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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=coffee&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/coffee/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 07:15:01 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Coffee</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/coffee/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>On the frontlines of conservation in Sumatra: Rangers safeguard Batutegi forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-the-front-lines-of-conservation-in-sumatra-rangers-safeguard-batutegi-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-the-front-lines-of-conservation-in-sumatra-rangers-safeguard-batutegi-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2026 02:21:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/07021006/IMG_5641-copy-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325509</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Lampung, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Agroforestry, Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Camera Trapping, Coffee, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Habitat, Human-wildlife Conflict, In-situ Conservation, Monitoring, NGOs, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Slow Loris, Tigers, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TANGGAMUS, Indonesia — For more than a decade and a half, forest ranger Wandi Harmoko has walked the ridges and valleys of Batutegi, a landscape in southern Sumatra. He is one of only a handful of officers tasked with patrolling almost 60,000-hectares (148,300 acres) of forest that is not only ecologically significant but also economically [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TANGGAMUS, Indonesia — For more than a decade and a half, forest ranger Wandi Harmoko has walked the ridges and valleys of Batutegi, a landscape in southern Sumatra. He is one of only a handful of officers tasked with patrolling almost 60,000-hectares (148,300 acres) of forest that is not only ecologically significant but also economically vital to Lampung province. The forest Wandi protects today has been shaped by decades of disturbance. Since the turn of the century, waves of encroachment cleared large areas of forest to accelerate conversion to coffee plantations. Nevertheless, the forests here still harbors endangered wildlife, including Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae), siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus), pangolins (Manis javanica), Sumatran slow lorises (Nycticebus coucang) and sun bears (Helarctos malayanus). The survival and recovery of what remains in Batutegi depend on a fragile collaboration between a limited number of rangers, technology-driven monitoring systems, and social forestry farmers whose livelihoods are tied to the landscape. “What affects me most are the moments when we still encounter forest encroachment,” Wandi told Mongabay after joining his team for a day patrol inside Batutegi’s core zone. “It creates an inner conflict, because sometimes we have to arrest people and see them go to prison, even though we understand their situation.” Wandi Harmoko has patrolled the forest of Batutegi for over a decade. Image by Basten Gokkon. The Batutegi landscape, including a reservoir with the same name, stretches across 81,741 hectares (202,000 acres) jointly overseen by two forest management units (KPH), namely KPH Batutegi&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-the-front-lines-of-conservation-in-sumatra-rangers-safeguard-batutegi-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-the-front-lines-of-conservation-in-sumatra-rangers-safeguard-batutegi-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325509</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cheap coffee is killing Vietnam’s priceless tropical forests (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cheap-coffee-is-killing-vietnams-priceless-tropical-forests-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cheap-coffee-is-killing-vietnams-priceless-tropical-forests-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Aug 2026 20:45:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle Higonnet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/19233119/Vietnam-smallholder-coffee-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325233</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Business, Coffee, Commentary, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Food, Food Industry, Food Vs Forests Debate, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Industrial Agriculture, Natural Resources, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Vietnam is now the world’s largest producer of robusta, the bitter, sturdy bean behind instant coffee, supermarket blends, and the overall global appetite for cheap caffeine. But behind its meteoric rise to No. 2 coffee producer in the world lies a story the industry has tried very hard to hide: forests are disappearing, wildlife is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Vietnam is now the world’s largest producer of robusta, the bitter, sturdy bean behind instant coffee, supermarket blends, and the overall global appetite for cheap caffeine. But behind its meteoric rise to No. 2 coffee producer in the world lies a story the industry has tried very hard to hide: forests are disappearing, wildlife is vanishing, and rural communities are being pushed to the brink. As ecosystems start to collapse, coffee is getting harder and harder to grow, and the brands buying that coffee and filling supermarket shelves from Copenhagen to California are complicit every step of the way. Our new Coffee Watch investigation, “Vietnam: Robusta’s Reckoning,” reveals the scale of the crisis. Forests the size of Luxembourg have been wiped out for coffee. In biodiversity hotspots like Vietnam’s Central Highlands, wildlife like tigers, elephants, civets, sun bears, adorable flying squirrels, and delicate saola (sometimes referred to as the “Asian unicorn”), have been squeezed into ever‑smaller fragments of habitat, or just plain wiped out. Communities are losing the very ecosystems that sustain them, and this destruction is largely happening so the world can enjoy cheap robusta in instant coffee, capsules, and mass‑market blends. Typical landscape in Vietnam that&#8217;s suitable for growing robusta coffee. Image by Michael Tatarski for Mongabay. Vietnam’s rise as a coffee superpower is often framed as a rural development miracle, but the truth is far darker. Smallholder farmers, who grow the vast majority of Vietnam’s coffee, are trapped in a system that rewards expansion into forested land&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cheap-coffee-is-killing-vietnams-priceless-tropical-forests-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cheap-coffee-is-killing-vietnams-priceless-tropical-forests-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325233</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ecuador’s Amazon coffee farmers get ahead of Europe&#8217;s deforestation rules</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ecuadors-amazon-coffee-farmers-get-ahead-of-europes-deforestation-rules/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ecuadors-amazon-coffee-farmers-get-ahead-of-europes-deforestation-rules/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2026 11:37:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sibélia Zanon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/14111555/Fapecafes_local-production-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322761</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Avoided Deforestation, Business, Coffee, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Crops, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, EUDR, Farming, Governance, Natural Resources, Regenerative production landscapes, Sustainability, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“What motivates us most is being able to say, ‘I take care of the environment, I don’t cut down trees, and my coffee will be valued more highly,’” said Victoria Alverca Peña, a farmer for 25 years and co-founder of APECAP, a small coffee and cacao producers’ association in Zamora Chinchipe, a province in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“What motivates us most is being able to say, ‘I take care of the environment, I don’t cut down trees, and my coffee will be valued more highly,’” said Victoria Alverca Peña, a farmer for 25 years and co-founder of APECAP, a small coffee and cacao producers’ association in Zamora Chinchipe, a province in the Ecuadorian Amazon. “I’ll be able to sell it under better conditions, and my work will be much more valued. “In our farms, besides coffee, you&#8217;ll find cacao, timber trees, fruit trees and even short-cycle crops,” she added. “When the coffee plants are still young, we can grow crops like corn, cassava or plantains. This helps us a lot with food security.” At the end of this year, the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is set to go into force, prohibiting products linked to deforestation from entering the EU market. Coffee is among the target commodities, and here in southern Ecuador, a group of coffee growers has been ahead of the curve in preparing for the EUDR implementation. Since 2019, nearly 400 farmers here have adopted a model that combines forest conservation, traceability, and geospatial monitoring as part of the Deforestation-Free Coffee Initiative, at work in 23 areas across the region. Between 2019-2021, the project developed Ecuador&#8217;s first deforestation-free coffee production model. The effort relies on a national protocol developed by the Ecuadorian government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which uses satellite imagery, traceability systems, and independent verification to track where coffee is grown&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ecuadors-amazon-coffee-farmers-get-ahead-of-europes-deforestation-rules/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ecuadors-amazon-coffee-farmers-get-ahead-of-europes-deforestation-rules/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322761</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For Honduran coffee growers, EUDR compliance means changing old habits</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 12:22:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/29120927/9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320278</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, European Union, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, Coffee, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, EUDR, Farming, Forest Destruction, International Trade, Monitoring, Politics, Supply Chain, Technology, Transparency, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CONCEPCIÓN DE SOLUTECA, Honduras — In the 1970s, the Honduran government granted a piece of land in the mountains of Concepción de Soluteca to Roberto González’s parents. They duly grabbed a chainsaw and a machete to clear the forest. On the 12 hectares (30 acres) they received as part of a land reform, they planted [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CONCEPCIÓN DE SOLUTECA, Honduras — In the 1970s, the Honduran government granted a piece of land in the mountains of Concepción de Soluteca to Roberto González’s parents. They duly grabbed a chainsaw and a machete to clear the forest. On the 12 hectares (30 acres) they received as part of a land reform, they planted corn, beans and bananas, the basic staple foods. It was a hard life up in the mountains, allowing the farmers and their families to just survive. There wasn’t much public infrastructure, and most children had to help with farmwork early on. This included González, who only attended elementary school for three years. When González inherited the land 20 years later, coffee cultivation was just taking off. Middlemen promised the farmers good money for the export crop, and the banks provided loans for cultivation. At first, this worked well, González, now 39, remembers. Coffee helped the farmers to generate income and improve living conditions. But it didn’t last long. They grew coffee much the same way they did other crops, without adequate soil or shade management. When harvests dwindled, they expanded their area, cutting the last standing forests and damaging water sources. Around 2012, they faced an outbreak of coffee rust, a fungal disease. It was a complete disaster: many farmers were thrown into poverty and forced to migrate. “We destroyed the foundations of our livelihoods, but it was out of ignorance; we just didn&#8217;t know better,” González tells Mongabay. Under the EUDR, coffee farmers