Deforestation in Ethiopia - Deforestation and Coffee Production

Deforestation and Coffee Production

The afromontane rainforests of Southwestern Ethiopia are the world’s birthplace of Coffea arabica and harbor their last wild populations. The variability in their tolerance towards diseases and drought reflects the high genetic diversity of the wild coffee populations. Their value has been estimated between 0.42 and 1.458 billion US$ a year. Worldwide about 5 billion kg of coffee per year are consumed in the importing countries. Coffee houses have become popular and the specialty coffee market is booming.

Economically valuable forests in Ethiopia, which contain the world’s only wild Coffea arabica populations are diminishing and, at current deforestation rates, will be completely lost in 27 years. Deforestation in Ethiopia is caused by past governmental and institutional changes, insecurity of land tenure, resettlement programs, population pressure, agricultural and infrastructure developments. Farmers suffer from poverty as well as food insecurity and cannot bear the costs of forest conservation. Ethiopian and international stakeholders are involved in a competitive game for resources, rights and mandates. That hinders collective action and cooperation to prevent deforestation. Apart from appropriate economic incentives, environmental education, public awareness and civil society engagement need to be strengthened and trust needs to be rebuilt between stakeholders. Capacities for conservation must be build by devolving authority. Despite being the birthplace of Coffea arabica and the source for one of the world’s finest coffees, current commitment of the worldwide coffee industry to conserve the forests is negligible.