sierra madre dechiapas, mexico
The mountain chain of the Sierra Madre deChiapas in southern Mexico is globally significant
for biodiversity and is one of the most importantcoffee production areas in Mexico.
These mountains are home to approximately 27,000 people andserve as a water catchment area for urban centers, surrounding
towns and agriculture. Much of the forest cover outside ofprotected areas is coffee, grown under traditional forest shade.
CI has partnered with local communities, government agencies
and the private sector to integrate the conservation of biodiversity
and ecosystem services into land-use decisions and policies
in Sierra Madre. The work is a model for demonstrating how
protecting natural areas that provide ecosystem services results
in benefits for people.

innovative

CI’s initial work in Sierra Madre focused on protecting species
through conservation areas. But to do this, it was essential that
local people led the process and could pursue their livelihood
aspirations. To that end, CI partnered with local cooperatives,
government agencies and others to implement a set ofConservation Coffee Best Practices that promoted shade growncoffee production to maintain the forest canopy and connect
farmers applying the best practices to international markets withthe aim of securing better prices for their coffee.

Effective partnerships have been a key componentof our success in this region. In 1998, Starbucks
and CI began a partnership to promote coffee
production practices that protect biodiversity andimprove the livelihoods of coffee farmers. As a result,coffee farmers benefit from improved partnerships
with commodity traders and buyers, improving theirincomes and their ability to provide their families with
better food, education and health services.
CI and Starbucks continue to collaborate in Chiapas
to demonstrate that coffee can be grown in ways that
support communities and preserve the environment.
The newest phase of our partnership integrates coffee
and carbon sequestration in order to link local farmers
to voluntary carbon markets. As a result, farmers
are receiving tangible benefits from their climatechange mitigation work, such as reforestation andagroforestry. In addition, CI is working with partners
to support farmers in their climate change adaptation
strategies by conducting vulnerability assessments
and modeling climate scenarios and their impacts on
coffee cultivation.

The most recent development in the Sierra Madre
work is the inclusion of watershed-level management
planning in the area to ensure that conservation
strategies target ecosystem services and that local
people benefit from the results. Through this effort,
CI is working with watershed committees to improvetheir management and to ensure long-term waterprovision from the Sierra Madre Mountains. The
initiative will also mainstream ecosystem services andbiodiversity into land use policies, as well as increase
access by farmers to payment-for-ecosystemservices mechanisms to provide incentives for theimplementation of watershed development strategies
that conserve ecosystem services and biodiversity
values and improve local livelihoods.

demonstrating
how healthy
ecosystems
benefit humanwell-being in
Chiapashuman well-being
improved coffee revenue
forest carbon revenue
n 27,000 people with waternn

ecosystem servicesn	
reduction of deforestation
below historic rate

healthy ecosystems

Sierra Madrede Chiapas	
1.8 million hectares (nearly4.5 million acres) conservedn	
106 critically endangered species
nFor more information contact:
Carlos Rodriguez, Vice-President, Mexico and Central America; crodriguez@conservation.org
Yatziri Zepeda, Ecosystems Services + Land Use Coordinator; yzepeda@conservation.org
www.conservation.org
Photos left to right: © Conservation international; © cristina mittermeier/ilcp