step&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320278</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EU deforestation law risks leaving Honduran coffee farmers behind</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-deforestation-law-risks-leaving-honduran-coffee-farmers-behind/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-deforestation-law-risks-leaving-honduran-coffee-farmers-behind/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 15:15:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/11150207/6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319115</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, European Union, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Coffee, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, EUDR, Farming, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, International Trade, Land Rights, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Reinerio Zepeda is 88 and for almost a century has made his living from arabica coffee, grown in the shade at his finca, or ranch, near Minas de Oro in central Honduras. “I love the peace up here, the trees and the birds,” he tells Mongabay by phone. Zepeda is one of the 98,000 coffee [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Reinerio Zepeda is 88 and for almost a century has made his living from arabica coffee, grown in the shade at his finca, or ranch, near Minas de Oro in central Honduras. “I love the peace up here, the trees and the birds,” he tells Mongabay by phone. Zepeda is one of the 98,000 coffee growers registered in the country, most of whom, according to recent data, own less than 3 hectares (7 acres) of land. Zepeda, like many of his neighbors, has been selling his coffee to intermediaries and is wondering what the next year will bring as he will need to meet several requirements to make his supply chain traceable. Starting January 2027, only farmers whose land wasn’t cleared after Dec. 31, 2020, will be able to send their commodities into the European Union, according to the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). “I have heard something on TV about Europe being concerned about deforestation, but nobody has showed up here to explain it to me,” says Zepeda, adding he’s more worried about falling prices than the bureaucracy in Brussels. “I haven’t cut trees; that would be crazy because I need them to produce my coffee. Everybody can come up here and check.” More than half of Honduras’s coffee exports end up in the EU, representing about 5% of the national GDP. Domestically, the coffee industry generates more jobs than any other sector (1.1 million) and brings in more foreign exchange than any other economic activity. Around 120,000 smallholder families make a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-deforestation-law-risks-leaving-honduran-coffee-farmers-behind/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-deforestation-law-risks-leaving-honduran-coffee-farmers-behind/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319115</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Costa Rica’s head start may mask tougher EUDR road ahead</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/costa-ricas-head-start-may-mask-tougher-eudr-road-ahead/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/costa-ricas-head-start-may-mask-tougher-eudr-road-ahead/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2026 17:49:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/13171951/Examining-coffee-plants-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315717</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, European Union, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Coffee, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, International Trade, Sustainability, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica’s famous coffee industry says it’s nearly ready for EUDR. The upcoming European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires that all coffee shipped into the EU not come from recently deforested land, prompting Costa Rica to develop a pilot program with its largest coffee cooperative. The initial program provided tools and training to help growers, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica’s famous coffee industry says it’s nearly ready for EUDR. The upcoming European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires that all coffee shipped into the EU not come from recently deforested land, prompting Costa Rica to develop a pilot program with its largest coffee cooperative. The initial program provided tools and training to help growers, processors, roasters and exporters comply with the new rules. Over the past year, this pilot has expanded, giving these resources to all coffee producers nationally — and bringing Costa Rica closer to being one of the first nations to certify an entire sector as EUDR-ready. Costa Rica’s success serves as an important case study for the coffee industry, both in how others might prepare for the new rules, and why they may struggle in comparison. “I think we’ve seen a lot of discourse that says it&#8217;s basically impossible to comply with this law, and pilots like [Costa Rica’s] showcase that this is a wrong narrative,” said Janina Grabs, associate professor of sustainability research at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who studies agricultural commodities. “But they also showcase the alternative narrative, which is more truthful, which is that it&#8217;s going to be harder for some to comply than others.” Coffee is one of seven commodities covered by the EUDR; the others are cattle, cocoa, palm oil, rubber, soy and timber. While coffee’s impact is fractional compared to the massive deforestation undergone for cattle, palm oil and soy, the World Resources Institute estimates that between 2001&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/costa-ricas-head-start-may-mask-tougher-eudr-road-ahead/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/costa-ricas-head-start-may-mask-tougher-eudr-road-ahead/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315717</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Colombia’s coffee industry well placed but wary as EU deforestation rule looms</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/colombias-coffee-industry-well-placed-but-wary-as-eu-deforestation-rule-looms/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/colombias-coffee-industry-well-placed-but-wary-as-eu-deforestation-rule-looms/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Mar 2026 16:23:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/04114305/Juan-Nieves5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315196</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, European Union, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Coffee, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, EUDR, Farming, Forest Loss, International Trade, Law Enforcement, Rainforests, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CIÉNAGA, Colombia — A handful of men swarm around a coffee collection center in the city of Ciénaga, shouldering burlap sacks of coffee as they move in and out of the mill. Ciénaga is a port town in the foothills of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the world’s highest coastal mountain range, and is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CIÉNAGA, Colombia — A handful of men swarm around a coffee collection center in the city of Ciénaga, shouldering burlap sacks of coffee as they move in and out of the mill. Ciénaga is a port town in the foothills of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the world’s highest coastal mountain range, and is known locally as the coffee capital of the Sierra Nevada region. “We hope EUDR will be to our benefit,” says Silver Polo Palomino, a coffee grower and representative of the Asociación de Agricultores Orgánicos de La Secreta (AGROSEC), a local organic coffee growers’ association in Ciénaga, speaking over the roar of the mill. Polo is one of many producers in Colombia who say they’re uncertain — and increasingly nervous — about what the implementation of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will mean for their livelihoods. The regulation, set to go into force at the end of this year, will ban the import into the EU market of seven key commodities linked to deforestation. Coffee is among them. But Colombia, the world’s No. 3 coffee producer, is well prepared for the EUDR and better positioned than coffee exporters in many parts of Africa and Asia, several experts told Mongabay. Despite a fragmented sector dominated by small-scale farmers, Colombia’s coffee industry is highly organized, largely through the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (FNC), which represents more than 500,000 coffee-growing families. The FNC has developed a centralized georeferenced database, the Coffee Information System (SICA), designed to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/colombias-coffee-industry-well-placed-but-wary-as-eu-deforestation-rule-looms/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/colombias-coffee-industry-well-placed-but-wary-as-eu-deforestation-rule-looms/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315196</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>SE Asia’s smallholders struggling to meet EUDR: Interview with RECOFTC’s Martin Greijmans</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 10:59:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/29105530/IMG_6036-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312175</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Europe, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Certification, Coffee, Community Forests, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Green, International Trade, Palm Oil, Plantations, Regulations, Timber, and Timber Laws]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Smallholders produce significant quantities of Vietnam’s coffee, Indonesia’s palm oil, and Thailand’s rubber exported into the EU. Yet under the bloc’s upcoming deforestation-free regulation (EUDR), industry experts say small-scale producers across Southeast Asia need more support to help prepare them to comply with the new rules. The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is set to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Smallholders produce significant quantities of Vietnam’s coffee, Indonesia’s palm oil, and Thailand’s rubber exported into the EU. Yet under the bloc’s upcoming deforestation-free regulation (EUDR), industry experts say small-scale producers across Southeast Asia need more support to help prepare them to comply with the new rules. The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is set to take effect at the end of 2026, after EU lawmakers voted earlier this month to postpone its implementation for the second year in a row, citing technical concerns. Its goal is to ensure that forest-linked products imported into the EU are deforestation-free by introducing mechanisms that enable companies trading seven commodities — cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and timber — to track their products’ origins throughout the entire supply chain. While experts say increased oversight is a vital step to reduce the footprint of EU consumption on forests, others have warned that without appropriate support and governance mechanisms, the new rules could introduce inequities that harm small-scale producers. Many smallholders lack the capacity and capital to comply with some aspects of the new regulations, for instance. This could see them sidelined in favor of bigger producers who can more easily adapt, according to Martin Greijmans, community enterprise program lead at RECOFTC, a Thailand-based community forest nonprofit. Further complicating matters are limited resources to inform smallholders about how the regulations will affect their businesses, underscoring the need for greater efforts by governments and private companies to help smallholders adapt, he says. “One shocking thing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312175</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroforestry grows in popularity among central Colombia&#8217;s coffee farmers (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/agroforestry-grows-in-popularity-among-central-colombias-coffee-farmers-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/agroforestry-grows-in-popularity-among-central-colombias-coffee-farmers-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2025 18:05:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Juliana Cajiao Raigosa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/23171032/coffee-lady-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311971</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Analysis, Coffee, Commentary, Commodity