Socio-Ecological Complexity in Coffee Agroecosystems
Sanya Cowal from the UCSC Environmental Studies Department
In Person Location: ISB 221
One of the most pressing global challenges considers how to combine sustainable agricultural land use with biodiversity conservation. Agricultural systems have been dramatically transformed and intensified, leading to the simplification of agricultural landscapes through increased agrochemical use, landscape homogeneity, decreased crop diversity, and mechanization. All of these activities restructure the physical and social environment in which food systems are embedded. Market motivations overlook ecological costs, including the loss of habitat complexity, functional biodiversity, and related ecosystem services, such as biological pest control, as well as socio-cultural costs, such as the erasure of traditional agroecosystems. The coffee agroecosystem is one system in which management intensification negatively impacts functional biodiversity and ecosystem services. In this talk, I explore how socio-ecological complexity informs coffee farm management, habitat complexity, and subsequent outcomes for biodiversity, ecosystem services, and equitable supply chain governance.