There are some critical issues about Biosphere Reserves (BR): One is the planning and implementation, the other one the financing.
If you look around the world there is quite a number of BR were coffee is produced. But Yayu may be the first one at the birthplace of coffee - in Ethiopia. Implementing a BR requires intensive awareness raising among and negotiations with local people because a BR implies land use restrictions. A low level of acceptance means that the BR will only exist on paper. This may be the case in many BRs: People will not understand, what a BR is good for if they do not benefit and do not participate in decision making.
Being rewarded with the title of a BR is not neccessarily linked to any allocation of funds by UNESCO. So the question remains: Who is going to finance a BR? Often the government will be assigned responsible, but in practice responsibilities will be deleguated to local authorities but without allocating the necessary funds. So what to do?
A BR also offers chances for income generation, e.g. through eco-tourism, marketing and labelling of speciality products from the area, like e.g. coffee. In Colombian Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta such kind of BR coffee is now being marketed in Germany. Hence a BR can also create local identity!
Also a BR should protect nature and biodiversity. Why not market biodiversity as a public good similar to carbon credits? E.g. one could issue public biodiversity shares to fuel funds local conservation activites and combine this with options on local products - like coffee!
I think the guys from Ethipian Coffee Forest Forum are eageröy searching for good ideas and experiences from other BRs.
With my initiative Coffee Hunting we will support innovative marketing ideas for sustainably produced coffees from BRs.