agriculture, Community Development, Conflict, Deforestation, Education, Forests, Social Conflict, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Colombia is the world&#8217;s third-largest coffee producer and the main producer of Arabica coffee, which is known worldwide for its quality. The nation began developing commercial production in 1870, which now accounts for 22% of the national gross domestic product (GDP). According to the National Federation of Coffee Growers, there are approximately 560,000 farms in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Colombia is the world&#8217;s third-largest coffee producer and the main producer of Arabica coffee, which is known worldwide for its quality. The nation began developing commercial production in 1870, which now accounts for 22% of the national gross domestic product (GDP). According to the National Federation of Coffee Growers, there are approximately 560,000 farms in the country dedicated to coffee production, most of them small scale and accounting for 15% of total production. Coffee in Colombia has become part of the national identity and is also considered part of its cultural heritage. Besides this, it has been of vital importance for the economy, representing up to 80% of total exports, and is undoubtedly partly responsible for the changes that took place between 1870 and 1930, which allowed for the integration of the country&#8217;s economy and generated positive political and social effects. However, only 5% of smallholder farmers are technically efficient (TE), reflecting poor agronomic management strategies such as inadequate uses of inputs, irrational uses of fertilizers and pesticides, low phytosanitary control and monitoring strategies, lack of labor and substandard production conditions, among other factors. Mr. Arlisson Neussa, an agricultural engineer, assisting with coffee berry borer monitoring on a coffee plantation. The agroforestry coffee system, in which the coffee is interplanted within a native forest, can be clearly seen. Image courtesy of Juliana Cajiao Raigosa. The main coffee-producing departments of the “cafetal zone” are Risalda, Caldas, Antioquia and Quindío. Coffee in these areas is considered a cultural heritage and is mainly&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/agroforestry-grows-in-popularity-among-central-colombias-coffee-farmers-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/agroforestry-grows-in-popularity-among-central-colombias-coffee-farmers-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311971</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Researchers find concerning gaps in global maps used for EUDR compliance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/researchers-find-concerning-gaps-in-global-maps-used-for-eudr-compliance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/researchers-find-concerning-gaps-in-global-maps-used-for-eudr-compliance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 14:57:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/19083601/d.-BANNER-UF18USU-A84A9875-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311699</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Business, Cacao, Cattle, Coffee, Conservation, Deforestation, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, International Trade, Logging, Plantations, Politics, Rainforests, Rubber, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, timber trade, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent scientific review of forest maps used to ensure compliance with the European Union’s Regulation on Deforestation-free products, known as the EUDR, suggests that most may over- or underestimate forest areas, which could lead to inaccurate assessments of deforestation risk. The authors write that those inconsistencies point to the need for EU companies to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent scientific review of forest maps used to ensure compliance with the European Union’s Regulation on Deforestation-free products, known as the EUDR, suggests that most may over- or underestimate forest areas, which could lead to inaccurate assessments of deforestation risk. The authors write that those inconsistencies point to the need for EU companies to be discerning about which maps they use to ensure they comply with the regulation. The requirements will go into effect for most companies on Dec. 30, 2026, after a second postponement in as many years by the European Parliament. Only two of the 21 data sets in the assessment met all of the indicators used to assess risk used by the EUDR. The regulation will apply to seven commodities — cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and timber — as well as the products they’re used to make. Companies and government agencies are planning to use maps of satellite and other remote-sensing data to determine whether products entering EU countries are linked to deforestation after Dec. 31, 2020, the regulation’s cutoff date. Importing companies and the EU countries’ government agencies tasked with screening imported goods for compliance will compare georeferenced plots for a commodity with historical maps of forest and tree cover to determine whether it was produced at the expense of recently cleared forest. But many such maps exist, and the EUDR doesn’t specify the use of any one map. That means that a company using one map to verify compliance might come&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/researchers-find-concerning-gaps-in-global-maps-used-for-eudr-compliance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/researchers-find-concerning-gaps-in-global-maps-used-for-eudr-compliance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311699</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EUDR implementation comes laden with potential unintended consequences</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/eudr-implementation-comes-laden-with-potential-unintended-consequences/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/eudr-implementation-comes-laden-with-potential-unintended-consequences/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Sep 2025 19:05:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/04150701/Image_7-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305415</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Cerrado, East Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Global, Indonesia, South America, Southeast Asia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Cacao, Coffee, Conservation, Crops, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Farming, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Globalization, International Trade, Land Use Change, Palm Oil, Pasture, Politics, Regulations, Supply Chain, Timber, Timber Laws, timber trade, Trade, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Set to enter into force Dec. 30, 2025, the European Union’s deforestation-free products regulation (EUDR) aims to halt the bloc’s contribution to global forest loss. Experts Mongabay spoke to agree the EUDR promises to become a landmark legislative tool for curbing commodities supply chain-related deforestation at the international level. But those analysts also warn of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Set to enter into force Dec. 30, 2025, the European Union’s deforestation-free products regulation (EUDR) aims to halt the bloc’s contribution to global forest loss. Experts Mongabay spoke to agree the EUDR promises to become a landmark legislative tool for curbing commodities supply chain-related deforestation at the international level. But those analysts also warn of “unintended consequences” built into the law that could imperil the initiative’s objectives and effectiveness and in some cases raise the risk of further deforestation or land use change spreading to other ecosystems. Once it is implemented, the EUDR requires producers of a wide range of commodities — including cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and wood — prove their products are not being sourced from land deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. EUDR implementation was delayed in 2024 when transnational companies and commodity producing nations complained to the EU of being unprepared for the law. That hiatus raised widespread concerns the delay might be used for “watering down” the statute. But the postponement could also allow time for potential EUDR defects to be addressed. The Rainforest Alliance, for example, which has supported the law from its inception, “definitely saw the unintended consequences from the start,” says Fanny Gauttier, the NGO’s European public affairs lead. Prime among those unintended consequences, she says, is the possibility of the EUDR accidentally excluding many of the world’s smallholder farmers. Other experts point to the potential “leakage” of commodities once destined for EUDR nations being shipped to unregulated markets. Add&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/eudr-implementation-comes-laden-with-potential-unintended-consequences/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/eudr-implementation-comes-laden-with-potential-unintended-consequences/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305415</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Insignificant risk’ EUDR proposal threatens fight against deforestation, critics say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/insignificant-risk-eudr-proposal-threatens-fight-against-deforestation-critics-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/insignificant-risk-eudr-proposal-threatens-fight-against-deforestation-critics-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2025 17:07:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/24165241/AP25199052827551-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303145</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and European Union]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Beef, Cacao, Cattle, Coffee, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, EUDR, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, International Trade, Law, Logging, Palm Oil, Politics, Rainforests, Rubber, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, timber trade, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A last-minute proposal to revise the European Union’s sweeping antideforestation law has conservationists worried about yet another delay to the law’s implementation and weaker oversight of supply chains. The EU deforestation-free products regulation, or EUDR, is scheduled to go into effect at the end of this year, imposing new restrictions on imports linked to forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A last-minute proposal to revise the European Union’s sweeping antideforestation law has conservationists worried about yet another delay to the law’s implementation and weaker oversight of supply chains. The EU deforestation-free products regulation, or EUDR, is scheduled to go into effect at the end of this year, imposing new restrictions on imports linked to forest loss. But some officials want to simplify a section of the law to make trade easier — a hazardous delay tactic, some critics say. “Further attempts to delay the application of the regulation or to undermine its well thought through architecture will damage the credibility of the EU and frustrate the efforts of companies and third countries that have invested in reaching compliance,” said Together4Forests, a campaign of more than 220 environmental groups. The EUDR requires producers — including those in European countries — to prove cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soy and wood weren’t sourced from land that was deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. Technically, the law took effect in 2023 but allowed countries an 18-month transition period to give producers time to meet the new trade regulations. Last year, the transition period was extended by another 12 months, citing producers’ lack of preparedness. It’s now due to go into force on Dec. 30 this year. Corn and soy fields in Brasilia, Brazil. