Monday 14 February 2011.
Ever wonder where does your coffee come from?
Trust for Wildlife with Fundación ProAves presents a short film “Shade-grown coffee and saving migratory birds of North and Latin America” that is produced by Samuel Orr, Marshal T. Case, and Elisabeth N. Radow. Much of the tropical film footage is taken in the Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve and local community of San Vicente de Chucuri in Santander Department.
Tropical forests support some of the greatest diversities of life on earth, but the same areas also produce one of the most valuable commodities on earth – COFFEE. Traditionally grown in the shade of forest trees, people drink nearly one billion cups of coffee each day. But over the past 30 years more than a half of the coffee-growing farms have eliminated their forests and beautiful shade trees that tropical wildlife depend on, the farms that produce coffee grown under the sun are relatively sterile and can support only 10% of its diversity as compared to shade coffee.
Decades of rainforest removal for sun grown coffee has contributed to climate change, extreme weather patterns and dramatic loss of essential animals who call the rainforest home. This includes an alarming loss of Neotropical migratory birds that winter in our coffee and migrate to the United States and Canada to nest and raise their young in our forests and backyards. A key to a climate-healthy planet that balances the needs of people and wildlife begins with growing these highest quality coffee beans in the shade of trees and bringing them to you.
The coffee you drink every day has a strong impact on these ecosystems, but what you drink and how you ask for it can be the key to finding a solution.
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Made possible by:
The Trust for Wildlife
The Ceres Trust
MaryBelle Price
The Catamount Rotary Club