Persistence of Coffea arabica and its relationship with the structure, species diversity and composition of a secondary forest in Brazil

Changes over Time Matter: A Cycle of Participatory Sustainability Assessment of Organic Coffee in Chiapas, Mexico

This paper discusses how to incorporate the changes within an agroecosystem into sustainability assessment. We measured the sustainability of 86 organic coffee producers located in 4 municipalities of Sierra Madre of Chiapas, Mexico. Based on the MESMIS framework, a set of indicators was selected. A sustainability index was constructed using the multi-criteria decision method known as the analytical hierarchy process in a broad participatory process with producers and cooperatives. Likewise, classification of producers was carried out through land use transitions in their lands between 1999 and 2019 using satellite imagery. A variance analysis between classes was performed to identify statistical differences. The results show that producers who expand their coffee plantations into forested areas have more sustainability levels than those producers who convert agricultural activities into coffee plantations and producers with both transitions in coffee expansion-conversion. The indicators of labor efficiency, benefit-to-cost ratio, price, remnant of primary vegetation, recovery of production from natural phenomena, family succession, and producer land area showed statistical differences between classes. These results are relevant because sustainability assessment is an action-oriented method. Therefore, the contribution of this study can help guide recommendations for specific groups of producers.

Developing stronger association between market value of coffee and functional biodiversity

Biodiverse coffee systems are often understood to compromise conventional commercial outcomes due to reduced yield quantity and quality. The article seeks to improve the understanding of association between functional biodiversity and coffee quality definitions to clarify synergy between biodiversity and market value, subsequently answering the question, can or does biodiversity maintain or increase the market value of coffee. The understanding is expected to improve how conventional, specialty and sustainability coffee markets encourage biodiverse coffee farms and farming landscapes. Literature related to definitions of coffee quality, associations with farm and farming landscape biodiversity and subsequent associations with market value demonstrate current explanations, assessments and understandings of coffee quality definitions and associations between coffee quality definitions, market value and biodiversity as available in scholarly literature. Stakeholder definitions of coffee quality vary and are valued differently according to market type. Biodiversity in a coffee farm can associate directly with different coffee quality definitions with subsequent influence on conventional, sustainability and specialty market values. The associations include harvest quality, determined by yield quantity and quality, and other coffee quality indicators. Detail in understanding of these associations can easily improve, particularly between coffee quality definitions already valued by specialty and sustainability markets and biodiverse coffee farms, compared to monoculture farms.