Conservation and coffee production : creating synergies in Kodagu, Karnataka

The district of Coorg, or Kodagu, in south-western Karnataka, is known for its natural beauty and biodiversity. Located in the eastern slope of the Western Ghats, Kodagu is blessed with verdant valleys and lush forests. Since as early as the sixteenth century, coffee has been a popular and successful cash crop grown in this region. However, over the recent years, the vegetation and forest cover of Kodagu have been fast declining, a consequence of colonial forestry practices, removal of forests for large-scale coffee plantations and other anthropogenic influences. The loss of forest resources and the consequent decline in biodiversity has tremendous and far reaching implications for the predominantly agriculture-dependent economy, as coffee plantations rely heavily on the forest for its role in pollination, hydrological balance and climate control. This chapter examines the role of ecosystem services in the context of the Kodagu landscape as well as the local perceptions about these services amongst the local coffee planters. In particular, in light of a revealed divergence between the local understanding of pollination services and the actual services realised, this chapter critically examines the potential for an incentivebased mechanism for conservation of forest services