Challenges and opportunities for ecological knowledge to promote sustainable management practices in coffee agroecosystems

Background/Question/Methods

Due to their overlap with endangered tropical mountain forest and high structural diversity coffee agroecosystems have been studied extensively and are considered a model for sustainable agriculture. In contrast with many other coffee-producing countries Mexican coffee farms are still mostly under diversified shade that provides numerous ecosystem services. However, the considerable ecological knowledge gathered on this agroecosystem has not necessarily translated into more sustainable management or economic benefits for most growers. A review of the peer-reviewed and gray literature, interviews with stakeholders, and direct field observations point to several challenges for bridging the science-policy gap in coffee production. 

Results/Conclusions

Our findings include: 1) the sensitivity of small growers to global variations in coffee supply and prices that results in increasingly diverse income streams and a risk averse approach to management; 2) increased variance in weather due to climate change and related problems with pest outbreaks; 3) reduced governmental oversight and coordination, together with policies focused mostly on increasing production, and 4) the lack of studies scaling up ecological findings to insure tangible increases in the quality and quantity of coffee production. As environmental degradation has increased, interest has grown in Mexico in the development of programs making payments for ecosystem services and the certification of coffee farms that could help overcome these limitations and foster the integration of ecological knowledge in a larger proportion of coffee farms. Our review suggests several key elements needed for assuring that the benefits of ecological knowledge are maximized in coffee agroecosystems: 1) a landscape and functional approach in regional planning, 2) participatory-action research that values traditional knowledge, 3) the utility of long-term studies and demonstration plots for clarifying complex interactions and convincing growers, 3) avoiding silver bullet approaches that seek a single solution for all coffee growers; and 4) building strategic alliances (growers, academics and government) for developing and sustaining research initiatives into the future. These findings are relevant to coffee regions where most farms are small and live at the edge of financial solvency and in the shadow of large transnational companies. However, important differences also exist in terms of the degree of government support of the coffee sector that translates into linkages between research and production via extension services and research agencies.