Climate-Smart Coffee Regions: From Farm-Level Solutions to Regional Resilience
Climate change is increasingly reshaping coffee landscapes, threatening coffee farming and the livelihoods of smallholder families who depend on it. Responses – such as agroforestry, soil and water management, and crop diversity – tend to happen farm-by-farm. Yet climate risks are territorial: Rainfall patterns, water flows, erosion, heat stress, microclimates, and pest and disease dynamics are shaped by how land is managed across an entire landscape.
“Farm-level actions can strengthen the climate resilience of individual farmers, but they are not sufficient on their own”, explains Theresa Ruperti, Program and Partnership Manager at HRNS. “Lasting transformation is only possible when these actions are coordinated and scaled beyond individual plots and isolated projects.” This is the rationale behind Climate-Smart Coffee Regions (CSCRs), a territory-scale approach that organizes proven climate adaptation practices beyond farm boundaries through coordinated landscape management.
Why “Region” Matters for Coffee Resilience
“Moving from farm to landscape level shifts the focus from improving individual practices to managing the broader conditions that make those practices effective and sustainable”, explains Stefan Ruge, Program Manager Climate at HRNS. “If adaptation is addressed only farm by farm, gains on individual farms can be undermined by what happens upstream, downstream or on neighboring land.” A CSCR therefore targets shared drivers of vulnerability, such as erosion and water scarcity, thereby strengthening resilience of many farmers at once. Working at landscape scale also expands what is possible in terms of coordination and incentives: Stakeholders can align on one action plan, establish common indicators, exchange experiences, and invest in joint services, such as climate information, extension, and training.
Farm-Level Benefits: More Stable Livelihoods
For coffee-growing households, the most immediate gains are stronger climate resilience and more stable incomes. Practices such as agroforestry, soil and water conservation, and climate-informed farm management can stabilize yields, improve coffee quality, and reduce production risks. Diversification of production systems and financial literacy further reduce dependence on coffee alone and strengthen food security.
Landscape-Level Benefits: Protecting Shared Resources and Ecosystems
At landscape scale, coordinated action improves the management of shared natural resources, thereby strengthening regional resilience and farm-level adaptation. For example, protecting watersheds can improve water security, reforestation can reduce erosion risks, and habitat diversity can support pollination, pest control, and stable microclimates. “By aligning land-use decisions, the CSCR also reduces pressure on forests and fragile ecosystems”, Ruge adds.
Benefits Beyond the Region: Lower Risks, Greater Sustainability
CSCRs create value for other stakeholders as well. Coffee companies and traders benefit from more resilient and sustainable supply chains, as well as more consistent coffee quality and volume. Governments gain healthier landscapes, improved water security and reduced disaster risks, while research partners can test and refine solutions under real-world conditions. Consumers benefit from coffee that supports livelihoods and ecosystems. Not least, CSCRs contribute to biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation.
Key Success Factors for Implementing Climate-Smart Coffee Regions
Implementing a CSCR is demanding: It turns farm-level action into a landscape process across many actors. Success depends on a few key factors.
Turning Proven Practices into Adoption: Removing Barriers at Farm Level
Adoption is the bottleneck. “Even when climate-smart practices are proven effective, they may not be widely adopted”, Ruge notes. Understanding farmers’ perceptions of climate change, as well as the individual and institutional constraints to adaptation, is therefore critical. Upfront labor and investment are high, while benefits take time to materialize – especially for measures such as establishing agroforestry or constructing soil and water conservation structures. Cash constraints, limited credit, insecure land tenure, and price volatility deter such long-term investments. Targeted support, including co-investments to cover initial costs, can bridge this transition period until benefits become apparent. Demonstration plots, farmer-to-farmer exchanges, and practical advisory tools help make results tangible early on. Reliable extension services, access to inputs, and timely climate information – as well as the ability to act on it – are also essential.
Another key success factor is a solid evidence base from the start.
