Finca El Porvenir, El Salvador
wins the 2010 Coffee Conservation Award

Recognizing biodiversity on coffee farms around the world

Sponsored by Café Imports

PORTLAND, ORE. (April 8, 2010) — The Coffee Conservation Award names Finca El Porvenir, Usulutan, El Salvador, winner of the first annual Coffee Conservation Award.

The  Coffee Conservation Award was developed to raise awareness and provide an economic incentive for coffee farmers to maintain on-farm forest habitat and better document the contribution of their farms to wildlife conservation.

Finca El Porvenir comprises a group of farms between 1,000—1,600 m in elevation on the slopes of Cerro El Tigre, part of the isolated Sierra Tecapa—Chinameca range in eastern El Salvador. The farm clearly demonstrated strong forest and wildlife conservation efforts.

Little was known about the wildlife of this region prior to a recent bird inventory by SalvaNatura in spring 2010, spurred by their submission to the conservation award. This survey revealed the presence of four range-restricted bird species found only in northern Central America: Green-throated Mountain-Gem, Bushy-crested Jay, Rufous-browed Wren, and Bar-winged Oriole. In addition, biologists from SalvaNatura found several cloud-forest bird species such as Amethyst-throated Hummingbird in forest protected by El Porvenir. 

Finca El Porvenir will receive a $1,000 cash prize, a pair of high-end binoculars and a feature story in Roast magazine.

Please join us in congratulating Finca El Porvenir, winner of the 2010 Conservation Coffee Award!

On behalf of Cooper Ecological Monitoring, Inc., Roast Magazine, and ABA/Birder's Exchange, thank you all for helping launch the award in its first year, hopefully the first of many more to come. Special thanks go to Skyscrape Foundation/Mark Cappellano for supporting our local partner, SalvaNatura, to confirm the claims of the winning farm.