Transformation of Coffee-Growing Landscapes Across Latin America. Areview
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Agronomy for Sustainable Development (2021) 41:62 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-021-00712-0 REVIEW ARTICLE Transformation of coffee-growing landscapes across Latin America. Areview Celia A. Harvey1 & Alyssa A. Pritts2 & Marie J. Zwetsloot3 & Kees Jansen4 & Mirjam M. Pulleman3,5 & Inge Armbrecht6 & Jacques Avelino7,8,9,10 & Juan F. Barrera11 & Christian Bunn5,12 & Javier Hoyos García13 & Carlos Isaza14 & Juana Munoz-Ucros15 & Carlos J. Pérez-Alemán16 & Eric Rahn5 & Valentina Robiglio 17 & Eduardo Somarriba9 & Vivian Valencia2 Accepted: 28 June 2021 # The Author(s) 2021 Abstract In Latin America, the cultivation of Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) plays a critical role in rural livelihoods, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development. Over the last 20 years, coffee farms and landscapes across the region have undergone rapid and profound biophysical changes in response to low coffee prices, changing climatic conditions, severe plant pathogen outbreaks, and other drivers. Although these biophysical transformations are pervasive and affect millions of rural livelihoods, there is limited information on the types, location, and extent of landscape changes and their socioeconomic and ecological consequences. Here we review the state of knowledge on the ongoing biophysical changes in coffee-growing regions, explore the potential socioeconomic and ecological impacts of these changes, and highlight key research gaps. We identify seven major land- use trends which are affecting the sustainability of coffee-growing regions across Latin America in different ways. These trends include (1) the widespread shift to disease-resistant cultivars, (2) the conventional intensification of coffee management with greater planting densities, greater use of agrochemicals and less shade, (3) the conversion of coffee to other agricultural land uses, (4) the introduction of Robusta coffee (Coffea canephora) into areas not previously cultivated with coffee, (5) the expansion of coffee into forested areas, (6) the urbanization of coffee landscapes, and (7) the increase in the area of coffee produced under voluntary sustainability standards. Our review highlights the incomplete and scattered information on the drivers, patterns, and outcomes of biophysical changes in coffee landscapes, and lays out a detailed research agenda to address these research gaps and elucidate the effects of different landscape trajectories on rural livelihoods, biodiversity conservation, and other aspects of * Vivian Valencia 9 Program of Agriculture, Livestock and Agroforestry, CATIE, [email protected] Turrialba 7170, Costa Rica 10 IICA, 2200 Coronado, San José, AP 55, Costa Rica 1 Monteverde Institute, Apdo.69-5655, Monteverde, 11 Puntarenas, Costa Rica Arthropod Ecology and Pest Management Group, Department of Agriculture, Society and Environment, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, 2 Farming Systems Ecology Group, Wageningen University & Carretera Antiguo Aeropuerto km 2.5, 30700 Tapachula, Chiapas, Research, P.O. Box 430, 6700, AK Wageningen, The Netherlands Mexico 3 Soil Biology Group, Wageningen University & Research, 12 University of Göttingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5, P.O. Box 47, 6700, AA Wageningen, The Netherlands 37073 Göttingen, Germany 13 4 Rural Sociology Group, Wageningen University & Research, Parque Tecnológico de Innovación TECNiCAFÉ, Cra 17 # 48 N 18 Hollandseweg 1, 6706, KN Wageningen, The Netherlands Casa 53 Conjunto Cerrado Entrepinos, Popayán, Cauca, Colombia 14 Programa de Café para Solidaridad en Colombia, Solidaridad, Calle 5 The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Km 17 43 N, °23-78 Manizales, Colombia Recta Cali-Palmira, AA6713, 763537 Cali, Colombia 15 6 School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, 236 Tower Departamento de Biología, Universidad del Valle, Calle 13 # 100-00 Rd, Ithaca, NY, USA ed, 320 Cali, Colombia 16 Fundación Solidaridad Latinoamericana, Calle Evelio Lara No. 7 CIRAD, UMR PHIM, San José, Costa Rica 131-B, Ciudad del Saber, Ciudad de Panamá, Panamá 8 PHIM, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, INRAE, Institut Agro, IRD, 17 World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), c/o CIP, Av. La Molina 1895, Montpellier, France P.O Box 1558, 12 Lima, Peru 62 Page 2 of 19 Agron. Sustain. Dev. (2021) 41:62 sustainable development. A better understanding of the drivers, patterns, and consequences of changes in coffee landscapes is vital for informing the design of policies, programs, and incentives for sustainable coffee production. Keywords Agroforestry systems . Certification . Coffea arabica . Coffea canephora . Coffee leaf rust . Deforestation . Intensification . Land-use change Contents