Brazil is the largest producer and exporter of coffee in the world. Like other crops, coffee is susceptible to pests. The main insect pests of coffee are the coffee leaf miner (Leucoptera coffeella) and the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei). Chemical control has been the most used method to control these pests, but sustained long-term insecticide is neither economically nor ecologically sustainable - emphasizing the importance of understanding the efficiency of biological control mechanisms. Commonly, natural predators of coffee pests inhabit the remaining fragments of natural that surround or are embedded within coffee plantations. Predators including bats, birds and invertebrates have a remarkable capacity to provide pest control. For example, a study in Mexico found that the activity of insect-eating bats reduced by the presence of pestiferous arthropods in coffee plantations by 84%. Studies in Jamaica and Costa Rica demonstrate the specific ability of birds to control H. hampei by birds, leading to economic gains for individual farmers. For L. coffeella, predatory species of social wasps are considered the most effective agents for biological control.

The overall objective of this sub-project is to understand how to maintain and maximize those control services provided by birds, bats and wasps in coffee plantations in Atlantic Forest. The project will provide information and analysis on the efficiency of pest control service in coffee plantations in landscapes with different amounts of natural forest cover.

​* Pictures have links to detailed descriptions of sub-projects. 

Natalia Aristizábal

Juarez Cabral

Felipe Libran

Greet De Coster

Rodolfo Jaffé

Jean Paul Metzger