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Habitat Conservation, Arian Diversity, and Coffee Ecosystems in Southern Costa Rica
Introduction
The main approach to habitat conservation in the past has been the establishment of protected areas. ... Without tackling the influences leading to environmentally destructive activities, parks do not necessarily attend to the reasons behind the need for protected habitat. ... Putting a greater focus towards increasing the value of agrosystems for biodiversity may prove to be a more successful conservation strategy. Coffee (Coffea sp) cultivation is an agroforestry system that has traditionally used ecologically beneficial practices. ... Although not native to Central America (coffee originated in the forest understory of Ethiopia and was not introduced to Central America until 1723), it has since become entwined with the people of the region and their cultures, and now provides a livelihood for over twenty million people (Ibid. ... Initially coffee was grown in Central America under a dense shade canopy. It was also readily incorporated into indigenous agroforestry systems as the strategy for planting coffee was similar to that used in indigenous shaded cacao systems cultivated beneath the forest canopy, keeping the associated epiphytes, lianas, moss and lichens on the native trees. As farmers incorporated useful and preferred tree species into the farm and removed those deemed unsuitable, the farm became a managed forest ecosystem that retained the structural diversity borrowed from the tropical forest. Studies have shown that such structurally diverse shaded coffee systems support a high biological diversity for a wide variety of taxa in Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean Islands, comparable to surrounding natural forest (Perfecto et al. ... Many have focused especially on birds and have shown that shaded coffee plantations could provide an important refuge for resident birds in a fragmented habitat. Studies have also shown
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2that Neotropical migratory birds, whose declines in population can be attributed mainly to the fragmentation and loss of habitat in both wintering and breeding habitat (Askins et al. ... The practice of growing coffee with a stratified shade layer was transformed in the mid 1900s, however, across regions of Central America to increase yields in response to an increased world demand for coffee. ... Traditional coffee tree varieties were replaced by those that were more sun tolerant, and the amount of shade in the canopy layer was reduced to almost zero (labeled sun coffee). Although in the first year sun coffee plantations produce high yields, large amounts of chemical pesticides and fertilizers are required to retain the high output, killing soil microfauna, contaminating the local environment and adding health risks for farmers, as well as increasing the cost of production. In the 1970s outbreaks of the coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix) began making its way up the isthmus from South America (Rice, 1993; Rice and Ward, 1996; Perfecto et al. ... Coffee currently holds the position as the second largest export commodity in the world after petroleum, with a world value of US $14 billion (Rice and McClean, 1999). ... The majority of coffee farms in Central America today are less than five hectares in size but together own less than half of all the land cultivated in coffee. The remainder of land is controlled by a small percentage of large landholders who have the capital to invest in the high production costs associated with sun coffee systems. Small farmers in Central America are often locked in a cycle of agricultural credits and debt, and receive for their coffee only a fraction of the price consumers pay in North America (Rice and McClean, 1999). By focusing on one main income-generating crop, they are at the mercy of the fluctuating international price for coffee, and if all socio-economic needs are not met on the farm alone, farmers must seek alternative methods for obtaining them, at times from the surrounding tropical forests.
Approximate Word count = 2947
Approximate Pages = 11.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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