Kew Gardens joins the campaign

The world famous Kew Garden’s Millenium Seed Bank is the latest partner to join the campaign to raise the profile of agroforestry worldwide this year.

Kew’s an important partner in the International Year of Forest’s Trees on Farms campaign (of which BusyTrees is one part) because they’ve been working for years to promote agroforestry and the benefits of key agricultural tree species like coffee.

Coffee used to be grown very widely under the leafy canopy of native rainforest trees – a traditional agroforestry system which is a great wildlife habitat. But now our daily cup is under threat, as commercial plantations, smallholder farms, and wild species are struggling to survive the difficulties bought by climate change and pests.

One way that Kew is working to help the future of the coffee industry is by discovering and protecting wild populations of coffee that are more resistant to pests and can survive higher temperatures and lower rainfall. This will help coffee crops survive the extremes of weather that climate change is bringing – making sure coffee trees can keep on giving poor farmers valuable income, while guaranteeing your morning fix of caffeine.