Promoting Biodiversity Across Coffee Landscapes: HRNS Initiatives in Honduras, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Tanzania
Biodiversity is under threat worldwide, which also puts the future of coffee production at risk. Healthy ecosystems are essential for producing high-quality coffee. Yet smallholder farmers already experience the impact of biodiversity loss through declining soil fertility, pollination problems, irregular rainfall and new pests, all of which reduce yields and income. This creates a dilemma for smallholders: How can they meet their daily needs while protecting the natural resources on which their farms depend? For more insights on how to address this issue, read our related post “Balancing Nature and Livelihoods: How Smallholder Farmers Can Turn Biodiversity into a Business Case”.
HRNS and its partners are developing strategies to help farmers address this dilemma. This blog highlights ongoing initiatives in Honduras, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. Across these regions, HRNS promotes biodiversity through context-specific approaches that share a common goal: improving farmer livelihoods while safeguarding biodiversity.
Honduras: Transforming Coffee Landscapes into Climate-Smart and Biodiversity-Positive Regions
In Western Honduras, HRNS promotes biodiversity by transforming coffee landscapes into climate-smart, biodiversity-positive regions. Active in the buffer zones of Celaque, Volcán Pacayita and the Trifinio Biosphere – regions of exceptional ecological importance – HRNS collaborates with partners such as Tchibo, Julius Meinl and the Lavazza Foundation, as well as International Coffee Partners and the initiative for coffee&climate. Together, they support thousands of smallholder families and numerous farmer organizations, as well as other stakeholders, in demonstrating how sustainable practices can strengthen both livelihoods and ecosystems.
At farm level, HRNS trains farmers in regenerative practices including soil and water conservation, erosion control, and agroforestry. A key method is the 5x1 intercropping model, where five rows of coffee alternate with one row of another crop. This market-oriented diversification enhances biodiversity while maintaining coffee yields, making it an ideal starting point for integrating biodiversity into existing plots. Demonstration plots also play a crucial role, allowing farmers to observe and test new practices before applying them on their own farms.
Beyond individual farms, HRNS strengthens local governance through inter-municipal platforms such as Higuito and MAPANCE, bringing together municipalities, cooperatives, and civil society around shared conservation goals. In addition, Communities of Practice link technical institutions, farmer organizations, and local stakeholders to exchange knowledge, share data, and scale up successful climate-smart practices.
The project also supports local climate services by installing meteorological stations and facilitating Agroclimatic Roundtables, which provide farmers with the information they need to make better decisions and manage resources more effectively.
Finally, empowering women and youth is central to HRNS’s work in Honduras. To date, 297 women- and youth-led enterprises have been established. While men typically manage coffee, women and youth tend to oversee other crops, helping to diversify household income, improve food security, and build household resilience.
Indonesia: Restoring Forests Through Analog Forestry and Community Stewardship
In southern Sumatra, HRNS promotes biodiversity by supporting sustainable land management, encouraging conservation agreements and strengthening community stewardship. The foundation works in the buffer zones of Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra” and home to critically endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger and orangutan. Yet forest encroachment driven by agriculture, including coffee, threatens this unique ecosystem. To help reverse this trend, HRNS launched the Bukit Barisan Selatan (BBS) Initiative – a community-based conservation program that links livelihood improvement to biodiversity protection.
The project’s key approach to sustainable land management is restoring forests through analog forestry. By mimicking the structure and function of natural forests, analog forestry restores degraded land, enhances biodiversity and soil health, and provides income from timber, seasonal fruit, honey, and other forest products. Combined with beekeeping and home-garden initiatives, it has become a cornerstone of HRNS’s biodiversity strategy and a practical entry point for climate-resilient farming.
The project collaborates with local organizations such as the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Hutan Kita Institute, as well as regional government institutions. These partnerships enhance local capacities and foster community ownership of natural resources.
As a result, over 900 farmers have signed conservation agreements, and 13 community nurseries have produced over 110,000 seedlings to restore 1,300 hectares of degraded land. Collaboration with regional government institutions has added 60,000 seedlings and led to the formal recognition of analog forestry in provincial restoration plans — a major step toward scaling up the approach.
