My Coffee and Birds Conservation Story

By Laura Jackson, PSO President

If you attended the banquet at the PSO Birding Festival in Altoona this year, you heard me explain how Mike and I try to help birds by selling shade-grown organic coffee.  It’s kind of ironic since we don’t drink coffee, but coffee is a popular drink and if sourced correctly, it can help birds by protecting habitat and providing insect food.  I did forget part of the story, so this is the unabridged version!

Golden-winged Warbler carrying food – Photo by Mike Jackson

In 2014, my husband, Mike, and I decided to help birds and other wildlife by completing a 30-acre young forest habitat project on our 120-acre property just south of Everett, Pennsylvania.  I was the president of Juniata Valley Audubon Society (JVAS) and learned that birds like Golden-winged Warblers are in rapid decline because of habitat loss on their breeding grounds, as well as their wintering grounds in Central and South America.  Although we were providing a young forest habitat for breeding birds, I wanted to expand our efforts to help birds on their wintering grounds, thus achieving a more holistic conservation effort.  After learning that many of our songbirds spend their winters in shade-grown coffee farms, I asked JVAS VP Mark Bonta, who used to live in Honduras, if he would help me find a Honduran coffee farmer who grew organic, shade-grown coffee so we could import his coffee to Pennsylvania.  Mark thought it was a neat idea, but impractical since he predicted it would take 15 years to find a Honduran coffee farmer who spoke English and get through all the red tape to export coffee from Honduras and then import coffee into the U.S.  I shelved the idea as just another pipedream. 

Imagine my surprise a few months later when we stopped at a bakery in New Oxford, Pa. in May 2015, on our way home from a PSO Annual Meeting in Chester County.  I noticed a handwritten sign on the wall in the bakery, advertising Honduran coffee, and asking for help to market it.  It was signed Emilio Garcia and included his phone number.  Talk about serendipity!  I called Emilio and found out that he grew organic, shade-grown coffee near Marcala, Honduras.  He roasted his coffee in Chambersburg, so a few weeks later we visited him, bought a few bags of coffee, and proposed to JVAS that we partner with Emilio to help sell his shade-grown, organic coffee.  Emilio would sell it to us wholesale so we could resell it with a small markup.  We proposed that we’d send the profit back to Honduras to help with bird conservation projects and education.  The JVAS Board approved our new venture, and a new conservation partnership was formed.  

Emilio Garcia, third from left, Carlos and children are kneeling in front, and on the far right is Doris, Emilio’s sister. The rest of the group are birders on our Honduran tour – you’ll recognize some who are PSO members. Photo by Laura Jackson

Emilio Garcia, third from left, Carlos and children are kneeling in front, and on the far right is Doris, Emilio’s sister.  The rest of the group are birders on our Honduran tour – you’ll recognize some who are PSO members.  Photo by Laura Jackson

In January 2016, Mark Bonta organized and led a birding trip to Honduras that included a visit to Emilio’s farm.  Several JVAS members went, as well as other birders.  We had a wonderful time, and visiting Emilio’s coffee farm was the highlight of the trip for me – especially since we saw Golden-winged Warblers and many other songbirds in his coffee farm!

Emilio’s coffee is rich, low acid, and grown under the canopy of the high-elevation tropical forests.  He doesn’t use pesticides or synthetic fertilizer but relies on natural composting to nourish his coffee plants and provide a unique blend of flavors.  Since the forest canopy is intact, many of our neotropical songbirds find more food and safety in shade-grown coffee farms.  The cheaper coffee sold in grocery stores and other coffee shops is sun coffee, planted in huge fields after all the natural habitat has been destroyed.

It took Emilio 12 years to work through the red tape, get import permits, shipping connections and storage facilities, but his dedication paid off and now he imports shade-grown, organic coffee through his business, Lenca Coffee Roasters, as direct trade coffee, either green bean or roasted.

We were impressed by Emilio’s efforts to grow organic coffee under the shade of the native trees.  His brother, Carlos, and sister, Doris, were also part of the effort to grow high-value coffee that was good for the environment and healthier for people – although they really were surprised that Americans would travel to Honduras just to look at birds!

JVAS has partnered with Lenca Coffee Roasters since 2015, helping to sell organic shade-grown coffee that protects bird habitat, as well as raising money to educate Hondurans about bird conservation.  JVAS provided grant funds and equipment to a youth bird club in Marcala, plus we have sent money to Macaw Mountain Park, a Bird Sanctuary and Education Center, that is dedicated to raising and returning the Honduran national bird, the Scarlet Macaw, to the wild.  JVAS also donated coffee funds to help sponsor the first Bird Conservation Fair in 2016 at the National University of Agriculture in Catacamas, Honduras, where college students taught elementary students about the importance of birds and conservation.

Mark was almost right about the 15-year effort – it actually took Emilio 12 years to import his coffee into the U.S.  After we told Emilio about the Gold Standard of coffee:  the Smithsonian Bird Friendly® designation, he, Carlos, and Doris have now achieved that distinction, as well.

Their Smithsonian certified coffee is labelled “Los Robles,” meaning “The Oaks,” since they have a lot of oaks on their coffee farms.  This is the coffee that JVAS sells and it’s also available online at https://lencacoffeefarms.com/lenca-roasters, or scan the QR code below:

While we never did get nesting Golden-winged Warblers in our 30-acre young forest, we feel our partnership with Emilio, Carlos, and Doris Garcia is making a meaningful impact on bird conservation and education.  Much of the coffee that we sell is purchased by PSO members who appreciate both the smooth taste of Los Robles and the added bird friendly value.  Thank you so much for supporting our efforts!

-Laura Jackson, PSO president