Shade Coffee: A Disappearing Refuge for Biodiversity

Abstract

T ithin the expanding agricultural frontier in the tropWics, one can find a variety of small, managed forest patches and traditional agricultural systems, which provide a refuge for forestdwelling organisms. These managed habitats are frequently overlooked as potential areas of biodiversity conservation (Pimentel et al. 1992). Furthermore, the conservation biology literature often refers to forest reserves as islands in a sea of devastation, in which the sea is formed by agriculture. Although chemically intensive monocultural systems may fit well with this perception of low The importance of