Conservation significance of privately managed coffee forests of Kodagu, Wetstern Ghats

Abstract

The main approach for habitat conservation in the past has been the establishment of protected areas.This however, cannot ensure the protection of all the earths' biodiversity. Without tackling the influencesleading to environmentally destructive activities, parks don't necessari ly attend to the reasons beh indthe need for protected habitat. They are also high Iy dependent on the state of surrounding land use.The amount of land in the world currently with protected areas is estimated at five per cent of theearths land surface with remainder being shaped by human managed habitats. Hope for biodiversitylies in the fact that not all agricultural lands are biological deserts, and some agro-systems especiallytraditional structurally diverse systems can support high levels of biodiversity. Coffee based agroforestrysystem is one such sub-system and is prevalent in many agrarian regions of the world and also inIndia. Kodagu, the second smallest district in Karnataka is in the central part of Western Ghats. Thedistrict has 73 per cent of its landscape under tree cover and is one of the densest forested districts inIndia. The diversity of forested ecosystems and associated biodiversity has resulted in Kodagu beingidentified as micro hotspot of biodiversity. Privately owned and managed coffee plantations are alsowell wooded and constitute 29 per cent ofthe landscape and Kodagu produces one third of India'scoffee. The present paper tries to throw Iight on the structure, diversity and conservation significanceof coffee based agroforestry systems of Kodagu, a privately managed coffee forests.