SHADE COFFEE & TREE COVER LOSS: LESSONS FROM EL SALVADOR

Abstract

Unlike most human dominated landscapes, this mixed agro-forestry system provides many of the same ecological services associated with natural forests, including harboring biodiversity, preventing soil erosion, sequestering carbon, and facilitating aquifer recharge-albeit at a lower level than in natural forests. Less than 10 percent of the country's natural forests survive, and a significant share of the remaining tree cover is associated with shade coffee.5 Data from satellite images, and interviews with Salvadoran stakeholders provide insight into the magnitude, characteristics, and drivers of tree cover loss in El Salvador's shade coffee areas during the 1990s.6 Coffee in El Salvador The Salvadoran coffee sector suffered a series of shocks during the 1990s, due to falling prices and bad weather.