Evidence-Based Planning: From Landscape Diagnosis to Action Plan
“Another key success factor is a solid evidence base from the start”, Ruge explains. This involves a systematic landscape assessment that maps climate risks, water and soil challenges, erosion and biodiversity hotspots, land-use dynamics, and socio-economic constraints, and identifies leverage points for action. This diagnostic then needs to be translated into a practical territorial action plan that prioritizes interventions geographically and sequences them realistically. The goal is to achieve early successes, such as improved soil and water management, while preparing for long-term landscape outcomes, such as erosion control and diversified land uses.
From Stakeholders to Shared Action: Governance That Works
Conflicting interests are inevitable – for example between production expansion and forest protection, or between upstream land use and downstream water impacts. Success therefore depends on governance that is strong enough to create alignment, yet flexible enough to remain practical. This requires clear roles, transparent decision rules, effective dialogue and conflict-resolution mechanisms, and a neutral coordination function (often a small secretariat) to convene partners and track commitments. “It is also important to build institutional ownership so that the regional approach can continue beyond the life of a single project”, Ruge highlights. Inclusion matters as well: Women and youth must have genuine opportunities to influence decisions and reap benefits.
Scaling Through Capacity Building and Shared Learning
Finally, long-term success hinges on delivery capacity and shared learning. Strong farmer organizations and extension services enable scalability; and creating joint indicators, monitoring, and documenting implementation experiences turns field practice into transferable knowledge that can be refined and expanded.
Creating A Virtuous Cycle of Resilience: The Benefits of Climate-Smart Coffee Regions
By combining proven farm-level adaptation with coordinated landscape management, CSCRs generate mutually reinforcing benefits for households, ecosystems, and the wider sector.“The result is a virtuous cycle in which adaptation, environmental stewardship, and economic resilience reinforce one another over time”, Ruge says.
A Practical Foundation for Scaling: The coffee&climate Toolbox
To address these factors, HRNS relies on the coffee&climate (c&c) toolbox as the technical foundation for implementing CSCRs. Drawing from over a decade of experience through the c&c initiative, the toolbox provides structured, field-tested guidance on climate-smart practices and cross-cutting themes, such as financial literacy, women’s leadership, and youth entrepreneurship. In this way, the toolbox also strengthens the capacities of specialists and advisory teams. Just as importantly, the toolbox captures lessons from implementation experience so approaches can be refined and replicated across regions.
CSCR Honduras: Turning the Concept into Practice in Western Honduras
In Western Honduras, HRNS is implementing the CSCR approach through a pre-competitive partnership with Julius Meinl, The J.M. Smucker Co., and Tchibo (see the project announcement here). Running from 2025 to 2029, the initiative focuses on priority coffee municipalities in Ocotepeque, Copán, and Lempira, particularly in buffer zones around protected areas such as Celaque, Erapuca, Las Minas, and Volcán Pacayita. “The region has been selected based on its increasing climate vulnerability, its importance for coffee production, and its strong potential to scale proven climate adaptation solutions from the coffee&climate (c&c) initiative”, explains Pablo Ruiz, Co-Regional Manager at HRNS Central America.
The project will support 4,000 smallholder families across 6,000 hectares with 20 farmer organizations and 50 demonstration plots. Its unique strength lies in its governance model, which is coordinated through the inter-municipal platforms Higuito and MAPANCE and a regional Community of Practice (CoP), with support from the Honduran Coffee Institute (IHCAFE). These institutions facilitate exchange, coordination, and shared learning, and help foster ownership of the CSCR. Inclusion and capacity building are also integral components of the project, with a focus on gender equality, youth engagement, addressing land tenure challenges, and strengthening local institutions.
Looking ahead, CSCR Honduras is designed as a model that can be scaled beyond one region. “Lessons from Western Honduras are expected to guide expansion to other coffee regions and support broader sector transformation”, Ruiz says.