Andean Latin America”), coffee production has historically in- 1. Introduction volved the planting of Arabica coffee, a high-quality coffee that 2. Methods is grown in higher, cooler elevations. The majority of coffee 2.1 Land-use dynamics in coffee-growing regions farmers across this region are smallholders who cultivate small 2.2. Potential ecological, social and economic conse- coffee plots (typically < 5 ha and often <2 ha), often in combi- quences of ongoing landscape changes nation with annual crops (e.g., maize, beans), fruit and timber 2.3. A research agenda for understanding the drivers, trees, small-scale livestock production, or small areas of forest patterns, and potential outcomes of land-use (Méndez et al. 2010;Baconetal.2017;Harveyetal.2017; change and informing coffee sustainability poli- Panhuysen and Pierrot 2020). Consequently, coffee landscapes cies and practice are typically diverse landscape mosaics composed of coffee 3. Conclusions fields interspersed with other land uses. Arabica coffee is grown 4. Declarations under a wide range of management types from traditional rustic 5. Literature Cited systems where coffee bushes are planted under heavily thinned Acknowledgements natural forest and few inputs are used, to specialized shade sys- tems where shade trees and inputs are carefully managed, to intensive systems with high densities of coffee bushes, little or no shade, and heavy use of agrochemical inputs (Moguel and 1 Introduction Toledo 1999;Perfectoetal.2019). Depending on the type, di- versity, and density of their shade canopy, coffee agroforestry Coffee cultivation plays a vital economic, social, cultural, and systems can provide fruit, firewood, timber, and other goods to environmental role in Latin America and shapes rural land- farmers (Rice 2008); serve as critical habitat, resources, and land- scapes and livelihoods across the region. Latin America is a scape connectivity for biodiversity conservation (Perfecto et al. key region for coffee production, accounting for roughly 60% 1996; Moguel and Toledo 1999; Somarriba et al. 2004; Valencia of the world’s coffee supply and 80% of the world’sArabica et al. 2016); store significant carbon stocks and thereby contrib- coffee (Coffea arabica;ITC2011). Millions of farmers, agri- ute to climate mitigation (e.g., Haggar et al. 2013; Vaast et al. cultural laborers, and other workers across the region depend 2016); enhance the resiliency of agricultural landscapes and help on coffee production, purchasing, and processing for their farmers adapt to climate change (Eakin et al. 2014;Harveyetal. livelihoods (Canet Brenes et al. 2016;CABI2018). Coffee 2017) and provide valuable ecosystem services (such as water has consistently played an integral role in the region’secono- provision, soil conservation, pollination, habitat for biodiversity, my, and coffee exports continue to be an important source of fruit and firewood provision) that underpin rural livelihoods (Jha income generation, though the overall contribution of coffee et al. 2011; Cerda et al. 2017). to national GDPs has declined in recent decades (CABI 2018). Coffee production across northern and Andean Latin America Since many of Latin America’s coffee-growing areas overlap has historically gone through periods of expansion and contrac- with biodiversity hotspots (Jha et al. 2014), coffee cultivation tion in response to market supply and demand, climatic events, practices (e.g., the type and use of shade trees, agrochemical pest and disease outbreaks, and volatile coffee prices (Flores et al. use, soil conservation practices) can have variable and signif- 2002;Blackmanetal.2007). For example, in the 1970s and icant impacts on biodiversity conservation and the supply of 1980s, the combination of neoliberal policies, growing global ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration and water demand for coffee, and the need to prevent the spread of coffee provision (Perfecto et al. 1996; Somarriba et al. 2004). The leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix) led to the rapid intensification of coffee sector therefore plays a critical role in efforts to im- coffee landscapes, with many shaded coffee farms being convert- prove farmer livelihoods, enhance biodiversity conservation, ed to low-shade or open-sun systems with high agrochemical tackle climate change, and achieve sustainable development inputs and densely planted coffee bushes (Perfecto et al. 1996, across Latin America. 2019;Rice1999). However, for the last two decades, the bio- In the coffee-growing regions of Mexico, Central America, physical changes in coffee-growing landscapes have been partic- and the Andean countries (referred to hereafter as “northern and ularly pronounced and rapid. The widespread changes in coffee- Agron. Sustain. Dev. (2021) 41:62 Page 3 of 19 62 growing regions reflect a combination of interacting stressors and thousands of hectares