The Shade Catalog: How Agroforestry Will Impact Coffee Cultivation

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Agroforestry Systems: A Sustainable Approach to Coffee Cultivation

Agroforestry systems are widely promoted as environmentally friendly cultivation methods that integrate trees and shrubs in the same area. This planting approach not only provides shade for sun-loving crops and soil but also protects and enhances biodiversity, attracts insects for plant pollination, and improves soil quality.

However, as extensive research on coffee land management has shown, not all situations are the same everywhere.

The Shade Catalog: A Collaborative Initiative

To help identify and distinguish shade plant varieties for coffee cultivation, three sustainability-conscious non-profit organizations (Conservation International, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, and World Coffee Research) have jointly launched The Shade Catalog. This catalog is designed to benefit both coffee growing environments and coffee producers.

For the first version of this catalog, the working group focused on Indonesia—the world's largest producer of both Arabica and Robusta beans. Indonesia has approximately 2 million small-scale coffee farmers and is one of the world's most naturally biodiverse regions.

Conservation International, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, and World Coffee Research have stated that this catalog, named the "Indonesian Coffee Catalog," will be continuously updated. Similar catalogs will subsequently be launched in other major coffee-producing countries, with Peru being their next target for 2022.

Expert Perspectives on Sustainable Coffee Cultivation

"We hope to encourage farmers and industry decision-makers to adopt agroforestry systems to balance the relationship between people and the environment," said Ruth Bennett, an ecologist at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. "Coffee is a unique crop because it can be grown alongside trees, benefiting the climate, biodiversity, and farmers' livelihoods. This catalog serves as a starting point for similar work in global coffee-growing regions."

Practical Applications and Technical Details

From a practical perspective, this catalog—similar to the groundbreaking Arabica coffee variety catalog launched by World Coffee Research—provides essential information about all commercially known coffee varieties worldwide.

Currently, the catalog contains information about tree species found in Indonesian coffee cultivation systems. Tree species accounts were established through interviews with farmer groups and agroforestry experts, as well as by compiling data from scientific publications and technical reports in both English and Indonesian. The data includes plant scientific names, leaf sizes, plant heights, cultivation altitudes, native and non-native habitat environments, and other technical details. The catalog also identifies whether trees and shrubs have positive impacts on Robusta or Arabica bean cultivation, while summarizing their uses and maintenance requirements.

The catalog includes essential information on 125 coffee or shrub varieties but is currently available only in print and online versions in English or Indonesian.

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