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Research Article

Economic value of tropical forest to coffee production

Taylor H. Ricketts, Gretchen C. Daily, Paul R. Ehrlich, and Charles D. Michener
  1. *Conservation Science Program, World Wildlife Fund, 1250 24th Street NW, Washington, DC 20037-1124; †Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, 371 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305-5020; and §Division of Entomology, Natural History Museum, University of Kansas, 1460 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, KS 66045-7523

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PNAS August 24, 2004 101 (34) 12579-12582; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0405147101
Taylor H. Ricketts
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Gretchen C. Daily
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Paul R. Ehrlich
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Charles D. Michener
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  1. Contributed by Charles D. Michener, July 17, 2004

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Abstract

Can economic forces be harnessed for biodiversity conservation? The answer hinges on characterizing the value of nature, a tricky business from biophysical, socioeconomic, and ethical perspectives. Although the societal benefits of native ecosystems are clearly immense, they remain largely unquantified for all but a few services. Here, we estimate the value of tropical forest in supplying pollination services to agriculture. We focus on coffee because it is one of the world's most valuable export commodities and is grown in many of the world's most biodiverse regions. Using pollination experiments along replicated distance gradients, we found that forest-based pollinators increased coffee yields by 20% within ≈1 km of forest. Pollination also improved coffee quality near forest by reducing the frequency of “peaberries” (i.e., small misshapen seeds) by 27%. During 2000–2003, pollination services from two forest fragments (46 and 111 hectares) translated into ≈$60,000 (U.S.) per year for one Costa Rican farm. This value is commensurate with expected revenues from competing land uses and far exceeds current conservation incentive payments. Conservation investments in human-dominated landscapes can therefore yield double benefits: for biodiversity and agriculture.

  • bees
  • ecosystem service
  • landscape
  • pollination

Footnotes

  • ↵ ‡ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: taylor.ricketts{at}wwfus.org.

  • Abbreviations: ha, hectare; fa, fanegas.

  • Copyright © 2004, The National Academy of Sciences
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Economic value of tropical forest to coffee production
Taylor H. Ricketts, Gretchen C. Daily, Paul R. Ehrlich, Charles D. Michener
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Aug 2004, 101 (34) 12579-12582; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0405147101

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Economic value of tropical forest to coffee production
Taylor H. Ricketts, Gretchen C. Daily, Paul R. Ehrlich, Charles D. Michener
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Aug 2004, 101 (34) 12579-12582; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0405147101
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America: 101 (34)
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