How Coffee Farming Communities Can Adapt to Climate Change: Experiences and Lessons from Costa Rica

The document examines the vulnerability of coffee farming in Coto Brus, Costa Rica, where climate change threatens arabica coffee production. It highlights the role of farmer cooperatives, peer-to-peer learning, and cross-sectoral alliances in scaling adaptation. The brief provides six recommendations, including diversifying incomes through alternative crops like vanilla and cacao, and establishing monitoring baselines for adaptation measures. It also notes similar regional efforts in Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico.

• Climate change is projected to reduce global areas suitable for coffee cultivation by approximately 50% by 2050 if adaptation measures are not implemented.
• In the Coto Brus region of southern Costa Rica, coffee farming constitutes 70% of the economy, making the area highly vulnerable to climate threats that make growing arabica coffee more difficult.
• Key enablers for climate resilience include well-led cooperatives that pool financial risks, peer-to-peer learning to share best practices, and strategic alliances between farmers and public, private, or academic institutions.
• The World Resources Institute recommends six actions for resilience: implementing stakeholder-identified adaptation options, monitoring impacts via baselines, mapping non-viable coffee areas to explore transformative pathways (such as switching to vanilla, cacao, or ecotourism), improving business administration skills, opening communication channels, and scaling peer-to-peer learning.
• Other Latin American countries are implementing specific resilience mechanisms: Colombia is testing satellite-based weather index insurance; Guatemala is using models to predict suitable tree species for income diversification; and Mexico's Sierra Madre de Chiapas has a broad institutional strategy for vulnerability reduction.

APA

World Resources Institute (2020). How Coffee Farming Communities Can Adapt to Climate Change: Experiences and Lessons from Costa Rica. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/how-coffee-farming-communities-adapt-climate-change-costa-rica.pdf

Chicago

World Resources Institute. How Coffee Farming Communities Can Adapt to Climate Change: Experiences and Lessons from Costa Rica. 2020. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/how-coffee-farming-communities-adapt-climate-change-costa-rica.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=How Coffee Farming Communities Can Adapt to Climate Change: Experiences and Lessons from Costa Rica |date=October 2020 |url=https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/how-coffee-farming-communities-adapt-climate-change-costa-rica.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2020how, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{How Coffee Farming Communities Can Adapt to Climate Change: Experiences and Lessons from Costa Rica}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2020}, month = oct, url = {https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/how-coffee-farming-communities-adapt-climate-change-costa-rica.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }