchases the coffee for their Coffee Club. There’s also a certification by the Rainforest Alliance, an NGO with programs in several areas that promote standards for sustainability, but with no criteria for shade management.
This website includes a quick guide to coffee certifications and was updated in April 2024. This guide covers the most common certifications seen on coffee. Information on criteria is provided, emphasizing ecological and environmental standards. Some certifications require verification by third-party auditors; producers (and in some case buyers) must pay various fees associated with certification. You can find additional posts on the standards, marketing, and issues surrounding eco-certification in the certifications category of this site. The following descriptions are from the quick guide.
Smithsonian Bird Friendly® Certification
The only true and 100% reliable “shade-grown” certification, is the “Bird Friendly®” designation developed by ecologists at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Criteria include a canopy at least 12 meters high with the dominant tree species being native, a minimum of 40% shade cover even after pruning, at least two strata or layers of vegetation, made up of at least 10 woody species dispersed throughout the production area. Additionally, the coffee must also be certified organic. The Bird Friendly® certification has, by far, the most robust shade/habitat standards of any coffee certification.
Bird Friendly® is a pass/fail benchmark-oriented certification and all criteria must be met before the certification is awarded. There is no minimum price set, but producers can use the certification to negotiate a better price for their coffee, generally an additional 5 to 10 cents per pound. Also, farmers typically receive a premium for their organic certification.
Learn more info about Smithsonian Bird Friendly® certified coffee
Quick reference to Bird-Friendly criteria
Bird-Friendly home page
American Redstart Bird Friendly® Certified coffee available from Golden Eagle Audubon
Certification label
Where to buy Smithsonian Certified Shade Grown Coffee
You can find where to buy this coffee by going to buy Bird-Friendly coffee and select “Find a retailer near you”; type your city in the “by location” box and you’ll see locations to buy Smithsonian certified Bird Friendly® certified coffee.
One of those outlets is the Golden Eagle Audubon Society. Audubon volunteer Danette Henderson will deliver your order to your home once a month, usually during the third week (geographic limits apply). Having purchased shade grown coffee from other sources for many years, I can tell you that Audubon’s price for a 2-pound bag of shade grown beans is very reasonable. See their coffee selection and buying options. All of these coffees are Certified Smithsonian Bird Friendly®, Fair-Trade, and USDA Organic. It’s grown on the family farms of the UCA San Juan del Rio Coco. These farms in the Northern Nicaraguan highlands are the hub of a self-sustaining local rural economy and a critical habitat for migratory and indigenous birds.
You can also buy Bird Friendly® coffee online at:
· https://nationalzoo.si.edu/migratory-birds/buy-bird-friendly-coffee-online or
I urge you to take the plunge and pat yourself on the back every morning for doing one more small thing that can make a big difference for our migratory birds and all the critters in these tropical forests.
Common Yellowthroat at Eagle Island State Park by Pat McGrane
References and Additional Information
Benefits of Shade-grown Coffee.
Hernandez-Aguilera, Juan Nicolas, Jon M. Conrad, Miguel I. Gómez, and Amanda D. Rodewald. 2019. The Economics and Ecology of Shade-grown Coffee: A Model to Incentivize Shade and Bird Conservation. Ecological Economics. Vol.159, Pages 110-121.
Turner, Jacquelyn. 2019. Making Coffee Production Sustainable. Columbia Climate School, Columbia University, International Research Institute for Climate and Society.