nia. For example, Colombia not only is one of the most important produc-
ers of coffee but also has the world’s richest diversity of birds and amphib-
ians (Botero and Baker 2001; see also Chapter 7, this volume). In individ-
ual countries, coffee production areas sometimes overlap with priority areas
for conservation that include high numbers of species or endemics. In Mex-
ico, for example, 14 of the 155 conservation priority regions are in or near
traditional coffee-growing areas (Llorente-Bosuquets et al. 1996, cited in
Moguel and Toledo 1999). Consequently, activities that promote biodiver-
sity conservation in coffee plantations could have impact at both national
and regional scales.
•Shaded coffee plantations in the neotropics also play key roles as habitat for
migrating birds and therefore have important effects on conservation of bio-
diversity at supraregional scales.
In this chapter we begin with a historical account of the use of shade in
coffee plantations, followed by a review of the literature on vegetation struc-
tural types of coffee plantations; plant diversity in the shade canopies and the
ground cover, including the genetic diversity of the coffee crop itself; the
diversity of other vegetation including the shade canopy and ground cover
plants; and the diversity of fauna and microorganisms (including coffee pests,
diseases, and their natural enemies) that use the coffee ecosystem as temporary
or permanent habitat. Emphasis is given to neotropical coffee plantations,
with the exceptions of the historical account, which is global, and the review
of pests, pathogens, and their complexes of natural enemies, which have been
studied mostly in India.
Shade or No Shade: The Structure of Coffee
Agroecosystems
Whether coffee should be grown under a shade canopy has been debated for
as long as coffee has been cultivated. Several reviews cover the advantages and
disadvantages of shade in coffee (Willey 1975; Beer et al. 1998). As a result of
historical processes, pedoclimatic differences between coffee-growing regions,
and socioeconomic factors, a wide variety of structural types of coffee agro-
ecosystems, with different levels of biodiversity, have evolved in different parts
of the tropics.
Historical Perspective
Coffee (Coffea arabica) was discovered in Ethiopia in about AD850 and was
cultivated in the Arabian colony of Harar, an Ethiopian province. It then
spread to Mecca, whence it was taken home by pilgrims to other parts of the
- Biodiversity Conservation in Neotropical Coffee Plantations 199