IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i7p3912-d528509.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Unexplored Socio-Cultural Benefits of Coffee Plants: Implications for the Sustainable Management of Ethiopia’s Coffee Forests

Author

Listed:
  • Bikila Jabessa Bulitta

    (College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of Sociology, Dembi Dolo University, P.O. Box 260, Dembi Dollo, Ethiopia)

  • Lalisa A. Duguma

    (Landscapes Governance Theme, World Agroforestry (ICRAF), P.O. Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya)

Abstract

Coffee is among the most popular commodity crops around the globe and supports the livelihoods of millions of households along its value chain. Historically, the broader understanding of the roles of coffee has been limited to its commercial value, which largely is derived from coffee, the drink. This study, using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, explores some of the unrevealed socio-cultural services of coffee of which many people are not aware. The study was conducted in Gomma district, Jimma Zone, Oromia National Regional state, Ethiopia, where arabica coffee was first discovered in its natural habitat. Relying on a case study approach, our study uses ethnographic study methods whereby results are presented from the communities’ perspectives and the subsequent discussions with the communities on how the community perspectives could help to better manage coffee ecosystems. Coffee’s utilities and symbolic functions are numerous—food and drink, commodity crop, religious object, communication medium, heritage and inheritance. Most of the socio-cultural services are not widely known, and hence are not part of the benefits accounting of coffee systems. Understanding and including such socio-cultural benefits into the wider benefits of coffee systems could help in promoting improved management of the Ethiopian coffee forests that are the natural gene pools of this highly valuable crop.

Suggested Citation

  • Bikila Jabessa Bulitta & Lalisa A. Duguma, 2021. "The Unexplored Socio-Cultural Benefits of Coffee Plants: Implications for the Sustainable Management of Ethiopia’s Coffee Forests," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3912-:d:528509
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3912/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3912/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hein, Lars & Gatzweiler, Franz, 2006. "The economic value of coffee (Coffea arabica) genetic resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 176-185, November.
    2. Maria B. Silvarolla & Paulo Mazzafera & Luiz C. Fazuoli, 2004. "A naturally decaffeinated arabica coffee," Nature, Nature, vol. 429(6994), pages 826-826, June.
    3. Christian Bunn & Peter Läderach & Oriana Ovalle Rivera & Dieter Kirschke, 2015. "A bitter cup: climate change profile of global production of Arabica and Robusta coffee," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 129(1), pages 89-101, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mulatu Fekadu Zerihun, 2021. "Agroforestry Practices in Livelihood Improvement in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-13, July.
    2. Nowak-Olejnik, Agnieszka & Schirpke, Uta & Tappeiner, Ulrike, 2022. "A systematic review on subjective well-being benefits associated with cultural ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luca Di Corato & Tsegaye Ginbo, 2020. "Climate change and coffee farm relocation in Ethiopia: a real-options approach," Working Papers 2020:02, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    2. Reichhuber, Anke & Requate, Till, 2012. "Alternative use systems for the remaining Ethiopian cloud forest and the role of Arabica coffee — A cost-benefit analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 102-113.
    3. Anastasios Xepapadeas & Eva Kougea & Parthenopi Ralli & Sofia Spyrou & Nicolaos Stavropoulos & Vasiliki Tsiaousi & Athanasios Tsivelikas, 2013. "Valuing Services Emerging from a Gene Bank: The Case of the Greek Gene Bank," DEOS Working Papers 1307, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    4. Sayamol Charoenratana & Cholnapa Anukul & Peter M. Rosset, 2021. "Food Sovereignty and Food Security: Livelihood Strategies Pursued by Farmers during the Maize Monoculture Boom in Northern Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-20, September.
    5. Hein, Lars & Gatzweiler, Franz, 2006. "The economic value of coffee (Coffea arabica) genetic resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 176-185, November.
    6. Kouadio, Louis & Tixier, Philippe & Byrareddy, Vivekananda & Marcussen, Torben & Mushtaq, Shahbaz & Rapidel, Bruno & Stone, Roger, 2021. "Performance of a process-based model for predicting robusta coffee yield at the regional scale in Vietnam," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 443(C).
    7. Meressa, Abrha Megos & Navrud, Stale, 2020. "Not my cup of coffee: Farmers’ preferences for coffee variety traits – Lessons for crop breeding in the age of climate change," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 9(3), December.
    8. Nicholas Tyack & Milan Ščasný, 2020. "‘Warehouse’ or research centre? Analyzing public preferences for conservation, pre-breeding and characterization activities at the Czech genebank," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(5), pages 1035-1046, October.
    9. Stephen Graham & Hanna Julia Ihli & Anja Gassner, 2022. "Agroforestry, Indigenous Tree Cover and Biodiversity Conservation: A Case Study of Mount Elgon in Uganda," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(4), pages 1893-1911, August.
    10. Anika Reetsch & Kai Schwärzel & Christina Dornack & Shadrack Stephene & Karl-Heinz Feger, 2020. "Optimising Nutrient Cycles to Improve Food Security in Smallholder Farming Families—A Case Study from Banana-Coffee-Based Farming in the Kagera Region, NW Tanzania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-34, November.
    11. Götz Schroth & Peter Läderach & Armando Isaac Martinez-Valle & Christian Bunn, 2017. "From site-level to regional adaptation planning for tropical commodities: cocoa in West Africa," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 903-927, August.
    12. Julia Ihli, Hanna & Chiputwa, Brian & Winter, Etti & Gassner, Anja, 2022. "Risk and time preferences for participating in forest landscape restoration: The case of coffee farmers in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    13. Melinda Smale & Nelissa Jamora, 2020. "Valuing genebanks," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(5), pages 905-918, October.
    14. Alice Fitch & Rebecca L. Rowe & Niall P. McNamara & Cahyo Prayogo & Rizky Maulana Ishaq & Rizki Dwi Prasetyo & Zak Mitchell & Simon Oakley & Laurence Jones, 2022. "The Coffee Compromise: Is Agricultural Expansion into Tree Plantations a Sustainable Option?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-17, March.
    15. Guido, Zack & Knudson, Chris & Finan, Tim & Madajewicz, Malgosia & Rhiney, Kevon, 2020. "Shocks and cherries: The production of vulnerability among smallholder coffee farmers in Jamaica," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    16. Muhammad Faraz & Valentina Mereu & Donatella Spano & Antonio Trabucco & Serena Marras & Daniel El Chami, 2023. "A Systematic Review of Analytical and Modelling Tools to Assess Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation on Coffee Agrosystems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-19, October.
    17. Fabian Y. F. Verhage & Niels P. R. Anten & Paulo C. Sentelhas, 2017. "Carbon dioxide fertilization offsets negative impacts of climate change on Arabica coffee yield in Brazil," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 144(4), pages 671-685, October.
    18. Finlay MacGregor & Vasna Ramasar & Kimberly A. Nicholas, 2017. "Problems with Firm-Led Voluntary Sustainability Schemes: The Case of Direct Trade Coffee," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-25, April.
    19. Gatzweiler, Franz W. & Volkmann, Jorg, 2007. "Beyond Economic Efficiency in Biodiversity Conservation," Institutional Change in Agriculture and Natural Resources Discussion Papers 7704, Humboldt University Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    20. Quan Vu Le & Grace Jovanovic & Don-Thuan Le & Sanya Cowal, 2020. "Understanding the Perceptions of Sustainable Coffee Production: A Case Study of the K’Ho Ethnic Minority in a Small Village in Lâm Đồng Province of Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-16, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3912-:d:528509. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.