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Desertion of Coffee Plantations Hurts Ecosystems |
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By José Eduardo Mora*
In El Salvador and Honduras, some 20,000 hectares of coffee plantations have disappeared. Their carbon-fixing function is crucial in mitigating climate change. In Nicaragua, the desertion of coffee agriculture has cost 122,000 jobs and created a food crisis in the department of Matagalpa.
SAN JOSE - The crisis of coffee production in Central America is taking a toll on environmental equilibrium, as thousands of hectares of abandoned plantations reduces process of carbon fixing and oxygen production, while also leading to increased soil erosion, say experts.
International coffee prices have plummeted, forcing thousands of small and medium producers in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua to leave their land and seek other alternatives to make their livelihood. Many coffee-growing areas have been deserted or turned over to intensive livestock operations.
Coffee plantations have been associated with negative impacts on the environment, such as excessive use of water and the contamination of rivers resulting from runoff, but specialists say that these fields also contribute to ecological balance.
"Coffee plantations are forests that fix carbon and release oxygen, which means that their decline hurts the environment," engineer Luis Zamora, of the Costa Rican Coffee Institute, told Tierramérica.
Furthermore, in growing coffee, steep terrain is used, which makes it necessary to apply conservation techniques such as terracing, preventing soil erosion, he said.
El Salvador's Agriculture Minister Salvador Urrutia explained to Tierramérica that in his country the coffee fields are practically the only forested lands remaining, such that their decline will produce "heavy impacts" on local environmental equilibrium.
A similar sentiment is expressed by Dagoberto Suazo, of the Honduran Union of Coffee Cooperatives. He says the changes in the rainfall patterns in his country over the past two years are related to deforestation and the abandonment of the coffee growing areas.
In Costa Rica, efforts to reinforce environmental awareness in recent years led to the return to "shade-grown coffee", using trees such as the 'poró' (Erythrina poeppigiana), guava (Inga Edulis) and the eucalyptus (Eucaliptus camaldulensis) throughout the plantations, interspersed among the coffee bushes.
This traditional approach had been displaced by "coffee under the sun", to increase the number of coffee plants per hectare, from 1,000-1,500 to 3,000 or even 4,000. Studies indicate that in Costa Rica 40 percent of production follows the shade method.
Zamora said there is also awareness about reducing the use of agro-chemicals like insecticides, nematicides and herbicides. These include dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane (DDT) and paraquat, banned in industrialized countries and condemned by experts and environmental activists.
"Biological control" techniques against broca, a plague affecting coffee plants and the coffee bean itself, shows there is willingness to take care of the environment, he said.
In El Salvador, the coffee crisis has meant that around 10,000 hectares of fields have been deserted, and in that process, 60,000 people have lost their jobs, according to minister Urrutia.
"Coffee is one of the most beneficial crops for the country because it utilizes marginal soil in steep terrain, such as the central mountain range, where if it weren't for coffee, soil erosion would be dramatic," he said.
"On every hectare we grow more than three thousand coffee plants, and 80 to 130 trees. It would be good if the international community would recognize these positive aspects of coffee growing and support it," added the official.
In Honduras, at least 10,000 hectares of coffee plantation have been abandoned in the past five years. "It is a shame that the international community has not considered the important social and environmental value" of this crop, comments Honduran cooperative leader Suazo.
"Most of our coffee plantations, of the shade-grown type, are found on the hillsides where it would be impossible to produce other crops, and they prevent soil erosion," he stressed.
Suazo maintains that the explosive growth of criminal youth gangs, known as 'maras', is due to the influx of new members coming from the coffee-growing regions. The youths' families have been forced to move to the city to seek a new livelihood.
In Nicaragua, the decline of the coffee sector has meant the loss of 122,000 jobs and a food crisis in the department of Matagalpa, north of Managua, in addition to the negative impacts on the environment.
The Nicaraguan Union of Coffee Growers is promoting a production model based on environmental protection criteria, encouraging the use of trees that can be used as lumber, fruit trees and bushes in the plantations, as an ecological and economical complement to coffee productions.
* José Eduardo Mora is a Tierramérica contributor.
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