Many of us rarely go a day without a cup of coffee. But did you know that the way some coffee is grown can contribute to climate change? In some places, tropical rainforests are converted into sun-grown coffee plantations; the burning and clearing of tropical forests is a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions.
For Indonesia, coffee is an important export commodity, and global demand increases every year. Indonesia currently produces about 600,000 tons of coffee per year, and more than 80 percent of this comes from traditional smallholder plantations — such as those seen in the Takengon district (also known as the Gayo Highlands), in central Aceh, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
In June, I had the opportunity to visit coffee plantations in this district, whose major income comes from coffee farming. On this visit, I also helped journalists and television stations cover a conservation coffee initiative carried out by CI. CI, in partnership with Starbucks, is working with 225 local coffee farmers in order to encourage best practices for conservation coffee farming and sustainable land-use management — supporting coffee production while preserving natural forest and mitigating climate change.
Through these activities, farmers improve their land treatment and stop expanding to new lands. In addition, planting shade trees among coffee plants can help to produce better quality coffee and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Our research on coffee and forest systems in Indonesia has demonstrated that shade coffee systems serve a critical role in combating climate change. Using Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping, CI has conducted a study showing that sustainable coffee plantations with better ratios of shade cover in the Gayo Highlands can store up to 235.40 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per hectare per year. While this is significantly less than that stored by primary rainforests, it does represent a significant contribution to carbon storage. This information helps us identify which ecosystems in the region store the most carbon and should therefore be the highest priorities for conservation efforts.
Fachruddin (Rudy) Mangunjaya is Publication Coordinator at CI-Indonesia.