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres) The rigor of the regulations each country faces is based on a benchmarking system that categorizes them as either high, standard or low risk. This has been&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/insignificant-risk-eudr-proposal-threatens-fight-against-deforestation-critics-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/insignificant-risk-eudr-proposal-threatens-fight-against-deforestation-critics-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303145</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Colombia’s coffee farmers try to balance innovation and tradition to adapt to climate change</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/colombias-coffee-farmers-try-to-balance-innovation-and-tradition-to-adapt-to-climate-change/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/colombias-coffee-farmers-try-to-balance-innovation-and-tradition-to-adapt-to-climate-change/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2025 21:35:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victor Raison]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/31081533/DSCF9297-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296713</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, agribusiness, Agriculture, Agroecology, Climate Change, Coffee, Environment, Farming, Food, Research, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CHINCHINA, Colombia — “Before, the seasons seemed etched into the calendar, with well-defined periods of drought and rain. Today, the climate has gone completely mad!” says coffee grower Oscar Gomez from his farm nestled in the mountains of Colombia’s Eje Cafetero, or the Coffee Axis. Climate change is profoundly disrupting coffee production in Colombia, the world’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CHINCHINA, Colombia — “Before, the seasons seemed etched into the calendar, with well-defined periods of drought and rain. Today, the climate has gone completely mad!” says coffee grower Oscar Gomez from his farm nestled in the mountains of Colombia’s Eje Cafetero, or the Coffee Axis. Climate change is profoundly disrupting coffee production in Colombia, the world’s third-largest coffee producer, after Brazil and Vietnam. The country is also facing extreme weather events from successive cycles of La Niña and El Niño that bring either torrential rains or prolonged droughts. These fluctuations disrupt agricultural cycles and weaken harvests, say researchers, while rising temperatures encourage the proliferation of harmful insects and diseases caused by fungi. In the face of these, researchers and farmers are taking multiple measures to try to safeguard the coffee crops. The National Federation of Coffee Growers (FEDECAFE) of Colombia’s coffee research center, Cenicafé, is continuously developing disease-resistant coffee varieties to try to adapt to the latest changes. A new coffee variety, Castillo 2.0, came out in December 2024, and researchers say they hope it ensures that farmers receive a fair income for their coffee production and helps them face climate change. Coffee rust is a parasitic fungi, Hemileia vastatrix, that latches onto leaves and reduces the crop’s ability to conduct photosynthesis. Image courtesy of Noel Rojo. Meanwhile, some farmers are reverting to traditional farming methods, cultivating non-hybrid coffee varieties, and developing diverse agroecology techniques where various species are cultivated together to help mitigate the effects of climate change — for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/colombias-coffee-farmers-try-to-balance-innovation-and-tradition-to-adapt-to-climate-change/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296713</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coffee companies are readier for the EUDR than they claim (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/coffee-companies-are-readier-for-the-eudr-than-they-claim-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/coffee-companies-are-readier-for-the-eudr-than-they-claim-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2025 11:13:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle Higonnet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/21105318/Floating-and-sorting-the-coffee.-Photo-by-Jo-Anne-McArthur-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294941</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, European Union, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Coffee, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, EUDR, Forest Loss, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, International Trade, Politics, Poverty, Slavery, Supply Chain, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The battle over the fate of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was arguably the biggest forest story in 2024. It turns out, coffee played a dark and bitter role in that struggle. Under the EUDR, companies wanting to sell to the EU market products containing coffee, wood, cattle, cocoa, soy, palm oil or rubber [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The battle over the fate of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was arguably the biggest forest story in 2024. It turns out, coffee played a dark and bitter role in that struggle. Under the EUDR, companies wanting to sell to the EU market products containing coffee, wood, cattle, cocoa, soy, palm oil or rubber must prove that they are deforestation-free. The law, the first of its kind globally, aimed to tackle the impacts of these seven commodities on forests and peoples’ rights. It was approved with an overwhelming democratic mandate in 2023, sending a clear signal about the EU’s determination to drastically reduce its contribution to clearing land for agriculture.  The law was initially greeted as a breakthrough in the global battle against forest loss, and seen as a template for others to follow around the world.   But after the breakthrough came the “greenlash.”   Lobbyists, politicians (some of whom received more than €1.7 million, or $1.8 million, from industry players facing regulation) and industry forces like coffee companies tried to sabotage Europe’s efforts to end deforestation in its supply chains — disregarding democratic principles, threatening the EU’s credibility with its trading partners, and undermining those companies that had already spent tens of millions of euros preparing for EUDR implementation.  Coffee plantation in the Andes. Image by Morley Read. At the forefront of some of the most bitter, groundless attacks on the EUDR were major coffee companies and EU coffee industry lobby groups. Letters shared by insider sources reveal the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/coffee-companies-are-readier-for-the-eudr-than-they-claim-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/coffee-companies-are-readier-for-the-eudr-than-they-claim-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294941</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coffee agroforestry promises a path to EUDR compliance, but challenges remain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/coffee-agroforestry-promises-a-path-to-eudr-compliance-but-challenges-remain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/coffee-agroforestry-promises-a-path-to-eudr-compliance-but-challenges-remain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Dec 2024 12:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marina Martinez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/23202318/Coffee-plants-in-a-deforested-scrub-area-in-Laos.-Image-by-Rhett-A.-Butler-for-Mongabay-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292166</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Colombia, European Union, Latin America, North America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Certification, Climate Change, Coffee, Commodity agriculture, Crops, data, Deforestation, EUDR, Farming, Governance, Law Enforcement, Monitoring, Remote Sensing, Supply Chain, Sustainability, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the last two decades, about 130,000 hectares, or 3,210,000 acres, of forest have been lost annually for coffee cultivation. Pressure on areas suitable for coffee growing, usually forest-rich habitats, is estimated to increase, as coffee production is expected to triple by 2050 to meet growing demand. Part of that demand is represented by the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the last two decades, about 130,000 hectares, or 3,210,000 acres, of forest have been lost annually for coffee cultivation. Pressure on areas suitable for coffee growing, usually forest-rich habitats, is estimated to increase, as coffee production is expected to triple by 2050 to meet growing demand. Part of that demand is represented by the European Union market, which consumes about one-third of this global commodity. In an effort to reduce its impact on forests, the EU recently approved a regulation aimed at preventing coffee and other agricultural products linked to deforestation from being sold in its common market. Known as the EUDR, the regulation requires companies to demonstrate that such products didn’t originate from deforested land after Dec. 31, 2020, and that they were produced in compliance with environmental and human rights laws in the country of origin. Although the EUDR’s applicability date has been postponed to December 2025 (and to June 2026 for micro- and small enterprises), some companies in the coffee sector, particularly the largest ones, have begun preparing to meet its requirements. Among them are Nespresso and commodity trader Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC). Source: European Commission (2021). While noncompliance could lead to significant profit losses, including a potential ban from the EU market, both Nespresso and LDC have expressed support for the EUDR regulation, citing their company-wide commitments to eliminating deforestation from their respective supply chains. “We continuously work to ensure a deforestation-free supply-chain,” Nespresso, part of Switzerland-based Nestlé Group, told Mongabay via email. “Forests are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/coffee-agroforestry-promises-a-path-to-eudr-compliance-but-challenges-remain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/coffee-agroforestry-promises-a-path-to-eudr-compliance-but-challenges-remain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292166</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agribusiness giant Olam gets head start on EUDR; its suppliers, not so much</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agribusiness-giant-olam-gets-head-start-on-eudr-its-suppliers-not-so-much/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agribusiness-giant-olam-gets-head-start-on-eudr-its-suppliers-not-so-much/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Dec 2024 14:19:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/24141340/Photo-5-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292277</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, European Union, Honduras, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cacao, Coffee, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Farming, Food, Food Industry, Supply Chain, Sustainability, and Tracking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A massive gap is forming in the race to comply with the European Union’s antideforestation rules, as smallholder farmers and suppliers struggle to meet the new requirements while agribusiness giants express confidence about being ready in time. Olam Agri and ofi, both subsidiaries of Singapore-headquartered food and agribusiness conglomerate Olam Group, told Mongabay they’re using [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A massive gap is forming in the race to comply with the European Union’s antideforestation rules, as smallholder farmers and suppliers struggle to meet the new requirements while agribusiness giants express confidence about being ready in time. Olam Agri and ofi, both subsidiaries of Singapore-headquartered food and agribusiness conglomerate Olam Group, told Mongabay they’re using advanced traceability and information systems to get ahead. By contrast, smallholders in countries like Honduras and Indonesia still lack critical information and resources to even begin the compliance process before the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) takes effect. In response to these and similar concerns from trade groups and exporting countries, the EU has agreed to delay the law’s implementation by a year from the initial start date of end-2024.   