|
What are the tropical coffee forests?
Take a journey through the tropical coffee forests of El Salvador so you can appreciate its environmental contribution and discover a beautiful touristic destination.
Coffee forests provide shade for coffee plantations, ensuring the protection of the surrounding ecosystem. These forests provide many environmental benefits and help preserve the biodiversity in the area. They provide habitat for native species of flora and fauna, contribute to water conservation, protect watersheds and soils, and help reduce carbon emissions.
Conserving and maintaing our Biodiversity is a difficult task since large areas need to be protected so that native and migratory species have a natural habitat to live in. Coffee Forests provide an ecologic stronghold for human and animal species. Therefore, these forests have become part of the “Mesoamerican Biological Corridor”, Salvadoran Coffee Forests help in saving biodiversity under a sustainable environment.
Currently, El Salvador has 196.000 hectares destined to coffee plantations, which constitute 9% of the country. 95% of existing coffee plantations are called coffee forests. These coffee forests are cultivated under a diverse variety of tree shade at different altitudes, between 500 - 1200 m. In general, the topography of the coffee plantations is rugged mountains and hills with slopes above 30%.
|
|
|
Why is it important to preserve Coffee Forests?
Coffee Forests are an important resource for the environment, since they help preserve our earth´s ecology in three main categories:
Environmental:
- Conserves Biodiversity and ecosystem integrity.
- Controls populations of harmful insects and other small bugs.
- Increases soil fertility and weed control.
- Balances the extreme effects of environmental factors.
- Provides shelter and food supply to different species of fauna and flora.
- Encourages pollination.
- Controls runoff and erosion in coffee plantations.
|
Socio Economic:
- Generates by-products that can be used by the farm owner (fruits, firewood, and others)
- Maintains current employment conditions.
- Decreases people migration, both international and local urban areas.
- Promotes economic activity in coffee plantations.
- Provides an alternative source of energy and means to make extra income (the Salvadoran Coffee Council estimates that coffee plantations provide 42% of the wood used in rural areas, it also determined that the benefit of coffee produced each year, provides 6 million pounds of pulp and 0.7 million kilograms of parchment husk).
|
Cultural:
- Rescues historical and cultural values around Salvadoran coffee and society.
- Promotes cultural identity through traditions inspired by coffee.
- Helps understand our identity though coffee.
- Generates nostalgic desire for our products and cultural traditions.
- Improves community organization in order to achieve sustainable development.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What Are They?
