Shade Coffee Plantations and Biodiversity Quiz - Test Your Knowledge!

Shade coffee plantations and their impact on biodiversity and migratory bird species

• Shade coffee plantations can have similar biodiversity levels to natural forest and high concentrations of wintering migratory bird species.
• Bird censuses in southern Mexico found that shade coffee plantations may have bird diversity levels similar to or higher than natural forest, but with a different species composition.
• Species with a high sensitivity to disturbance were significantly more diverse and abundant in primary ecosystems.
• Granivorous and omnivorous bird species were more abundant in disturbed habitats, while insectivorous bird species were less abundant only in shaded monoculture.
• Foraging generalists and species that prefer the upper foraging stratum were more abundant in disturbed habitats, while there was a decline in low and middle strata foragers.
• Shade coffee may be beneficial for generalist species, including several migratory species, but poor for forest specialists.
• Shade coffee plantations may play an important role in maintaining local biodiversity and as buffer areas for forest patches.
• However, promoting shade coffee may lead to the transformation of forest into shade coffee, with the consequent loss of forest species.
• Coffee is one of the world's most traded commodities and the major source of foreign exchange earnings for many developing countries.
• Coffee in northern Latin America covers around 44% of the total arable cropland and generates 34% of the world's production.
• Shade coffee has higher biodiversity levels than unshaded sun coffee, but much traditional shade coffee has been converted into sun coffee in Latin America.
• The combination of insecticides with the elimination of the shade overstory may result in reduced biodiversity.
• The usefulness of the campaign to promote shade coffee production is debatable since the biodiversity found in shade coffee is impoverished by the presence of generalistic and opportunistic species and a decrease in forest-associated species.