Coffee is one of the seven commodities subject to the EUDR; the regulation will prohibit imports into the EU market of commodities sourced from land that was deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. Coffee will be heavily impacted by the new regulation: between 2001 and 2015, 1.9 million hectares (4.7 million acres) of forest, an area about half the size of Switzerland, was cleared for coffee cultivation. And in 2023, half of the coffee exported from Honduras was destined for the EU. ofi carrying out agroforestry training. Image courtesy of ofi. Miguel Pon, executive president of the Association of Coffee Exporters of Honduras, told Mongabay by email that he believes “no more than 20 percent of all Honduras [coffee] producers are prepared with the points and polygons&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agribusiness-giant-olam-gets-head-start-on-eudr-its-suppliers-not-so-much/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agribusiness-giant-olam-gets-head-start-on-eudr-its-suppliers-not-so-much/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292277</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Parties gutting EUDR received donations from companies tied to illegal deforestation: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/parties-gutting-eudr-received-donations-from-companies-tied-to-illegal-deforestation-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/parties-gutting-eudr-received-donations-from-companies-tied-to-illegal-deforestation-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Nov 2024 18:11:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/06135029/forest-fire-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290206</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Europe, and European Union]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Cacao, Coffee, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Illegal Logging, Logging, Palm Oil, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Timber Laws, and timber trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Parties members of the European People’s Party (EPP), a large center-right political party, received political donations from influential companies linked to illegal deforestation and which are likely to benefit from changes to a key EU forest protection law, according to a new Earthsight report. Yesterday, the EU Parliament voted to postpone the EU Deforestation Regulation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Parties members of the European People’s Party (EPP), a large center-right political party, received political donations from influential companies linked to illegal deforestation and which are likely to benefit from changes to a key EU forest protection law, according to a new Earthsight report. Yesterday, the EU Parliament voted to postpone the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by one year and approved a series of amendments put forward by the EPP calling for less stringent requirements. Over €1.7 million has been donated to EPP members, including Austria’s Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP) party and Germany’s Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (CDU) party, from companies and shareholders who profit from goods covered by the EUDR and have links to illegal deforestation or are exposed to forest-risk commodities, the report said. One of the approved amendments involves the creation of a new category of &#8216;no-risk&#8217; countries, which will be subject to less stringent requirements in their management of forests than countries of &#8216;low,&#8217; &#8216;standard,&#8217; and &#8216;high&#8217; risk. Under this criterion, most EU member states would be considered ‘no-risk,&#8217; as well as China, the U.S., and Russia creating a “dangerous loophole” that facilitates the laundering of products from high-risk to no-risk countries, said Fyfe Strachan, policy and communications lead at Earthsight. Oil palm planation and native tropical rainforest on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler/Mongabay. Julia Christian, a campaigner at the EU environmental watchdog Fern, wrote in a press statement that the EU Parliament approved the amendment “without assessing whether these changes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/parties-gutting-eudr-received-donations-from-companies-tied-to-illegal-deforestation-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/parties-gutting-eudr-received-donations-from-companies-tied-to-illegal-deforestation-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290206</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coffee agroforestry holds promise for smallholder growers in Malawi</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/coffee-agroforestry-holds-promise-for-smallholder-growers-in-malawi/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/coffee-agroforestry-holds-promise-for-smallholder-growers-in-malawi/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Oct 2024 12:00:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/04083704/9-coffee-farmers-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288199</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Coffee, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Farming, Forest Carbon, Rainforests, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[RUMPHI, Malawi — In the villages below Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi’s Rumphi district, coffee rules. It’s one of the most common bushes in the region, grown in back and front yards or in open fields where, elsewhere, maize would have been cultivated. Here, coffee shares space with banana and other fruit trees around fishponds [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[RUMPHI, Malawi — In the villages below Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi’s Rumphi district, coffee rules. It’s one of the most common bushes in the region, grown in back and front yards or in open fields where, elsewhere, maize would have been cultivated. Here, coffee shares space with banana and other fruit trees around fishponds and water holes, and scales up steep slopes among natural foliage. “It’s the father of all crops here,” says Martha Mhango, a coffee farmer of 22 years in a village located at the boundary of Nyika National Park, Malawi’s largest wildlife reserve. Mhango is a member of a coffee agroforestry project developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Slow Food Coffee Coalition (SFCC), an international network that campaigns for sustainable coffee value chains. In 2022, the two organizations launched a pilot project to promote coffee produced under agroforestry among farmers in Malawi and Uganda. “Basically, the project was meant to integrate agroforestry into coffee production to enhance climate resilience and quality of coffee. Agroforestry has many benefits both to farmers as well as the ecosystem,” says Manvester Ackson Khoza, the SFCC’s national coordinator in Malawi and its international councilor for Southern Africa. Martha Mhango has grown coffee for 22 years, which has allowed her to build a decent house and educate her three children. She has no plans of dropping coffee farming. Image by Charles Mpaka for Mongabay. Agroforestry is a practice where farmers grow trees and shrubs with an agricultural crop&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/coffee-agroforestry-holds-promise-for-smallholder-growers-in-malawi/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/coffee-agroforestry-holds-promise-for-smallholder-growers-in-malawi/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288199</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biden Administration mistakenly seeks delay of EU&#8217;s new deforestation regulation (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/biden-administration-mistakenly-seeks-delay-of-new-european-deforestation-regulation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/biden-administration-mistakenly-seeks-delay-of-new-european-deforestation-regulation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2024 19:43:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle Higonnet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/31145155/2.-Cattle-raising-in-recently-destroyed-forestland-in-the-municipality-Aripuana-in-Mato-Grosso-state-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286084</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Europe, European Union, Latin America, North America, South America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Beef, Cacao, Coffee, Commentary, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Forests, Governance, Palm Oil, Regulations, Rubber, Soy, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A crucial new European law to save global forests is under attack, by the Biden Administration – precisely at the time Biden seeks to burnish his environmental credentials. The regulation at stake? It’s the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), a law that’s widely considered the best hope for the lungs of our planet. Yet the U.S. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A crucial new European law to save global forests is under attack, by the Biden Administration – precisely at the time Biden seeks to burnish his environmental credentials. The regulation at stake? It’s the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), a law that’s widely considered the best hope for the lungs of our planet. Yet the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimundo, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Trade Representative Katherine Tai sent a letter to the European Commission demanding that the European Union delay the EUDR. Their letter parroted ill-informed arguments put forth by a small number of the U.S.’s least ethical producers, and ignored how thousands of companies and investors representing trillions of dollars are on the opposite side, actively supporting the EUDR. Cattle ranching is a leading cause of deforestation in Brazil, and much of the resulting beef is exported. Image © Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace. Worse yet, the letter in essence asked Europe to penalize the most law-abiding companies, many of which are already investing in due diligence and deploying all their resources to ensure timely compliance. Delaying the EUDR, as Vilsack asks, would hurt companies that started early and reward the laggards. The truth is that American producers are perfectly capable of producing the products regulated by the EUDR without deforestation, namely soy, cattle, timber, cocoa, rubber, and coffee. Indeed, the United States should be the foremost supporter of the EUDR, perhaps unlike other producer countries that are less able to control significant deforestation in the regulated commodities. Here’s why: new&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/biden-administration-mistakenly-seeks-delay-of-new-european-deforestation-regulation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/biden-administration-mistakenly-seeks-delay-of-new-european-deforestation-regulation-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286084</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study highlights environmental and economic benefits of agroforestry for DRC coffee crops</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/study-highlights-environmental-and-economic-benefits-of-agroforestry-for-drc-coffee-crops/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/study-highlights-environmental-and-economic-benefits-of-agroforestry-for-drc-coffee-crops/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Aug 2024 16:19:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Fitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/09150414/Coffee-bean-harvesting-in-Yangambi-DRC.