Most coffee species at the brink of extinction due to climate change
Of the 124 wild coffee species, at least 60 per cent are at risk of dying out due to climate change, warn scientists.
The wild relative of the world's most popular coffee species, Coffea arabica, is an endangered species, with UK researchers warning we need to strengthen existing conservation plans, because the ones we have in place now are "inadequate".
"Ultimately, we need to reverse deforestation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Aaron Davis, coffee researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and lead author of the paper published in Science Advances.
At least 60 per cent of coffee species were at risk of disappearing, compared to the global figure of 22 per cent for all plants.
Some 13 coffee species were deemed "critically endangered", with 40 assessed to be "endangered", and another 22 "vulnerable". Only 35 species were found "near threatened" or "least concern".
"It is likely that some of these species are threatened and that some could be extinct," Davis said.
"There is potential to use previously unutilised or under-utilised wild coffee species to produce new coffee crop cultivars or hybrids, via breeding, that are able to grow in climates that arabica and robusta coffee cannot tolerate.”
To conserve wild coffee species and their genetic diversity, Davis says we must "devise and manage the world's protected areas more efficiently".
Sheridan Randall, 22nd January 2019
