![\"Yellow-eared](\"https:\/\/margolincom.com\/bbfe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Yellow-eared-Parrots-1024x768-300x225.jpg\")
.<\/span><\/p>\n If you drink coffee, love parrots and want to prevent their natural habits from being destroyed the type of coffee you buy can make all the difference between the extinction of a species or its survival.\u00a0 How can the type of coffee people drink be so important?\u00a0 Have you ever heard of shade grown coffee?<\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n With the severe loss of biodiversity on this planet being the greatest threat to the survival of humanity, and all other species, the manner in which farmers grow coffee either nurtures and enriches the biodiversity of an ecosystem, or destroys it.<\/p>\n Unlike the USDA Certified Organic Seal,\u00a0 or other International Organic Certifications\u00a0 that identify a known standard, there are presently no agreed upon criteria for identifying and certifying the agricultural practices for enhancing biodiversity in shade grown coffee farms and plantations.\u00a0 Shade grown coffee employes specific agriculture practices that support the ecological biodiversity of an area.\u00a0 Shade grown coffee provides foraging and nesting areas for numerous wild parrot species.\u00a0 However, there are three important qualifications to look for when selecting coffee that helps rather than harms the environment.\u00a0 Your coffee must be Triple Certified – Organic, Fair Trade and shade grown, Bird Friendly\u00ae.<\/p>\n a<\/span><\/p>\n Be skeptical of coffee that advertises they are organic unless a Seal of Organic Certification is actually printed on the package. Some websites include a small image of an organic seal without their company or their product actually being a United States Department of Agriculture, International Organic Accreditation Service (1) or otherwise Certified Organic Product.(2)<\/p>\n a<\/span><\/p>\n Fair Trade is an organized global market-based and social movement\u00a0 founded in building equitable and sustainable partnerships between farmers and artisans in third world countries and businesses in developed nations.\u00a0 Fair Trade actively promotes and ensures equitable compensation for their products, safe and healthy working conditions, transparent business practices, and workplaces free from discrimination and forced child labor.\u00a0 With shade grown coffee representing one of the most labor-intensive crops grown on earth today purchasing Certified Fair Trade coffee helps alleviate poverty and creates opportunities for people to help themselves. Fair Trade Certified products bear the seal of their certifier.<\/p>\n a<\/span><\/p>\n The phrase \u2018Bird Friendly\u2019\u00ae is a registered trademark of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center\u00a0 (SMBC).\u00a0 This means that only companies who have met the standards of the SMBC can have their coffee certified as Bird Friendly\u00ae. These businesses can display the SMBC seal of approval and can use the words \u2018Bird Friendly\u2019\u00ae on their packaging and in their advertising.\u00a0 In locating true shade grown Bird Friendly\u00ae coffee it is vital to look for the SMBC seal of approval and to see if their registered trademark\u00a0 Bird Friendly\u00ae is being used properly.<\/p>\n Be aware that there are many coffee roasters, distributors and retailers who imply that their shade grown coffee meets the strict shade grown coffee standards of the SMBC\u00a0 – thereby promoting species biodiversity – when in fact it does not.<\/p>\n a<\/span><\/p>\n The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has created the only true \u2018shade-grown\u2019 coffee certification.\u00a0 Products bearing their seal are called\u00a0 Bird-Friendly \u00ae coffee. Their criteria, developed by ecologists at the center, include having a canopy of at least 12 meters (just under 40 feet) high, a minimum of 40 percent shade cover, and 11 species of shade trees. The coffee must also be certified organic.\u00a0 Although this coffee is not certified as a Fair Trade product, the Smithsonian supports similar standards.\u00a0 Bird-Friendly \u00ae certification specifies the most vigorous shade and habitat standards of any coffee certification.<\/p>\n a<\/span><\/p>\n Now if you google \u2018shade grown coffee\u2019 on the internet all of the websites you\u2019re likely to encounter can list up to 200 species of American songbirds that migrate south to winter in the warmer tropical climates of\u00a0 Mexico, Central and South America.<\/p>\n Now these are beautiful, tiny, birds – some of them weighing less than 10 gms – many who also possess colors that rival the brilliant plumage of any multicolored parrot.\u00a0 As I thought about the biodiversity these shade grown coffee plantations provided these annual travelers, I began wondering if native parrots also benefited from the ecological biodiversity that kept bringing these songbirds back each year.<\/p>\n To learn more I interviewed researchers with the Defenders of Wildlife, the Smithsonian Institute, the World Land Trust and Fundaci\u00f3n ProAves Columbia.\u00a0 In the few coffee farms and plantations that these researchers knew of I learned that nearly 40 parrot species living in Mexico, Guatemala and Columbia have directly benefited from shade grown coffee farms and plantations.\u00a0 From this we can conclude that all shade grown coffee farms and plantations that are certified Bird Friendly\u00ae Coffee by Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.<\/p>\n Read the details of everything I learned from these researchers in issue #155 of Parrots magazine – including how shade grown coffee was instrumental in the recovery of the Yellow-eared Parrot (Yellow-eared conure – Ognorhynchus icterotis).<\/p>\n a<\/span><\/p>\n The Rainforest Alliance (RA) has a long list of indicators and benchmarks for receiving their certification, including 14 mandatory requirements that must be met. Some of their critical criteria includes wildlife protection, occupational health and safety, fair employee treatment, good working conditions and integrated crop management.<\/p>\n Although a company with RA certification clearly has standards that exceed traditional \u2018corporate coffee\u2019 plantations I cannot endorse RA certified coffee for the following reasons. 1. RA does not mandate organic certification as one of their requirements for their certification.\u00a0 Millions of lives – people, companion animals and wildlife – are devastated each year from pesticide use. Around the globe fragile ecosystems are destroyed daily from pesticides. Even chemicals approved for use in the US and the EU produce these catastrophic effects. 2. The RA does not include any criteria for coffee bearing their certification to be shade grown. 3. Nor does the RA dictate improving the biodiversity of an area as a part of their Sustainable Agriculture Standard. 4. Of all the organizations, groups and individuals I interviewed while researching this topic the Rainforest Alliance was the only source that could not provide me with the name of one single parrot species – anywhere in the world – who had benefited from their Sustainable Agriculture Standards.\u00a0 For these reasons I do not consider the Rainforest Alliance Certification for coffee a true indicator of a product that helps rather than harms wild parrot species and the environments they live in.<\/p>\n.<\/span><\/h3>\n
What is Shade Grown Coffee?<\/h3>\n
Identifying Organic Coffee<\/h3>\n
Identifying Fair Trade Coffee<\/h3>\n
Identifying Bird Friendly\u00ae Coffee<\/h3>\n
The Smithsonian\u00a0 Migratory Bird Center\u2019s Certification<\/h3>\n
Why Enrich the Biodiversity of an Ecosystem?<\/h3>\n
Be Wary of the Rainforest Alliance\u2019s Sustainable Agriculture Network Certification<\/h3>\n