-Credit-Axel-Fassio-for-CIFOR_ICRAF-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285919</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Coffee, Conservation, Forest Carbon, Rainforests, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Growing coffee in a forest with other trees and plants—a system known as agroforestry—can be as productive as growing it in a monoculture field, but it’s much less harmful, according to research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Cultivated agroforestry systems in the DRC support 19 times higher biodiversity and store twice as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Growing coffee in a forest with other trees and plants—a system known as agroforestry—can be as productive as growing it in a monoculture field, but it’s much less harmful, according to research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Cultivated agroforestry systems in the DRC support 19 times higher biodiversity and store twice as much carbon as monoculture systems, according to the upcoming study. The research aimed to quantify the trade-offs among yield, carbon storage and biodiversity “to see whether agroforestry could be a pragmatic solution for farmers instead of merely a solution proposed by scientists, conservationists and development cooperation actors,” co-author, Ieben Broeckhoven, a researcher at Belgian university KU Leuven, told Mongabay. Agroforestry is a method of agroecology which combines annual or perennial crops like coffee in a system with beneficial trees and shrubs that provide shade, moisture and nutrients to the main crop while providing carbon storage plus food and habitat for bugs, bats, birds and more. Analyzing 79 plots covering an area equal to about 192 tennis courts (50,000 square meters or 538,000 square feet), scientists compared coffee yield, woody species biodiversity and organic carbon both aboveground and in the soil, across four different coffee growing systems in the DRC. The two highest coffee yields, of almost a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of green beans per plant, came from both monoculture and cultivated agroforestry. In the monoculture plots, farmers cleared land to only grow coffee trees. While in the agroforestry farm, coffee was grown alongside other useful,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/study-highlights-environmental-and-economic-benefits-of-agroforestry-for-drc-coffee-crops/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/study-highlights-environmental-and-economic-benefits-of-agroforestry-for-drc-coffee-crops/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285919</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As coffee expands in Bangladesh hills, conservationists worry about ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/as-coffee-expands-in-bangladesh-hills-conservationists-worry-about-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/as-coffee-expands-in-bangladesh-hills-conservationists-worry-about-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2024 13:49:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/21133640/coffee-beans-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282329</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Coffee, Conservation, Consumption, Ecosystems, Environment, Farming, Food, Food Industry, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Monocultures, and Pesticides]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tea&#8217;s history in Bangladesh as a popular recreational drink is almost a hundred years old. However, with economic development, the popularity of coffee is growing gradually in urban areas of the country. According to data, the projected revenue in the coffee market in Bangladesh would be $48.97 million in 2029, with an annual growth rate [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tea&#8217;s history in Bangladesh as a popular recreational drink is almost a hundred years old. However, with economic development, the popularity of coffee is growing gradually in urban areas of the country. According to data, the projected revenue in the coffee market in Bangladesh would be $48.97 million in 2029, with an annual growth rate of 13.52%, up from the figure of $25.98 million in 2024. Most of the current demand for coffee is met through exports from different countries. Considering this, the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and various nongovernmental organizations, including Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation known as PKSF and USAID Bangladesh, have been promoting coffee cultivation among farmers under their programs, creating livelihood options through cultivating cash crops like coffee and others. According to DAE, two varieties of coffee, arabica and robusta, are cultivated in Bangladesh. Due to favorable weather conditions, cultivation is mainly focused on the Chittagong Hill Tracts, comprising of three hill districts — Bandarban, Khagrachari and Rangamati — located in the southeastern part of the country. Meanwhile, DAE has initiated a project titled Research, Development and Extension of Cashew Nut &amp; Coffee, which will cost 158.54 crore taka ($13.5 million) from 2021-25. Project data show that coffee cultivation currently occupies around 2,000 hectares (4,940 acres) of land. Of these, around 1,800 hectares (4,450 acres) are in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. All these plantations were in the last three years. Shahidul Islam, director of the cashew nut and coffee project, told Mongabay, “We are expecting to increase&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/as-coffee-expands-in-bangladesh-hills-conservationists-worry-about-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282329</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Shade-grown coffee benefits birds, forests &#038; people in Venezuela</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/shade-grown-coffee-benefits-birds-forests-people-in-venezuela/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/shade-grown-coffee-benefits-birds-forests-people-in-venezuela/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2024 16:54:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[James Hall]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/14132155/SPCU-03-38752-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282067</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology and Global Agroforestry]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Coffee, Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Degraded Lands, Environment, Forests, Solutions, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Each morning, as Luis Arrieta heads out to begin work on his shade-grown coffee farm, vindication comes in the form of birdsong gushing from the trees, a cacophony of trills and warbles of passerines punctuated by the croaks of the groove-billed toucanet (Aulacorhynchus sulcatus). &#8220;It’s one of the rewards of my job,&#8221; he says. An [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Each morning, as Luis Arrieta heads out to begin work on his shade-grown coffee farm, vindication comes in the form of birdsong gushing from the trees, a cacophony of trills and warbles of passerines punctuated by the croaks of the groove-billed toucanet (Aulacorhynchus sulcatus). &#8220;It’s one of the rewards of my job,&#8221; he says. An agronomist hailing from a family that has grown coffee in Venezuela’s Cordillera de la Costa for generations, Arrieta always had a keen interest in animals, particularly birds. During a stint as the director of the Pinar Zoo, he became involved in a captive breeding program for the endangered red siskin (Spinus cucullatus). After his return to agronomy, the little vermillion red finch would be the muse that inspired the Cafe y Aves (Coffee and Birds) program. &#8220;I realized there could be a way to combine my two passions to conserve our threatened biodiversity and coffee culture, which were both disappearing,&#8221; he says. “And that was through shade coffee.” In the 2010s, Arrieta co-founded the Cafe y Aves program in northern Venezuela, promoting community-based conservation through agroforestry. Since then, the program has pioneered the reforestation of 415 hectares (1,025 acres) and secured the protection of one of the region’s last remaining corridors of threatened tropical dry forest. It also revived a dying tradition of shade-grown coffee cultivation, all while improving livelihoods. Shade coffee is a kind of agroforestry, an agroecology technique that grows coffee shrubs under native trees, allowing for the persistence of forest trees and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/shade-grown-coffee-benefits-birds-forests-people-in-venezuela/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/shade-grown-coffee-benefits-birds-forests-people-in-venezuela/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282067</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian palm oil, Brazilian beef top contributors to U.S. deforestation exposure</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2024 15:45:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/07152346/colombia_cattle-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281790</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Beef, Biodiversity, Cacao, Cattle, Coffee, Conservation, Corn, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Green, International Trade, Palm Oil, Pasture, Rainforests, Ranching, Rubber, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If you’re in the United States, your meal might come with a side of deforestation.  The US imported palm oil, cattle products, soybeans, cocoa, rubber, coffee and corn linked to an estimated 122,800 hectares (303,445 acres) of tropical deforestation between October 2021 and November 2023 — an area the size of the city of Los [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If you’re in the United States, your meal might come with a side of deforestation.  The US imported palm oil, cattle products, soybeans, cocoa, rubber, coffee and corn linked to an estimated 122,800 hectares (303,445 acres) of tropical deforestation between October 2021 and November 2023 — an area the size of the city of Los Angeles, according to a new report provided by the NGO Trase for Global Witness. More than a third (33.8%) of the deforestation was linked to oil palm imports, primarily from Indonesia. Cattle products, sourced mainly from Brazil, Australia and Mexico, were the second-largest contributor, at 31.8%. Coffee placed third, at 24.2%, followed by cocoa (7.6%), soybeans (2%), corn (0.37%) and rubber (0.15%). “I think it&#8217;s quite striking how palm oil was potentially quite a big source of deforestation exposure for the U.S. as a commodity that has received lots of attention,” Mark Titley, senior research associate at Trase, told Mongabay. Several Latin American countries were identified as significant sources of deforestation. Brazil was the second-largest contributor to U.S. deforestation exposure, primarily through cattle products. Colombia was the source of nearly a fifth of the deforestation linked to U.S. coffee imports. Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Honduras also contributed, mainly by exporting cattle products, coffee and cocoa. Trase&#8217;s methodology combines satellite data on tree cover loss with trade records and commodity production data to estimate the amount of deforestation per ton of production in each country and year. &#8220;So if we&#8217;re looking at palm oil, we&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281790</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Harsh dry season sours harvest prospects for Java coffee farmers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/harsh-dry-season-sours-harvest-prospects-for-java-coffee-farmers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/harsh-dry-season-sours-harvest-prospects-for-java-coffee-farmers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Feb 2024 15:18:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Moh. Tamimi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Pablourrutia]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/23093009/coffee-berries-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279128</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Java, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, Coffee, Crops, Drought, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Food, Food Industry, Food Prices, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JEMBER, Indonesia — In good weather, Saturi’s coffee field here on a hillside on the east of Indonesia’s Java Island will produce around 2.5 metric tons of coffee beans over the course of a season. This year, he expects to get less than a ton. “The weather has meant there have been a lot of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JEMBER, Indonesia — In good weather, Saturi’s coffee field here on a hillside on the east of Indonesia’s Java Island will produce around 2.5 metric tons of coffee beans over the course of a season. This year, he expects to get less than a ton. “The weather has meant there have been a lot of fires,” Saturi told Mongabay Indonesia at his home in Jember district in December. Saturi’s story reflects the plight of farmers more broadly in the world’s fourth-largest coffee-producing nation, where the weather has lurched from extreme rainfall caused by a La Niña climate pattern that lasted from 2020-2022, to a punishing drought sparked last year by El Niño. This year’s coffee harvest in Indonesia is forecast to be the lowest in more than a decade. Jember farmers blame El Niño, in which above-average temperatures in the Pacific produce dangerously dry weather over Southeast Asia. Torrential rain over a long period can easily drown coffee flowers before they produce beans, while sustained heat and a deficit of water typically stunt coffee flowers and dry up the tree’s leaves. Indonesia recorded coffee output of almost 12 million 60-kilogram sacks during the season that spans 2022 and 2023, but total production in the current year is expected to plummet to less than 10 million as El Niño induces feverish temperatures across low-lying coffee areas. Saturi examining his coffee plants in Jember. Image by Moh Tamimi/ Mongabay Indonesia. Extreme weather has brought challenges to a diverse basket of food