06/09/13

Small birds save big money for Costa Rica’s farmers

Copyright: Flickr/Tom Tetzner/USFWS

By: Nature News

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<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Small birds save big money for Costa Rica’s farmers</h1>
<h4>By: Nature News</h4>
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<p>Research in Costa Rica shows that wild birds significantly reduce damage by a devastating coffee pest, the coffee berry borer beetle, contributing to huge savings to local <a href="https://www.scidev.net/agriculture/farming/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">farms</a> and providing incentive to protect <a href="https://www.scidev.net/environment/biodiversity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wildlife habitat</a>, <em>Nature News</em> reported yesterday.</p>
<p>The study found that insectivorous birds, such as yellow warblers, halved infestations by the beetle <em>Hypothenemus hampei</em>, saving a medium-sized coffee farm up to US$9,400 over a year's harvest — roughly equal to Costa Rica's average per-capita income.</p>
<blockquote class="quote list-right">
<h3>
		“We know that native wildlife can provide you with a pretty significant benefit.”</h3>
<h4>
		Daniel Karp,<br />
		Stanford University</h4>
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<p>And the more forest grew on and near a coffee farm, the more birds the farm had, and the lower its infestation rates were, found the study published in <em>Ecology Letters</em> (27 August).</p>
<p>"Based on this study, we know that native wildlife can provide you with a pretty significant benefit,"  Daniel Karp, a conservation biologist at Stanford University in California, who led the study, told <em>Nature News</em>. "Incorporating their conservation into your management of pests is absolutely something you should do."</p>
<p>Previous research, published in <em>Conservation Biology</em>, showed that birds in Jamaica have a similar effect.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nature.com/news/birds-protect-costa-rica-s-coffee-crop-1.13689" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full article in <em>Nature News</em></a></p>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.12173/abstract;jsessionid=47E0521AAA00AAB2308D9722A11F8EE8.d01t02" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to abstract in <em>Ecology Letters</em></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.humboldt.edu/wildlife/faculty/johnson/pdf/Kellermann_etal_2008.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full article in <em>Conservation Biology</em></a></p>

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Research in Costa Rica shows that wild birds significantly reduce damage by a devastating coffee pest, the coffee berry borer beetle, contributing to huge savings to local farms and providing incentive to protect wildlife habitat, Nature News reported yesterday.

The study found that insectivorous birds, such as yellow warblers, halved infestations by the beetle Hypothenemus hampei, saving a medium-sized coffee farm up to US$9,400 over a year's harvest — roughly equal to Costa Rica's average per-capita income.

“We know that native wildlife can provide you with a pretty significant benefit.”

Daniel Karp,
Stanford University

And the more forest grew on and near a coffee farm, the more birds the farm had, and the lower its infestation rates were, found the study published in Ecology Letters (27 August).

"Based on this study, we know that native wildlife can provide you with a pretty significant benefit," Daniel Karp, a conservation biologist at Stanford University in California, who led the study, told Nature News. "Incorporating their conservation into your management of pests is absolutely something you should do."

Previous research, published in Conservation Biology, showed that birds in Jamaica have a similar effect.

Link to full article in Nature News

Link to abstract in Ecology Letters

Link to full article in Conservation Biology