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More than half of the world’s 124 wild coffee plant species meet the criteria for inclusion on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, according to reports published today (January 16) in Science Advances and Global Change Biology. The authors say extinctions among the species would limit plant breeders’ options in developing new types of coffee in the future.
The study, carried out at Britain’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, found that 60 percent of wild coffee species are at risk, a figure that “is extremely high, especially when you compare this to a global estimate of 22% for plants,” says coauthor Eimear Nic Lughadha in a statement. “Some of the coffee species assessed have not been seen in the wild for more than 100 years, and it is possible that some may already be extinct.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46845461
A second study, in Global Change Biology, found that wild Arabica coffee can be classed as threatened under official (IUCN Red List) rankings, when climate change projections are taken into account.
Its natural population is likely to shrink by up to 50% or more by 2088 because of climate change alone, according to the research.
Wild Arabica is used to supply seeds for coffee farming and also as a harvested crop in its own right.
Ethiopia is the home of Arabica coffee, where it grows naturally in upland rainforests.
"Given the importance of Arabica coffee to Ethiopia, and to the world, we need to do our utmost to understand the risks facing its survival in the wild," said Dr Tadesse Woldemariam Gole, of the Environment and Coffee Forest Forum in Addis Ababa.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday January 18 2019, @11:39AM (2 children)
There's always danger in highly specializing any crop away from what nature had forced it to be to survive. Be it selective breeding or genetic modification, it's really a very good idea to keep the base organism still around in case something comes along that hurts your modified variety but it shrugs off easily. This is especially true of crops that are more homogeneous than coffee but it should be a consideration that's taken seriously for any crop that's crucial to human survival.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by Arik on Friday January 18 2019, @03:46PM
It seems that arabicas are all quite weak against pests and disease. They were nearly wiped out by CLR (which is still a threat) when it first appeared a few centuries ago, and the response was cross breeding with non-arabicas, particularly canephora, to gain those qualities.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @04:47PM
Definitely this. Take a look at bananas for an example. If your grandparents had a banana as a kid, it was likely a gros michel. These days commercial bananas are mostly the cavendish variety. The allegedly better tasting gros michel were almost wiped out by a fungus.
It looks like the cavendish might go the same way, so banana producers are madly looking for another variety that they can clone and produce genetically identical plantations full of.