CERTIFICATION OF WILD COFFEE IN ETHIOPIA: EXPERIENCES AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

Coffea arabica originates from montane forests in South and Southwest Ethiopia, part of the Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot region. Wild coffee refers to coffee that grows and regenerates spontaneously in these forests and that is genetically different from commercial cultivars. Wild coffee is collected as a non-timber forest product both from little disturbed forest as well as from more intensively managed semi-forest coffee systems; in addition coffee is also produced in garden systems and plantations—often using landraces or cultivars. Recently several programmes have started to conserve the coffee forests and the coffee genetic variety. In 2003 an initiative to market forest coffee in Germany as a certified authentic product was developed; this was followed by additional schemes marketing forest coffee as an environmentally friendly and socially responsible product. In order to obtain premium prices, the consumers demand good cup-quality and criteria on the production systems. The well established coffee market already has such quality criteria, but the forest coffee certification criteria may differ from these. In developing the criteria for certification, questions arise as to the precise objective of forest coffee certification: does it concern the certification: • of a product originating in the forest, or • of natural product authenticity, and/or • of a sustainable production practice in biodiverse, organic production systems, and/or • of a socially-responsibly produced and marketed product? Also as to what extent is it efficient and effective to develop different certification schemes and different marketing strategies for forest-based, organically grown, and/or socially responsible produced NTFPs from those of their intensively cultivated equivalents. In order to conserve the unique characteristics of the Ethiopian coffee forests as well as prevent confusion due to the co-existence of different certification schemes, it might be advisable to base certification on an area approach focused on the sustainable management of forested landscapes and involving both forests and environmentally responsibly managed agricultural lands.

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