crops&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/harsh-dry-season-sours-harvest-prospects-for-java-coffee-farmers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/harsh-dry-season-sours-harvest-prospects-for-java-coffee-farmers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279128</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sumatra coffee farmers brew natural fertilizer as inflation bites</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/sumatra-coffee-farmers-brew-natural-fertilizer-as-inflation-bites/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/sumatra-coffee-farmers-brew-natural-fertilizer-as-inflation-bites/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jan 2024 02:57:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Themmy Doaly]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/03141804/Rumah-Persemaian-Gapoktan-Sumber-Makmur--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277319</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology and Global Agroforestry]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Lampung, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Coffee, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Farming, Fertilizers, Governance, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Industrial Agriculture, Palm Oil, Plantations, Pollution, Solutions, Subsistence Agriculture, Sustainability, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BATUTEGI FOREST, Indonesia — Like millions of small farmers across Indonesia, Sri Atmiatun’s family has shouldered higher fertilizer prices, cost-of-living hikes, and increasingly extreme weather in recent years. The river basin in Batutegi Forest, near the southern coast of Sumatra’s Lampung province, ran almost dry after a months-long drought across much of Indonesia, which was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BATUTEGI FOREST, Indonesia — Like millions of small farmers across Indonesia, Sri Atmiatun’s family has shouldered higher fertilizer prices, cost-of-living hikes, and increasingly extreme weather in recent years. The river basin in Batutegi Forest, near the southern coast of Sumatra’s Lampung province, ran almost dry after a months-long drought across much of Indonesia, which was exacerbated by El Niño and positive Indian Ocean Dipole climate patterns. Chemical fertilizer prices have retreated from all-time highs recorded in 2022, but potash and other fertilizers remained expensive through 2023 by historical standards, compounding pressures for farmers in low- and middle-income countries. Generations of farmers around Batutegi here have grown coffee. However, Batutegi farmers say they’ve recorded declining yields as the quality of the soil here has deteriorated. In response to these pressures, Sri Atmiatun and other farmers in Batutegi have repurposed farm waste to lessen their reliance on expensive chemicals and, hopefully, to boost yields. “The last time we made organic fertilizer we produced around 2 tons,” Sri told Mongabay Indonesia, as she handled a clutch of bottles containing the community’s latest batch. The river basin in Batutegi Forest ran almost dry after a months-long drought, which was exacerbated by El Niño and positive Indian Ocean Dipole climate patterns. Image by Themmy Doaly/Mongabay Indonesia. Batutegi farmers say they’ve recorded declining yields as the quality of the soil here has deteriorated. Image by Themmy Doaly/Mongabay Indonesia. From the ground up Every day here in Batutegi, dozens of farmworkers like Sri make the journey from&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/sumatra-coffee-farmers-brew-natural-fertilizer-as-inflation-bites/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/sumatra-coffee-farmers-brew-natural-fertilizer-as-inflation-bites/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277319</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U.S. and U.K. lawmakers must wake up to the coffee problem (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/u-s-and-u-k-lawmakers-must-wake-up-to-the-coffee-problem-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/u-s-and-u-k-lawmakers-must-wake-up-to-the-coffee-problem-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Dec 2023 01:19:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle Higonnet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/11/09112559/coffeecup2-683x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276892</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Britain, Europe, European Union, Global, United Kingdom, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Coffee, Commentary, Commodity Roundtables, Conservation, Deforestation, Food, Food Industry, Forest Products, Forests, Green, Human Rights, International Trade, Slavery, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Coffee. Nectar of the gods. Lifesaving energy booster that helps many of us start our days. Ubiquitously consumed around the world by people like me – without my beloved morning brew I am something of a discombobulatedgrumpyhedgehog. And yet, this top, globally traded agri-commodity is also a major driver of deforestation, mass extinction, child labor, slavery, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Coffee. Nectar of the gods. Lifesaving energy booster that helps many of us start our days. Ubiquitously consumed around the world by people like me – without my beloved morning brew I am something of a discombobulatedgrumpyhedgehog. And yet, this top, globally traded agri-commodity is also a major driver of deforestation, mass extinction, child labor, slavery, and other abuses. Few consumers realize that only 10% to 1% of coffee&#8217;s retail price ends up in the coffee farmers’ hands, most of whom do not earn a living wage, and are subsisting in grinding poverty. (Sorry for this downer, please don&#8217;t read any further till you&#8217;ve had a good strong cup to brace for the rest!) Coffee is thought to be one of the top seven commodities driving deforestation worldwide – not as bad as cattle, but right up there with cocoa, rubber, and wood fiber; sometimes even nipping at the heels of the notorious palm oil industry. Coffee replaced about 1.9 million hectares of forest from 2001 to 2015. Coffee doesn&#8217;t just kill forests though. Pesticide-soaked monoculture coffee is a significant contributor to the mass extinction we are in, especially the insect apocalypse. Forest area replaced by commodity crops. Table via World Resources Institute. Bizarrely, almost no NGOs work to document abuses in the coffee industry, but thanks to some fearless journalists, we know quite a bit about abuses in coffee supply chains from Mexico to Vietnam, Guatemala to Ethiopia, Brazil to Cote d&#8217;Ivoire, Honduras to Indonesia. Despite valiant efforts by some pioneering investigators though, not much is said however about horrific conditions in the coffee industry, compared to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/u-s-and-u-k-lawmakers-must-wake-up-to-the-coffee-problem-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/u-s-and-u-k-lawmakers-must-wake-up-to-the-coffee-problem-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276892</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous Suruí turn invaders’ crop into high-quality Amazonian coffee</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/indigenous-surui-turn-invaders-crop-into-high-quality-amazonian-coffee/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/indigenous-surui-turn-invaders-crop-into-high-quality-amazonian-coffee/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2023 10:08:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Patricia Moll]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/24100319/Celesty-Surui_Walela-Soepilema-e1694718549375-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274579</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Coffee, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, and Reforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Coffee was not a crop traditionally grown by the Paiter Suruí people, an Indigenous community in the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Territory, deep in the Brazilian Amazon. The Suruí’s first contact with the plant was in 1969, which was also their first contact with non-Indigenous people. At the time, Brazil’s federal government was encouraging settlement [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Coffee was not a crop traditionally grown by the Paiter Suruí people, an Indigenous community in the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Territory, deep in the Brazilian Amazon. The Suruí’s first contact with the plant was in 1969, which was also their first contact with non-Indigenous people. At the time, Brazil’s federal government was encouraging settlement in the country’s Amazonian region, with promises of land concessions and better living conditions. The region was soon occupied by loggers, miners and others taking advantage of the opportunity. Hundreds of Indigenous people died, mostly from introduced diseases like measles. “The people who invaded the territory planted some coffee trees. But they weren’t good plants, they damaged our soil,” says environmental engineer and community leader Xener Paiter Suruí, son of Chief Almir Suruí, a well-known figure in the fight for sustainability. Following many conflicts with the settlers who had exploited their land, and with the government, the Suruí eventually won official demarcation for their Indigenous territory in 1976; the land was permanently handed over to them, albeit partially, in 1983. That was when the Suruí began to reforest the degraded areas and learned to cultivate coffee. The plantations inherited from the people who had colonized the territory gave the Suruí their first experience as merchants — they started by selling the beans, unprocessed, in neighboring cities. A Paiter Suruí coffee farm inside the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Territory. Image courtesy of Walela Soepilema. Based on their knowledge of the forest’s dynamics, the Suruí understood that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/indigenous-surui-turn-invaders-crop-into-high-quality-amazonian-coffee/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/indigenous-surui-turn-invaders-crop-into-high-quality-amazonian-coffee/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274579</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How climate change could jeopardize Brazilian coffee</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/how-climate-change-could-jeopardize-brazilian-coffee/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/how-climate-change-could-jeopardize-brazilian-coffee/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Oct 2023 14:31:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rachel Brabbins]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/11142829/Por_do_Sol_na_Cafeicultura-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274210</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Climate Change, Coffee, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, and Extreme Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the fire season reaches its peak in the Amazon region, coffee producers located thousands of kilometers away are also living their own private hell. Farms like Felipe Barretto Croce&#8217;s in Mococa, in the state of São Paulo, have seen fires increase in recent years, jeopardizing the production of what is the world&#8217;s largest coffee [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[As the fire season reaches its peak in the Amazon region, coffee producers located thousands of kilometers away are also living their own private hell. Farms like Felipe Barretto Croce&#8217;s in Mococa, in the state of São Paulo, have seen fires increase in recent years, jeopardizing the production of what is the world&#8217;s largest coffee exporter. &#8220;We see that August and September are critical months at the end of the dry season — evapotranspiration, water deficit in the soil. It starts to get critical and we see a lot of fires, a lot of wildfires in the region,&#8221; explains Croce. Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza (FAF), owned by Felipe&#8217;s family, is located in the countryside of São Paulo, in the middle of two biomes, the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest, where 10 hectares (25 acres) of organic arabica coffee are becoming increasingly vulnerable to environmental changes, largely accentuated by the loss of vegetation in the Amazon. &#8220;In recent years, we&#8217;ve had days with more extreme weather, more intense cold and more intense heat. We&#8217;re seeing a rain deficit in general. This is probably due to a lot of deforestation around us, in the Cerrado and the Amazon,&#8221; Croce says. Felipe Barretto Croce, owner of Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza (FAF), in Mococa (SP). Image courtesy of FAF. These dry and hot seasons are expected to become worse and more frequent. Climate modeling by the Gro Intelligence platform estimates that the number of days with extreme temperatures above 34° Celsius (93° Fahrenheit) in the coffee&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/how-climate-change-could-jeopardize-brazilian-coffee/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274210</doi>				</item>
