Long celebrated as a producer of some of the world’s finest high-quality arabica coffees, Ethiopia and its western forests also happen to be a genetic mecca for wild and cultivated arabica coffee. A new sustainability initiative led by the international nonprofit TechnoServe is attempting to shine a light on those forests in order to both promote and protect them while growing a market for “Ethiopia’s Forest Coffee.”The first outputs from that effort is a new, free 70-page guidebook called Ethiopia’s Forest Coffee: An Illustrated Guide, along with an interactive online map. These coffee forests are a unique and valuable resource, providing sustainable livelihoods for thousands of families and serving as a natural genetic bank for future generations of coffee connoisseurs. According to the program’s directives, protecting Ethiopian coffee forests is also a matter of promoting coffee cultivated within those forests to international markets, who may pay premiums both for the perceived environmental benefits of biodiversity and coffee quality. Through fact and imagery, you will meet the communities that carry out this act of stewardship while producing some of Ethiopia’s finest coffees.

Source: Ethiopian News July 08, 2021 21:56 UTC