Open Knowledge (FSC OK)

In recent years, shade coffee certification programs have attracted increasing attention from forest conservationand development organizations. The certification programs could be expected to promote forest conservation byproviding a premium price to shade coffee producers. However, little is known about the significance of the con-servation efforts generated by certification programs. In particular, the relationship between the impact of thecertification and producer characteristics has yet to be examined. The purpose of this study, which was conduct-ed in Ethiopia, was to examine the impact of a shade coffee certification program on forest conservation and itsrelationship with the socioeconomic characteristics of the producers. Remote sensing data of 2005 and 2010 wasused to gauge the changes in forest area. Employing a probit model, we found that a forest coffee area being cer-tified increased the probability of forest conservation by 19.3 percentage points relative to forest coffee areaslacking certification. We also found that although economically poor producers tended to engage in forest clear-ing, the forest coffee certification program had a significant impact on these producers. This result suggests thatthe certification program significantly affects the behaviors of economically poor producers and motivates theseproducers to conserve the forest.