TORONTO, October 3, 2001 -- York University’s Las Nubes rainforest in southern Costa Rica is yielding crucial data on the benefits of shade-grown coffee to the environment, to local farm communities, and to business, leading to a growing public awareness and taste for the product.

"The coffee business is waking up to the fact that there is strong potential consumer demand for shade-grown coffee, not only because it’s environmentally friendly, but because of its superior taste," says Howard Daugherty, a professor in York’s faculty of environmental studies (FES) and director of the FES research program at Las Nubes.

The Starbucks Corporation recently announced that its own brand of shade-grown coffee from Mexico is selling so well in the United States that the company plans to introduce it overseas. Daugherty is exploring the launch of Las Nubes’ own brand of shade-grown coffee with U.S. and Canadian coffee marketers.

Partners in the protection of the Las Nubes rainforest, FES and the Tropical Science Center of Costa Rica have been conducting on-site research for the past three years. They are studying methods for maintaining the biodiversity of tropical forest habitats, which are essential to the survival of resident tropical birds and many migratory songbirds that winter in Canada. Growing coffee under the shade of a forest canopy instead of clearing the trees for plantations is one of those methods.

"Local people are good conservationists and are willing to invest more in better conservation practices and organic production, but they can only do this if there is a market for what they produce," says Julio Calvo, director of the Tropical Science Center in Costa Rica."So sustainable coffee production is dependent not only on the local producers but on North American consumers as well."

The work at Las Nubes has been integral to raising international public awareness about the value of shade-grown and organically-grown coffee to preserve what remains of the tropical forest ecosystems of Central and South America. This traditional method not only protects biodiversity, soil and water, but also ensures a local supply of fuel wood, timber, fibre, food products and medicinal plants to local farm communities. "It’s a triple bottom line return," says Daugherty, referring to the social, environmental and growing financial returns of shade-grown coffee as consumer interest in the product grows.

The long term plan is to protect the Las Nubes forest as part of the largest, undisturbed rainforest in Central America, and to create a biological corridor to the Los Cusingos neotropical bird sanctuary downstream. "A system of protected areas like the national parks is not sufficient in itself to protect biodiversity," says Daugherty. "There has to be an overall ecological landscape that supports biodiversity, even in the agricultural areas." Los Cusingos, also managed by the Tropical Science Centre, is one of the few remaining fragments of lowland forest on the Pacific slope of Central America. The idea is to increase the ecological connectivity between critical lowland and highland ecosystems in southern Costa Rica.

The Las Nubes site is a mid-elevation cloud forest adjacent to Chirripó National Park and the Amistad Biosphere Reserve. Once a threatened rainforest, it was purchased by Toronto physician Woody Fisher for conservation purposes, and subsequently donated to York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies. It is now jointly managed with the Tropical Science Centre of Costa Rica, and financed through private donations and foundation grants to The Fisher Fund for Neotropical Conservation. These funds are frequently matched with support from institutions such as the Canadian International Development Agency and the International Development Research Centre.

Among the FES researchers at Las Nubes whose projects are yielding important results:

• Sandra K. Znajda has studied avian diversity and conducted interviews with small landholders to produce a comprehensive set of recommendations for policy makers and local growers for establishing more sustainable coffee production practices.

• Susan Hall has examined the diversity of surface-dwelling beetles in different coffee agroecosystems in order to evaluate the potential for biodiversity conservation in unprotected landscapes outside of national parks and reserves.

• Anna M. Baggio has studied community-based conservation, identifying the importance of local participation in planning and decision-making, as well as opportunities for sustainable conservation and development practices at the community level.

• Susan O’Leary has designed environmental education programs about the protection of an endangered species, the Great Green Macaw, for children and adults in local communities.

• Eileen Harrington is developing an environmental education program for local schools on the ecological and economic benefits and values of shade-grown and organic coffee, targeted at Costa Ricans and North Americans.

• Tara Campbell has developed an education program to encourage the preservation of local knowledge of medicinal plants, to sustain local cultural identities while encouraging forest conservation, plant survival and healthy communities.

• Dean Young has used remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) to analyze land use and water quality to enhance the decision-making capability for more sustainable watershed management.

• Brad Corner is developing a spatial decision support system (SDSS) using environmental and social criteria determined by the various stakeholders to understand and visualize the impacts of hydroelectric development in southern Costa Rica, including the Las Nubes watershed.

• Howard Daugherty and Michael Hough are designing an ecologically-based rehabilitation plan for the river bank corridor formed by the Peñas Blancas River, which connects the Las Nubes Biological Reserve and Los Cusingos Neotropical Bird Sanctuary.

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For further information, please contact:

Prof. Howard Daugherty
Faculty of Environmental Studies
York University
416-736-2100, ext. 40369
jaguar@yorku.ca

Susan Bigelow
Media Relations
York University
416-736-2100, ext. 22091
sbigelow@yorku.ca
YU/105/01