Not all shade is created equal: Evaluating shade-grown coffee certification programs

by Thomas Dietsch

Since its introduction at the Sustainable Coffee Congress in 1996, certified shade-grown coffee has emerged as a growing segment of the specialty coffee market. Several certification programs now certify shade coffee grown on farms that protect biodiversity.

A recent article published by my coauthor, Alexandre Mas, and me, "Linking shade coffee certification to biodiversity conservation: butterflies and birds in Chiapas, Mexico," provides the first direct evidence that shade-grown coffee certification is an effective conservation tool.

We compared the biodiversity found on individual coffee farms using growing practices of different management intensity. Those farms eligible for certification produced the highest conservation benefits. The study appeared in the June 2004 edition of the journal Ecological Applications.

Certification programs

We included programs with publicly available criteria for certifying shade-grown coffee, which included the only two programs currently in use:

• ECO-OK, now referred to as sustainable coffee certified by Rainforest Alliance
• Bird Friendly, certified by Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC)

and several programs never implemented:

• Mexican Shade Coffee
• Mexican Shade Coffee PLUS
• draft from of the Specialty Coffee Association of America

Study location

In Chiapas, Mexico, we sampled the structure and diversity of shade trees in five management systems that are using growing practices ranging from traditional rustic management to a more intensive system, a shade monoculture, using only one tree species for shade.

Mexico was an ideal location for the study because of the wide range of management practices used by farmers and because, "Mexico produces more certified organic coffee than any other country and, while not the focus of this study, organic coffee production techniques, which prohibit agro-chemical use, provide an important complement to management of the shade overstory in conserving biodiversity."

We were able to work on what appears to be the oldest certified organic coffee farm in Mexico and Central America, Finca Irlanda, which was first certified Biodynamic in 1928, a stricter version of organic certification used in Europe.

Findings

The rustic system contained a higher diversity of butterfly species and birds, and this diversity was more similar to that found in nearby forests than other systems. This was the only management system certified by the SMBC Bird Friendly Program, suggesting that certification criteria can distinguish farms that provide conservation benefits from those that do not. The Rainforest Alliance Program also successfully distinguished farms with higher levels of shade, and more important, eliminated the most intensive system.

During the course of the study, significant philosophical differences emerged between the programs. Rainforest Alliance uses less strict criteria as a strategy to engage farmers who would otherwise be hesitant to participate.

Unlike the Smithsonian program, Rainforest Alliance does not require organic certification as a prerequisite. Once farmers are enrolled, Rainforest Alliance works with them to reduce chemical use and to increase the use of shade trees.

Consequently, "Just as all shade is not created equal, all certified shade-grown coffee programs may not produce the same conservation benefits." Nonetheless, criteria for each of the currently operating shade-grown coffee certification programs successfully eliminated farms of lower conservation value.

The only management system to meet the criteria of all the certification programs was the rustic management system, and it was also the only system to show significantly higher diversity of fruit-eating butterflies and birds more similar to those found in forest reserves. The other programs resulted in various levels of certification for the farming practices.

We suggest setting specific, realistic conservation goals based on habitat use by wildlife found on certified farms and encouraging protection of forest fragments. Currently, many farmers and cooperatives include forest fragments as part of their land management.

The study shows the important transparency provided by certification programs and the valuable role of science in evaluating criteria. We suggest ecologists can test the underlying assumptions of maintaining an ecologically sustainable certification while conservation biologists can help define habitat-use expectations for biodiversity of interest and the appropriate use of shade-grown coffee certification to meet regional conservation goals.

In the meantime, coffee consumers can have confidence that current certification programs distinguish farms with beneficial levels of shade for biodiversity conservation.