Made in the shade

By creating a market for shade-grown coffee, Zoos Victoria’s Coffee for Wildlife program is reducing pressure on threatened species while supporting local communities.

WORDS Steve Colquhoun

The Huon Peninsula, on the remote east coast of Papua New Guinea, is described as the place “where the rainforest touches the sky”. One of the last highelevation rainforests in the world, it once teemed with Matschie’s Tree-kangaroos.

Today, the elusive, tree-dwelling marsupial with distinctive chestnut fur and golden belly is known as “the ghost of the forest”, not only because it was hunted by local villagers for its meat and fur before being classified as Endangered in 1996. It’s also a direct result of extensive land-clearing activities for farming, industry and development, depleting the tree-kangaroo’s habitats.

A key driver of land clearing in tropical nations such as Papua New Guinea is the world’s ongoing love affair with coffee. Melburnians alone are said to drink around 31 million cups each week. “Most of the coffee we drink is sun-grown, which requires deforestation to replace natural forests with coffee plants,” explains Ashleigh, Zoos Victoria’s Senior Manager, Community Conservation Campaigns.

The farming operations that have taken a toll on the habitat of the Matschie’s Tree-kangaroo are not an isolated case. In Sumatra, illegal coffee farming infringes on the borders of a 2.5 million hectare area known as the Leuser Ecosystem, which is the last place on earth where orangutans, elephants, rhinoceros and tigers all still roam wild together. And in Ethiopia, where coffee is the nation’s largest export product, land clearing for coffee crops bites into the habitats of species including Vervet Monkeys, which are native to south-east Africa and noted for their human-like characteristics.

Ashleigh says current coffee consumption habits in Australia point to a tripling in demand for beans by 2050. The majority will be grown in the ‘bean belt’, an area between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn that has the ideal climate, yet is also dense in rainforest and wildlife biodiversity.

“Climate modelling has shown we’re at a fork in the road in terms of the impact that coffee production will have on wildlife in the future, based on the decisions we make today on how we grow it,” she says.

A blend for biodiversity

In Papua New Guinea, the villagers and farmers of the Huon Peninsula are already changing the script by joining international efforts to conserve the Matschie’s Tree-kangaroo and other at-risk species. And in 2009, in a first for Papua New Guinea, the 760-square-kilometre YUS Conservation Area was established on the Huon Peninsula, imposing a ban on hunting, logging and mining activities.

Even more help is at hand, thanks to the launch of Coffee for Wildlife, a joint project between Zoos Victoria and Melbourne-based coffee roaster Genovese. Under the program, Zoos Victoria is selling three distinctive coffee blends grown in Papua New Guinea, Sumatra and Ethiopia, each derived from shade-grown coffee beans. Shade-grown coffee takes longer to mature on the plant, and therefore produces a richer and more intense flavour that will appeal to true coffee enthusiasts.

“Coffee for Wildlife helps protect these forests and the species that live there by only purchasing coffee that is shade-grown,” Ashleigh says. “This means the natural canopy can still grow above the coffee plants for native wildlife to live and flourish.”

Farming for the future

The program has the support of Papua New Guinean coffee farmers, who receive a fair price for their shade-grown coffee.

Hesing Wayain started planting coffee on the Huon Peninsula in 1997, and also farms other crops such as betel nuts and peanuts. “The Matschie’s Tree-kangaroo is an endangered animal, so in order for our grandchildren to see and know what kind of animal it is, we have to conserve it,” he says.

The farmers also enjoy the knowledge they are helping to protect not only the Matschie’s Tree-kangaroo, but hundreds of other species inhabiting the YUS Conservation Area such as the palm cockatoo, dwarf cassowary, common spotted cuscus, striped possum and Brown’s pademelon.

“The YUS Conservation Area is special because it supports our lives in so many ways,” Hesing says. “Like the fresh air we breathe, fresh water and fresh foods. I feel very proud when I produce quality coffee.”

Danny Samandingke has farmed the Huon Peninsula for 50 years and grows coffee, fruits and vegetables. He says programs such as Coffee for Wildlife also improve the lives of locals through increased prosperity, access to better education and medical services, and agricultural expertise that has increased growing productivity.

“It is an honour to be part of the team in the coffee movement chain as a farmer, retailer, exporter, importer and consumer,” he says. “We feel proud to be part of this unique untouched frontier of rainforest.”

Ashleigh says the program also highlights the importance of consumers choosing sustainable products where available, such as wildlife-friendly coffee. “Zoos Victoria partnered with Genovese Coffee and together we have undertaken rigorous research to select coffee projects from around the world that work to benefit farmers, forests and wildlife,” she says. “We have a real opportunity to make this change at a local level, as coffee is such a huge part of our culture.”

Enjoy A Cup

Buy a bag of Coffee for Wildlife from any Zoo Shop, online at zoo.org.au/coffee, or enjoy a cup of coffee on your next zoo visit. To purchase a Coffee for Wildlife subscription, go to genovese.com.au/product/coffee-forwildlife-subscriptions