Wild coffee at risk
Also called Coffee extinction, Wild Coffea species
Most of the world's 124 wild coffee species are threatened with extinction, including wild Arabica.
- Species assessed
- 124 wild Coffea species
- Threatened
- 75 (60%)
- Critically endangered
- 13
- Endangered
- 40
- Vulnerable
- 22
- Not in any seed or living collection
- 56 (45%)
- Study
- Davis et al., Science Advances, 2019 (Kew)
About
In 2019 scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew assessed every known wild coffee species against the IUCN Red List criteria. Of 124 species, 75 were threatened: 13 critically endangered, 40 endangered and 22 vulnerable. That 60% compares with an estimate of about 22% for plants as a whole. Another 35 species were not threatened and 14 were too poorly known to judge.
The main threats are forest loss, climate change and pests and diseases. Many wild coffees grow in small areas of forest in Africa and Madagascar, so a single cleared valley can take out a whole species. Almost half (56 species) are not held in any seed bank or living collection, so nothing would be left if they disappeared in the wild.
Wild Arabica in Ethiopia and South Sudan looked safe on its current range, but adding climate projections moved it to Endangered. That matters for farmed coffee too: wild relatives carry genes for disease resistance and heat tolerance that breeders may need. One hopeful find is Coffea stenophylla, rediscovered in Sierra Leone, which tastes close to Arabica but grows in hotter places.