The next project phase will link community-based analog forestry to wider landscape governance, showing how community-led restoration and conservation can protect forests while improving local livelihoods.
Read more about the project in “Conservation and Analog Forestry: Farming in the Buffer Zone”.
Ethiopia: Increasing Productivity and Market Value of Forest Coffee
In Ethiopia, HRNS supports biodiversity by strengthening coffee forest markets and reducing pressure on protected areas within the UNESCO biosphere reserve Yayu Coffee Forest, a global hotspot for wild Arabica coffee. Most local communities rely on agriculture, primarily coffee. However, population growth, low productivity, and limited market access have increased pressure on forest resources, leading to deforestation and land degradation.
Working with partners including the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority, Jimma Agricultural Research Center, Population Health and Environment Ethiopia Consortium, Environment and Coffee Forest Forum, and International Coffee Partners, HRNS promotes sustainable landscape management, notably through the EU-supported Yayu DeSIRA project.
HRNS’s approach builds on three complementary strategies:
1. Improving productivity on existing plots
Low productivity is a major driver of deforestation in Yayu. A key strategy therefore is to help farmers increase their yields within existing plots. First, through Farmer Field Schools that provide training on soil fertility and shade management and promote the rejuvenation of old coffee trees. Since many of the region's coffee trees are old and less productive, this has become an important means of increasing productivity and reducing the pressure to clear new forest land. Second, HRNS and its partners are working to strengthen the market position of “Forest Coffee” – coffee grown in or near forests under biodiversity-friendly conditions – by linking cooperatives to specialty buyers and developing a “Yayu Coffee” brand for premium, zero-deforestation coffee. Read more about this approach in “Coffee Landscapes in Ethiopia: Restoration instead of Deforestation”.
2. Restoring degraded landscapes
Over 250,000 coffee seedlings and 7,000 shade and fruit trees have been planted to restore forests and enhance carbon sequestration.
3. Strengthening institutions and awareness
HRNS cooperates with local authorities and community organizations to strengthen institutional and technical capacities, to integrate forest protection into regional development plans and to raise awareness of the ecological and economic value of the Yayu forest.
Tanzania: Building Biodiverse Coffee Systems through Carbon Markets and Farmer-Centered Agroforestry
In southern Tanzania’s Mbinga district, HRNS promotes biodiversity by building biodiverse coffee systems through carbon markets and farmer-centered agroforestry. The „Integrated Carbon and Coffee-based Livelihood” project supports 2,000 smallholder families, helping them to strengthen their income and food security by integrating agroforestry, carbon farming and reforestation practices into their farming systems.
A central element of the project is linking farmers to the carbon market via Rabobank’s ACORN (Agroforestry CRUs for the Organic Restoration of Nature) platform. Through carbon farming – integrating new trees through agroforestry or reforestation – farmers generate new biomass that captures carbon from the atmosphere. This qualifies them for carbon credits that can be sold on international voluntary carbon markets – providing an additional and sustainable source of income. Read “Linking Smallholder Farmers in Tanzania to the Carbon Credit Market” to learn more about carbon farming.
Equally important is the project’s evidence-based, participatory agroforestry model, developed together with farmers and research institutions such as the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute and the World Agroforestry Centre. Combining field research, consultations with farmers and experts, and ecological assessments, the model was tailored to local conditions and farmer preferences. It integrates nitrogen-fixing shade trees and fruit trees like banana and avocado into coffee systems to improve productivity, soil fertility, biodiversity, and nutrition.
Results are already visible: Half of the participating farmers have fully implemented the model, planting over 140,000 shade trees, 34,000 avocado trees, and 1,250 banana suckers. Coffee productivity, nutrition, and food security have improved significantly. The remaining farmers are adopting elements of the system gradually, mainly due to initial investment costs – but interest remains high.
Key lessons show that diversified practices such as fruit-tree cultivation improve food security and income but require access to finance to cover initial costs. In addition, broad stakeholder collaboration and strong farmer organizations are essential to sustain these systems by providing farmers with technical support, inputs, and market access.
