Plant Conservation and Population Biology, University of Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 31-2435, BE-3001 Leuven, Belgium.
Department of Horticulture and Plant Science, Jimma University, P.O. Box 378, Jimma, Ethiopia.
J Environ Manage. 2019 Feb 1;231:282-288. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.10.037. Epub 2018 Oct 20.
Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica L.) grows naturally as an understory shrub in the moist evergreen montane forests of Southwest Ethiopia. In response to an increasing local human population pressure and a growing coffee demand on the world market, coffee producing forests are increasingly managed to boost coffee yield. Here we compared organoleptic coffee quality between natural coffee producing forests, large coffee agroforests, and small coffee agroforests. Accounting for variability in Arabica coffee genotype and environment, we found that blind consensus scores, given by a panel of certified Q-Grade cuppers, were negatively affected by increasing forest management intensity. Importantly, only coffee from natural coffee producing forests qualified as specialty coffee following the Specialty Coffee Association of America's standards. We suggest that the most important drivers of deteriorating coffee quality include decreased shade levels and changing micro-climate and biotic interactions. Due to the low yields of coffee in natural coffee producing forests and the lack of quality price premiums, Ethiopian smallholder farmers are inclined to optimize for coffee quantity, rather than for quality, causing a significant challenge for the conservation of Ethiopian natural coffee producing forests.
阿拉比卡咖啡（Coffea arabica L.）自然生长于埃塞俄比亚西南部湿润的常绿山地森林的林下灌木丛中。为了应对当地人口增长的压力和世界市场对咖啡需求的不断增长，咖啡种植林正日益被管理以提高咖啡产量。在这里，我们比较了自然咖啡种植林、大型咖啡农林和小型咖啡农林之间的感官咖啡质量。考虑到阿拉比卡咖啡基因型和环境的可变性，我们发现，由认证 Q 级杯测师组成的小组给出的盲品共识评分受到森林管理强度增加的负面影响。重要的是，只有来自自然咖啡种植林的咖啡才能符合美国精品咖啡协会的标准，被评为精品咖啡。我们认为，导致咖啡质量下降的最重要因素包括遮荫水平降低、微气候和生物相互作用改变。由于自然咖啡种植林中咖啡的产量较低，而且缺乏高质量的价格溢价，埃塞俄比亚小农倾向于优化咖啡产量，而不是质量，这对埃塞俄比亚自然咖啡种植林的保护构成了重大挑战。
