Coffee & Forest Project, Eh?
Coffee has a major carbon footprint that centers around deforestation. Coffee farms are replacing forests and it’s been widely published that coffee production would need to triple by 2050 to keep up with the growing demand.
Enter: Integrated Open Canopy Coffee Farming
If you love—not just coffee—but also nature, then you’ll be happy to know that the primary objective of the Global Coffee Solution model for sustainable coffee production is to conserve and restore forests.
And it accomplishes this via Integrated Open Canopy (IOC) coffee farming, which ensures 50% of a coffee farm consists of conserved or restored forest habitat. IOC also addresses forest restoration, not just at the individual farm-level, but at a landscape-level, to the extent that it can grow to create forest corridors for wildlife to inhabit and survive.
Why Integrated Open Canopy?
As the demand for coffee grows, coffee farms encroach on tropical forests. In addition to clearing forests to plant more coffee “cash crops”, freshly cut forest wood is used to power coffee drying facilities (referred to as, “beneficios”).
By now there are fewer and fewer forests to harvest, and the lush, tropical region is drying up, to the point where municipalities are declaring water emergencies.
What About Shade Coffee and Permaculture Systems?
These are also excellent tools for improving the carbon-sequestering capabilities of coffee farms; However, they don’t conserve actual forest. And forests are needed to keep the region’s climate in check while supporting all of its biodiversity.
The science comes down to the differences between “land-sparing” and “land-sharing” coffee farming. I’ll attempt explain these concepts in one sentence for simplification2 purposes.
- Land-sharing: Refers to coffee cultivation and other tree and plant species sharing the same space. (Using permaculture-esque principals; inter-planting, polyplots, etc.) This has been the preferred, or at least widely adopted, method of shade coffee systems.
- Land-sparing: Refers to coffee cultivation that divides a farm into two crops (coffee & forest); Maximizing coffee plants on the coffee farm portion, and maximizing forest restoration on the forest part of the farm. This is the method our Coffee/Forest Project uses.
Both approaches are useful and needed; But only land-sparing, Integrated Open Canopy (IOC) coffee farming3 conserves and regrows actual forest.
As mentioned, real forests are needed because they allow for maximum biodiversity and carbon sequestration; Plus, they provide an important buffer zone between coffee farms and forests.
Proactive Conservation Supported by Coffee Farmers
IOC coffee farming is a proactive approach to forest conservation. The IOC “protocol” (or, its “rule”) takes a coffee farm and divides it in half; 50% coffee farm, and 50% restored forest.
So every time a farmer signs up to be a part of the program, 50% of their farm is automatically set aside to grow forest. As more farmers sign up, more land is converted to forest.
Now envision a map with little green lights turning on for every conversion to this growing method. As more and more green lights turn on, they start connecting, until they create a corridor of forest, offering pathways for wildlife to flourish and move around safely.
Some of the best aspects of IOC growing is that it’s not complicated, and coffee growers support it! Our research teams conducted a survey of 600 farms recently, with the following results: 85.7% of farmers said they are interested in adopting IOC production (54.7% definitely; 32% probably), with 96.5% confident in their choices, and 92.6% saying the scenarios presented are realistic.
Forest Restoration is Needed Now More Than Ever
We’re running out of time for wandering debates on how to fix coffee’s deforestation problem AND for making sure we don’t turn the atmosphere into a giant roaster.
What is agreed on it is that reforestation is the best natural mitigation tool for climate change and biodiversity loss (proof) (proof) (proof) (proof) (proof) (proof) (proof), and that natural forest conservation must become a part of companies carbon offsetting “schemes”.
Footnotes
- Estimate based on the national average coffee yield in Honduras (650 kg/ha), according to IHCAFE), and converts to 1,430 lbs/ha.
- For a deeper analysis of the land-sparing/land-sharing concept.
- The concept of IOC growing comes out of our sustainable coffee program, and was invented by Costa Rican agronomist and coffee farmer, Victor Arce.
