It’s not just humans who love a coffee fix, it turns out trees like a good cuppa. A by-product of the coffee production process has the potential to speed up restoration of former areas of tropical forest, degraded by deforestation and land conversion. Source: FWPA
New research has demonstrated the benefits of coffee pulp, also known as ‘husk’ in making speedy and significant improvements to the condition of the soil on these lands, which can otherwise take decades to recover to a standard suitable for growing trees.
The promising results, details of which were published in Ecological Solutions and
Evidence is great news for coffee growers and foresters alike.
By utilising a resource that’s produced in such large quantities and was previously considered a waste product, the technique offers environmental advantages and aligns with the principles of a circular economy.
The research was conducted on degraded land in Costa Rica by a team from ETH Zurich and the University of Hawaii. They spread a layer of husk half-a-metre deep, across an area measuring 35 x 40 metres. A similarly sized plot was left untreated for use as a control.
When tested, the treated soil was found to contain heightened levels of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, all known to support plant growth. According to the researchers, the addition of coffee pulp had a dramatic impact on trees.
“The area treated with a thick layer of coffee pulp turned into a small forest in only two years, while the control plot remained dominated by non-native pasture grasses,” said lead author, Dr Rebecca Cole.
Pasture grasses are a known impediment to the regeneration of forests in tropical areas and, together with the elevated nutrient levels, their suppression in the husk-treated
plot facilitated the growth of a 60% greater canopy cover than the control, with trees four times the height.
