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It is news which may have over-caffeinated office workers choking on their lattes.
At least 60 per cent of wild coffee species are under threat of extinction, mainly due to deforestation and climate change.
Arabica beans make up almost two-thirds of the coffee we drink, as the premium species used in ‘real’ rather than instant coffee.
But its wild relatives have now been declared an endangered species, raising fears for the future supply.
While coffee shops in Britain do not serve wild Arabica coffee and it is not usually drunk here, it is a vital future resource for coffee farmers.
Some wild coffee plants are hardier than farmed species, better able to withstand climate change and devastating disease such as coffee leaf rust disease.
There may be dozens of wild coffee species which are perfectly drinkable and could replace the only two drunk in the UK – Arabica and the Robusta species used in instant coffee.
However, researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have found that 75 of the world’s 124 wild coffee species are under threat.
These include wild Arabica and Coffea stenophylla, otherwise known as the ‘Highland coffee of Sierra Leone’, which had only just been rediscovered after being lost for more than 60 years.
They are vital because wild coffee could also be cross-pollinated with the farmed types to make them stronger.
Dr Davis, head of coffee research at Kew, said: ‘What we’re saying is 60 per cent is just really high, that’s a real wake-up call. For a major global commodity, that starts ringing alarm bells.
‘It’s a tragedy losing any wild species – whether it’s a bird or plant or animal, that’s bad enough.
‘But when you’ve got a crop that supports the livelihoods of 100 million people just in production in coffee farming, then you look at value of high street coffee chains and supermarket coffee, it’s enormous.’
The risk for coffee is surprisingly high, as only an estimated 22 per cent of plants in general are threatened with extinction.
This is the first time a threat assessment has been carried out for all 124 coffee species, which grow wild in tropical Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Indian Ocean islands including Madagascar.
Researchers, who published in the journal Science Advances, scientists assessed coffee species against the extinction risk criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
Among the 75 species considered to be threatened with extinction, 13 are critically endangered, with 40 endangered and 22 vulnerable to extinction.
The wild relative of Arabica has become endangered largely due to climate change projections, according to a separate study published in the journal Global Change Biology.
Its natural population is estimated to fall by 50 per cent or more by 2088 due to climate change alone.
Fewer than half of the wild coffee species are held in seed banks or living plant collections and more than a quarter are not known to occur in any protected areas, the scientists warn.
Dr Eimear Nic Lughadha, senior research leader in Kew’s conservation department, said: ‘Some of the coffee species assessed have not been seen in the wild for more than 100 years, and it is possible that some may already be extinct.
‘We hope this new data will highlight species to be prioritised for the sustainability of the coffee production sector so that appropriate action can be taken to safeguard their future.’
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