I cannot claim to have Kenn Kaufman's experience in Central America, but I can perhaps add a little to the current discussion of shade-grown coffee. The point I want to make is that not all shade-grown coffees are alike and some shade-grown coffees are definitely much more bird friendly than others. Coffee is very sun-sensitive. Too little or too much sun reduces the yield. There are four main forms of coffee culture in Central America: rustic (or traditional), polyculture, monoculture, and sun. The four forms of culture manage the sunlight sensitivity problem in different ways. Rustic coffee culture is the method described in Kenn's post. The understory of the forest is cleared out and coffee is planted under the tall trees. This form of culture gives a park-like environment that is very pleasant to work in. Rustic culture mimics primary forest to a significant extent. In my limited experience (seven days on eight fincas in Guatemala encompassing all four types of culture), the basic diversity of bird species in rustic culture is about as great as that of primary forest. In polyculture coffee, many of the big trees are cut down as well as the understory. In their place, fruit trees are planted not only to provide shade but also to provide additional produce from the land. Bird diversity in the polyculture plantations we visited is significantly lower than in rustic plantations, but still provides a nice variety of bird life. Often, one finds fincas where some tracts are in rustic culture and some are in polyculture. These two techniques seem to coexist fairly well. Monoculture shade coffee is grown in plantations where _all_ of the big trees have been cleared and replaced by smaller, faster growing trees, usually all of the same species (hence "monoculture"). These trees are managed aggressively to provide precisely the right amount of shade. The trees are removed and replaced when they grow to a certain size. The wood produced by all this arboriculture is an important benefit to the workers on the finca, for whom it is usually their sole fuel. The diversity of bird life in these plantations is much, much lower than in either of the two previous types of culture. Sun-cultured coffee is grown in fields from which all native vegetation has been stripped. Coffee is planted from fence row to fence row. Sun coffeeplantations are virtually devoid of birds. The effects of excess sunlight are managed by the application of chemicals. Sun coffee plantations are very neat and susceptible to mechanized agriculture. Sun coffee gives somewhat higher yields, but demands heavy upfront expenditures for chemicals. This has had the effect of changing coffee culture to a deficit-financed economy. Growers must borrow money at the beginning of each season and hope the crop is good enough to pay off the loans. As usual, the issues are not as clear-cut as they seem at first. Strictly speaking, supporting "shade coffee" does not necessarily contribute to conservation of bird diversity in Mesoamerica. If it contributes to converting rustic and polyculture plantations to monoculture coffee, the effect is actually counterproductive to the stated aims. And that is the general trend these days. Traditional coffee growers are under heavy pressure to shift to monoculture coffee culture to increase yields. I am not a coffee drinker and have not researched whether the various advertised "shade coffees" actually promote biodiversity. Cheers, Bob -- Robert D Powell Wilmington, OH, USA [log in to unmask] Nulla dies sine linea ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]