Biodiversity, yield, and shade coffee certification

The current crisis in the coffee market provides an opportunity to explore alternative markets. In Latin America, coffee is traditionally produced under a diverse and dense canopy of shade trees. The structural and floristic diversity contained therein harbors a high biodiversity of associated organisms. The recent trend of reducing this shade cover so as to increase production raises concerns about the potential loss of biodiversity. This concern has given rise to a variety of conservation programs, including shade coffee certification, a market-based conservation strategy. Shade coffee certification programs offer the opportunity to link environmental and economic goals. Although the idea of shade certification is to compensate farmers for the biodiversity conservation service provided by their shaded plantations, the premium offered may not compensate for the low yields of the most shaded plantations. Here we present an approach for guiding the establishment of premium prices for coffee producers based on scientific information that relates shade percentage and levels of species richness with yield. Partial data from two separate studies in Chiapas, Mexico, are combined and used to illustrate this approach. In addition, further theoretical explorations are made by adapting an intercropping model and using coffee yield and biodiversity (as it relates to percent of shade of canopy trees) as the two relevant variables. This model is examined qualitatively from the point of view of optimality (balancing biodiversity preservation with production). Results suggest that price premium for shade certification should be high and go directly to the producers, especially if the intent is to conserve forest-sensitive species.