E-BOOK
COFFEE AGROECOLOGY A new approach to understanding agricultural biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainable development
The structure of the book is straightforward. After an initial chapter sets up a
foundational framework, Chapters 2 and 3 concentrate on the politically charged
topic of biodiversity conservation. In many ways, these chapters explore some of
the questions we formulated in our previous book
Nature’s Matrix
, but focusing
specifi
cally on the coffee agroecosystem. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 form what might be
thought of as the ecological core of the book, elaborating on topics normally
encountered in standard ecology courses and books, but specifically as frameworks
for the results of the research. Chapters 7 and 8 are more directly aimed at the prac-
tical aspects of the coffee agroecosystem, from the more sublime (ecosystem services
– Chapter 7) to the more political (farmers’ livelihoods – Chapter 8). Finally, in
Chapter 9, we present our unique way of visualizing change in agroecosystems,
combining both an ecological and an economic perspective on the process.
Many people have contributed to the research that we claim as our own. Most
significantly we thank our long-time collaborator Stacy Philpott, whose work
is featured repeatedly throughout the book. Stacy remains a major source of ideas
and general collaborations. We also thank our recently deceased colleague Russell
Greenberg of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, whose collaborations were
xx
Preface
especially important in the research reported in Chapter 5. Don Walter Peters,
formerly the owner of the amazing
Finca
Irlanda in Chiapas, Mexico, while not
directly contributing to the research, was a major player in all of this with his
remarkable insights about both coffee production and ecological relationships within
the coffee agroecosystem. He is one of the major farmers from whom we learned.
For the last 15 years, we also had the great fortune of having an excellent team of
field technicians – Gustavo López Bautista, Braulio Chilel and Gabriel Domínguez
– who assiduously collected some of the core data presented in this book. Without
their help, our research would have been impossible. Most of the figures in the book
were elaborated by Dave Brenner, and we thank him for his assiduous and wonder-
ful design work. Last, but certainly not least, we thank our students and post-docs,
who are the sources of most of the material presented in this book. The list is too
long to be included here but all of their work is featured throughout the book.
Finally, several NSF grants, plus support from the University of Michigan, con-
tributed to the research reported herein. The writing of the book was supported by
an NSF-OPUS grant to Ivette Perfecto.
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