Where We Work

Mexico

Sustainable Coffee

Mexico is ranked fourth in terms of volume, fifth in amount of land and ninth in yield performance of worldwide coffee production. There are about 703,341 hectares (ha) in coffee production and 401,221 producers. Average farm size has declined significantly in recent years and is now at 1.92 ha.

Courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin

Sustainable coffee production is an essential ingredient to most plans for rural development and conservation in the six important coffee-producing states, of which Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz are the most important. Coffee is one of the few crops that can be produced with minimal social and environmental costs and -- until the 1970s -- nearly all coffee was grown in harmony with biodiversity-rich tropical ecosystems, and was a dependable, traditional livelihood for rural people. Since then, the agroforest "shade-grown" coffee farming system has been largely replaced by an intensely managed monoculture through a series of practices, including deforestation, collectively called "technification." These "full-sun" coffee practices have caused extensive negative social impacts in the coffee farming community.

Conservation of farm diversity is a key element of the Rainforest Alliance standards. Farmers, wildlife and surrounding communities all depend on the products and services of agroforest farms. Traditional farms are wildlife habitat, protect soils and water supplies, and provide fruits, firewood, building materials, medicinal plants, and alternative sources of income to the farmers and their neighbors. The "full-sun" farms offer none of these benefits.

By 1996, after a decade of technification, an estimated 35 to 45% of Mexican coffee lands had been converted to "full-sun" or monoculture shade. This land-use change has been one of the major factors in the decline of soil fertility, loss of water supplies, decline in wildlife populations and the over-production of low-quality coffee.

Benefits of Sustainably-Grown Coffee
Still, coffee farms offer tremendous opportunities for conservation and rural development. According to a leading Mexican scientist, "shaded coffee plantations cover an area over half the size of all the major tropical moist forest reserves, providing critical woodland habitat in mid elevation areas, where virtually no large reserves are found. This is especially important in biologically very rich areas of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Veracruz."

A scientist with the Veracruz Zoological Society reports that coffee farms in the region are essential habitat for 24 species of mammals, including three rare species of wild cats. The director of the leading environmental organization in Veracruz agrees that coffee farmers will determine the fate of large extensions of upland and cloud forest ecosystems. But the reverse is also true. Coffee communities closely depend on the environment, especially since they take so many of their needs directly from the land and water.

Sustainable coffee farming practices ensure the long-term viability of the farm, conserve natural resources, improve farm management through planning and continual improvements, increase efficiencies, reduce costs and improve product quality. The Rainforest Alliance is analyzing the practices used in the target area, comparing them to the Rainforest Alliance's standards, making recommendations for improvements, and training area extension agents, community leaders and the technicians of producer associations to promote "best management practices" on the farms.

Farm Diversification
Some coffee farms cannot be secured because they are in areas not suitable for coffee production. Such farms should gradually convert to other crops. Even farms that are successfully and sustainably producing good quality coffee should diversify to avoid over-dependence on a single crop. The Rainforest Alliance is surveying existing diversification practices, reviewing relevant experiments and studies in the region, analyzing and validating the information and making it available to the companies, development agencies, state coffee associations and other government bodies and NGOs that can use it to formulate recommendations to farmers.

For more information, visit: Sustainable Coffee.

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