Mongabay Newscast17 Juni 2025

Coffee drives tropical deforestation, but doesn't have to

Roughly a billion people enjoy coffee daily, and more than 100 million people rely on it for income. However, the coffee industry is the sixth-largest driver of deforestation and is also rife with human rights abuses, including the labor of enslaved persons and children. But it doesn't have to be this way, says this guest on the Mongabay Newscast.

Etelle Higonnet is the founder of the NGO Coffee Watch, having formerly served as a senior adviser at the U.S. National Wildlife Federation. The main commodity on her radar now is coffee. On this podcast episode, she explains how the industry can — and should — reform its practices.

"It's so simple … pay a living [a] living income wage," she says, " and a lot of human rights violations will just dry up."

To target deforestation, Higonnet says the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is "a beautiful law" that "simply put, would bar imports of coffee into the European Union if that coffee is tainted by deforestation or illegality. So, two things that are illegal off the top of my head are slavery and child labor."

Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.

Please send questions, feedback or comments to podcast[at]mongabay[dot]com.

Image Credit: A cup of coffee with beans and a teaspoon on a stump tabletop. Image by Anja (cocoparisiene) from Pixabay (Pixabay Content License).

---

Timecodes

(00:00) Coffee tied to slavery and deforestation

(07:03) How we can stop it

(12:36) Why are prices soaring?

(19:25) How the EUDR can help

(25:56) When will the EUDR come into effect?

(29:40) Why the coffee supply chain is simple

(33:54) What about certification schemes?

(37:46) What coffee drinkers can do to act

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(369)

Historic fire seasons are the 'new normal' without 'serious action' on climate change

Elizabeth Goldman is a co-director of Global Nature Watch, previously known as Global Forest Watch, a database measuring forest loss that's frequently cited in Mongabay reporting. She joins this week'...

11 Aug 28min

The 'quiet revolution' inspired by Delhi's urban wildlife

In her upcoming book, My Wild City: Finding Nature, Meaning, and Hope in India's Capital, conservation biologist Neha Sinha takes readers to the hidden and not-so-hidden ecosystems of India's largest...

4 Aug 54min

Why are forests in Liberia disappearing?

On this week's episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with features writer Ashoka Mukpo, who traveled to southeastern Liberia to investigate what satellite images indicated was a spike in deforest...

28 Juli 38min

Oil has brought destruction to the Niger Delta; women and human rights may save it

On this week's episode of the Mongabay Newscast, I speak with travel writer Noo Saro-Wiwa. She has documented the violence and natural destruction that the presence of oil companies have brought to th...

21 Juli 42min

The Mediterranean Sea's beauty hides an ecosystem under pressure

The Mediterranean Sea accounts for less than 1% of the world's ocean surface water, but it contains roughly 18% of global marine biodiversity. It is home to 150 million people along its coastline (rou...

14 Juli 33min

Wildlife crossings are having a moment

Nearly three years ago, Newscast guest, author and journalist Ben Goldfarb discussed his book Crossings, which is about wildlife crossings and road ecology. Wildlife crossings help reconnect habitats...

7 Juli 37min

The radical plan to rethink work, wealth and planetary well-being

A group of more than 40 researchers spent 20 months devising a plan for the world to achieve ecological sustainability within planetary boundaries, all while seeing incomes rise for 98% of the global ...

30 Juni 52min

Addressing the 'toxic legacy' of mining in Bougainville

Theonila Roka Matbob grew up next to what was — at the time — the world's largest open-pit mine in Bougainville, an autonomous island in Papua New Guinea, operated by a subsidiary of Rio Tinto. This m...

16 Juni 33min