Coffee is the country’s biggest export, but millions of smallholders are being asked to provide paperwork to prove their land is not deforested
he first white flowers are starting to appear on the branches of Habtamu Wolde’s coffee bushes in the Kafa region of southwest. They will bloom several more times before turning into round red cherries ready for harvesting in October. Then they will be prepared for export and shipped to the capital.is more than a drink in Kafa. This region claims to be the birthplace of Arabica coffee, which grows naturally in its temperate cloud forests.
Abebe and other Ethiopian coffee officials argue that their beans are more sustainable than those from other big producers, such as Brazil, where most coffee plantations are vast monocultures cut from the jungle, sustained by fertiliser and devoid of trees. Felix Ahlers, founder of Solino, a German company that imports 200 tonnes of roasted Ethiopian beans a year, says its business model could become unsustainable.
The coffee plants on his farm are interspersed with towering fig trees, poplars and palms, as well as wild pepper and cardamom. Habtamu estimates he has planted 2,000 trees over the past three decades to create shade for coffee plants on degraded land previously used to grow maize or graze cows. Even in Kafa, where the forests are vital to the local economy, trees are being cut to make way for coffee plants, says Asaye Alemayehu, the local office head of Nabu, a German environmental group.Ethiopia’s coffee farming relies on maintaining forests, as the trees provide shade which protects the coffee plants from the heat
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