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					<title>EU deforestation-free rule ‘highly challenging’ for SE Asia smallholders, experts say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/eu-deforestation-free-rule-highly-challenging-for-se-asia-smallholders-experts-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/eu-deforestation-free-rule-highly-challenging-for-se-asia-smallholders-experts-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Sep 2023 12:45:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/20122259/01_Banner_Coffee_CIAT-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273471</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Certification, Coffee, Community Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Green, International Trade, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Regulations, Rubber, Timber, Timber Laws, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A landmark EU anti-deforestation regulation that entered into force in June 2023 could come down hard on smallholder farmers in mainland Southeast Asia who produce a significant proportion of the region’s forest products exported to the bloc, forest trade experts say. The EU’s deforestation-free regulation (EUDR) aim to prevent seven forest-related commodities and their products [&#8230;]]]>
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							<![CDATA[A landmark EU anti-deforestation regulation that entered into force in June 2023 could come down hard on smallholder farmers in mainland Southeast Asia who produce a significant proportion of the region’s forest products exported to the bloc, forest trade experts say. The EU’s deforestation-free regulation (EUDR) aim to prevent seven forest-related commodities and their products from entering the EU market if they’re found to be linked to deforestation. The rule requires producers and companies trading timber, palm oil, soy, rubber, cattle, cocoa and coffee into the EU to provide detailed evidence proving their goods were not grown on land deforested since 2020. The new regulations give producers and companies until December 2024 to fully comply. While the regulation is a step toward transparency and international deforestation-free supply chain management, observers say it places millions of smallholders who depend on access to the EU market in a vulnerable position. Many small-scale farmers lack the technical capacity and financial capital to meet the hefty due diligence requirements of the new rules, experts say. Intact rainforest in Cuc Phuong in northern Vietnam. Image by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay Smallholders produce 95% of Vietnam’s coffee, 42% of Indonesia’s palm oil, and 95% of Thailand’s rubber. Finding ways to avoid small-scale producers being shut out of EU supply chains should therefore be a top priority for both exporting countries and the EU, according to Phuc Xuan To, a policy adviser at sustainable finance think tank Forest Trends.  “There are a lot of concerns and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/eu-deforestation-free-rule-highly-challenging-for-se-asia-smallholders-experts-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273471</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Philippine tribe boosts livelihoods and conservation with civet poop coffee</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/philippine-tribe-boosts-livelihoods-and-conservation-with-civet-poop-coffee/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/philippine-tribe-boosts-livelihoods-and-conservation-with-civet-poop-coffee/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Apr 2023 15:16:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bong S. Sarmiento]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/18135215/Paradoxurus-philippinensis-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267581</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Animals, Biodiversity, Coffee, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Food, food security, Indigenous Peoples, Sustainability, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MINDANAO, Philippines — For about two decades now, members of the B’laan ethnic group have combed the forest-clad slopes of Mount Matutum from September to January, seeking out the beans pooped out by the cat-sized Philippine palm civet (Paradoxurus philippinensis). While animal feces may be an unlikely source of joy, members of the tribal community [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[MINDANAO, Philippines — For about two decades now, members of the B’laan ethnic group have combed the forest-clad slopes of Mount Matutum from September to January, seeking out the beans pooped out by the cat-sized Philippine palm civet (Paradoxurus philippinensis). While animal feces may be an unlikely source of joy, members of the tribal community say the more coffee beans they find excreted by the nocturnal mammal, the happier they are. Living at the foot of Mt. Matutum, a protected landscape and the highest peak in the Philippines’ South Cotabato province, the B’laan natives produce wild civet coffee, a luxury brew that can fetch upward of $80 a cup in markets like the United States. Civets, called balos by the tribespeople, are native to the forests here. With long bodies, short legs, pointed faces and long tails, they’re frequently compared to cats or weasels, but belong to a distinct family, the Viverridae. Known for eating the villagers&#8217; poultry and plants, they were killed as pests or hunted for meat until the tribal community realized that civets are the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs: an animal that, kept alive, provides ongoing benefits not just for their livelihood but also for their sacred forest. Mount Matutum, a protected landscape, rises behind the village. Image by Bong S. Sarmiento for Mongabay. The local people, mostly from the Buan clan, now guard and protect the civets. For its significant contribution to the tribal community, the civet was last year adopted by the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/philippine-tribe-boosts-livelihoods-and-conservation-with-civet-poop-coffee/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267581</doi>				</item>
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					<title>Shade-grown coffee won’t support all birds, but adding a forest helps: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/shade-grown-coffee-wont-support-all-birds-but-adding-a-forest-helps-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/shade-grown-coffee-wont-support-all-birds-but-adding-a-forest-helps-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jul 2022 16:16:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/26153629/scarletTanger_Flickr_Jen-Goellnitz-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258584</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Birds, Coffee, Farming, Habitat, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Organic, shade-grown, bird-friendly: coffee comes with a lot of labels these days, certifications that tell the consumer their beans were farmed in a way that supports the people who grow them and the ecosystems that sustain them. And with coffee now growing on more than 1 million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) of agricultural land in some [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Organic, shade-grown, bird-friendly: coffee comes with a lot of labels these days, certifications that tell the consumer their beans were farmed in a way that supports the people who grow them and the ecosystems that sustain them. And with coffee now growing on more than 1 million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) of agricultural land in some of the most biodiverse regions around the world, these distinctions can mean a lot. The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) runs one such coffee certification program: Smithsonian Bird Friendly. It promotes shade-grown coffee where the canopy has at least 40% foliage consisting of diverse native plants, among other research-based criteria. A recent study from the SMBC as well as scientists from Colombia and the U.S. examined whether other types of conservation actions would conserve birds as well as or better than their current certification standard. The researchers found that while growing coffee under the shade of a diverse tree canopy protects more habitat-generalist and nonbreeding birds, setting aside areas of intact forest on or around coffee plantations conserves more forest-specializing and breeding birds. The results have been published in the journal Biological Conservation. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region of Colombia, where the study was conducted hosts a large diversity of birds that migrate from North America, such as this tropical kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus). Photo by Alejandro Bayer Tamayo via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). “Having forest on the landscape but also having shade coffee on landscape are complementary approaches to conservation, and you really&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/shade-grown-coffee-wont-support-all-birds-but-adding-a-forest-helps-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258584</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Farmers in Mexico fight coffee disease with resistant varieties and agroforestry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/farmers-in-mexico-fight-coffee-disease-with-resistant-varieties-and-agroforestry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/farmers-in-mexico-fight-coffee-disease-with-resistant-varieties-and-agroforestry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jun 2022 20:08:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Magdaléna Rojo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/15183212/03-scaled-e1655320949371-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257292</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Coffee, Diseases, Farming, Fungi, and Indigenous Peoples]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SANTIAGO ATITLÁN, Mexico – Lucio Jimenez Ocampo is always surrounded by coffee. In the yard of his house in Santiago Atitlán nestled in the Oaxaca state’s Sierra Norte highlands, there are about a hundred organic coffee plants of different varieties packaged in plastic bags. On his terrace, coffee beans of the Geisha variety are waiting [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[SANTIAGO ATITLÁN, Mexico – Lucio Jimenez Ocampo is always surrounded by coffee. In the yard of his house in Santiago Atitlán nestled in the Oaxaca state’s Sierra Norte highlands, there are about a hundred organic coffee plants of different varieties packaged in plastic bags. On his terrace, coffee beans of the Geisha variety are waiting to be sold to other farmers. The plants are part of an Oaxacan farmers’ project testing coffee varieties and developing agroforestry plantations resistant to a fungal disease, known as coffee leaf rust, that ravaged coffee crops seven years ago. Coffee rust has no cure. But Lucio and other Indigenous Mixe farmers hope the project will protect the majority of their coffee production from the spreading fungus as it climbs further up mountains and reproduces under wetter and warming temperatures. A key to tackling impacts of changing weather patterns on coffee crops is technical support, according to experts. Image courtesy of Noel Rojo. When coffee rust came to Atitlán in 2015, farmers were not prepared. When the parasitic fungi Hemileia vastatrix comes into contact with a coffee plant, it latches on and covers its leaves with orange spots. This ultimately reduces the plants’ ability to conduct photosynthesis. As leaves fall, less coffee cherries and seeds are produced. The seeds (known as coffee beans) inside the cherries are shrunken – affecting the quality and value of the coffee. The state of Oaxaca lost about 50% of its production volume that year. Farmers in Atitlán say the production&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/farmers-in-mexico-fight-coffee-disease-with-resistant-varieties-and-agroforestry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257292</doi>				</item>
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