Agroforestry and Biodiversity Conservation in Tropical Landscapes

Chapter 9

Biodiversity Conservation in Neotropical

Coffee (Coffea arabica)Plantations

Eduardo Somarriba, Celia A. Harvey, Mario Samper,

François Anthony, Jorge González, Charles Staver, and Robert A. Rice

The unprecedented high rate of destruction of natural forests and other natu-
ral ecosystems has led scientists to focus on biodiversity conservation in man-
aged landscapes and agroecosystems. Agroforestry systems, renowned for their
high tree species richness and complex vegetation structure, stand out as
promising biodiversity conservation tools. Well-known examples include
shaded coffee (Coffeaspp.) and cocoa (Theobroma cacao) plantations, home-
gardens, rubber and fruit tree agroforests (see Chapter 10, this volume), grazed
dry scrubs and forests, and long fallows (see Chapter 8, this volume).
In recent years, shaded coffee plantations have been singled out for their
ability to harbor diverse and abundant wildlife. This strong interest in shaded
coffee plantations, in part, reflects the following facts:

•Shaded coffee plantations that have a diverse and structurally complex tree
component have a high potential to retain biodiversity and may play criti-
cal roles in regional conservation efforts (Perfecto et al. 1996).

• Coffee is of paramount economic importance in more than 50 countries,
  providing economic support to 20–25 million people and covering 11 mil-
  lion ha of land, so the potential exists to influence biodiversity conservation
  over large areas (however, coffee cultivation can also be a cause of deforesta-
  tion; see Nestel 1995 for Mexico).
  •In most areas where coffee is grown, the landscape has been so severely
  deforested and transformed that the only remaining tree cover is that in the
  coffee plantations; for example, in El Salvador most of the so-called forest
  cover is actually shade-grown coffee (E. Somarriba, pers. obs., 2002).


• Coffee is grown mostly in regions that are highly biologically diverse, such
  as Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, the Côte d’Ivoire, Tanzania, the
  Western Ghats of India, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, and New Caledo-
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