The Sustainable Coffee Company (TSCC) and Parks Victoria have launched Coffee for Nature, a program to create habitat for critically endangered Victorian wildlife. Under the partnership, every kilo of Coffee for Nature sold will directly fund seed collection, propagation, site preparation and habitat planting.
The beans from TSCC’s Coffee for Nature range are sourced from Brazil’s Bom Jesus Coffee Farm, ranked third among Brazil’s most sustainable large farms. In turn, the program will create habitat for Victoria’s state faunal emblems, the critically endangered Helmeted Honeyeater and Lowland Leadbeater Possum.
Sustainable Coffee Company director Brendan Condon said it aimed to provide an income stream to allow for continued restoration of sites like Haining Farm, which would help boost the prospects of some of Australia’s most endangered species.
“Our Coffee for Nature scheme will expand to include additional biodiversity sites in Australia aimed at restoring habitat restoration, carbon drawdown and multiple other benefits. It’s a mechanism for consumers to contribute directly to ecological restoration every time they enjoy a coffee.”
Plantings will take place in specific reforestation projects under Parks Victoria management. The first planting site is Haining Farm, a former dairy and now conservation site on the Don River in Victoria’s Upper Yarra region. The Haining farm restoration project is a multi-year scientific restoration project, aiming to create viable new habitat areas to enable the release of these endangered species, and improving their prospects for survival.
“We want to present Coffee for Nature to cafes, not for profits, hospitality groups and online audiences as a great way to ensure they’re drinking an ethically sourced, sustainable coffee with a strong nature positive story both at the farm of origin as well as here in Australia,” said Condon.
Condon added that Coffee for Nature embedded consideration and restoration of biodiversity restoration into the Australian coffee supply chain.
“We aim to make this a new business as usual standard for sustainable coffee. We will also offer our coffee partners the opportunity for hands in the earth tree planting days on the beautiful Upper Yarra habitat restoration sites, where they will have the opportunity to work shoulder to shoulder with our team in planting trees, enjoying nature and having hands on nature conservation experiences,” said Condon.
Award winning ecological restoration company Australian Ecosystems will manage the restoration works, and has been directly involved in restoring sites for Helmeted Honeyeater and Lowland Leadbeater’s Possum since 2017, planting several hundred thousand plants at Haining Farm and the Yellingbo Conservation Area.
The diverse range of locally indigenous plants and trees used on the site have been grown to provenance at the Australian Ecosystems nursery, ensuring their suitability as habitat and food resources for the target species and resilience in the environment.
The project is a science-based restoration and a collaboration between a range of organisations including Greening Australia, Zoos Victoria, Parks Victoria, and the Victorian Government (DEWLP).
