Producing certified organic coffee under complex
shade could be a possible solution for coffee
growers confronted with the impact of adjacent
forest site destruction and falling coffee prices on
the world market. However, only an elevated
consumer willingness to pay for “biodiversityfriendly”
coffee would generate substantial
incentives for landowners to maintain their shadecoffee
production systems, thereby conserving
ecological functions, which are of special
importance in highly fragmented areas where only
small patches of natural forest remain.