Growing coffee in the shade of a forest canopy uses the forest itself to protect coffee from direct sunlight and to retain soil fertility. Farmers who cultivate shade coffee promote healthy ecosystems and help preserve biodiversity.

Clean water is an ecosystem's lifeblood. El Triunfo is one of Chiapas' largest watersheds, and for generations, the plentiful rain that falls in its mountains has provided clean water for this agricultural region and its abundant variety of life. Long before El Triunfo was designated a Biosphere Reserve in 1990, local coffee growers acknowledged the reserve's area as a source of clean water and left it undeveloped.

Many tree species inhabit the shade farm environment. They not only contribute to the diversity of the ecosystem, but also provide farmers with a source of firewood and for a variety of other needs.

With spectacular iridescent emerald tail feathers, the resplendent quetzal, Pharomachrus mocinno, is often considered one of the most beautiful birds in Mesoamerica. Ancient Mesoamerican culture regarded the quetzal as the fertility symbol. Quetzal feathers were once worth more than gold, and anyone who hunted quetzal was punished by death. In El Triunfo there is a place named Valley of the Quetzal.

Fruit trees, such as banana, avocado, and various citrus, are often planted on a shade coffee farm to provide the farmer with additional sources of food. They also provide food and habitat for a variety of forest animals.

The azure-rumped tanager is a rare and beautiful sight. Confined to a range between 1,000 and 1,700 meters above sea level in the mountains of Chiapas and southwestern Guatemala, the tanager only sings when flying from tree to tree. Otherwise, it remains silent. At present, its populations are small and declining. The shade coffee farms of El Triunfo provide the tanager habitat as well as corridors for population movement and migration.

Living in El Triunfo, the sleek and muscular jaguar is a cunning and expert hunter, stalking its prey in water, on land, and high in the trees. Like many mammals that rely on a forested habitat, jaguars are also threatened by deforestation. The ancient Mayans, who lived in present-day Chiapas, regarded this cat as a sacred deity.

Coffee is traditionally a forest understory plant. When coffee is grown under a shade canopy, it is supplied with nutrients by the trees, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers. The forest ecosystem, including people, benefits from shade grown coffee.

Anchoring roots on tree trunks and branches high above the forest floor, bromeliads use their leaves to absorb water and nutrients. Tank bromeliads hold small stores of rainwater and serve as breeding sites for insects, tree frogs, and salamanders. Hummingbirds visit bromeliad flowers and mammals and other birds depend on bromeliad fruit. In the Chiapas high country, Tzotzil-speaking indigenous Maya use bromeliads in religious ceremonies.

Healthy insect populations are a major food source for El Triunfo's 367 registered bird species, which constitute 37 percent of all Mexican bird species. The shade farm environment allows many species of insects to thrive, thus supporting bird populations and continuing the food chain and the cycle of the ecosystem.

The towering trees of El Triunfo are a necessary haven for bird life. Migratory birds require forest canopy and cover for their tropical wintering grounds. Throughout Colombia and Mexico as much as 97 percent fewer bird species have been found where the forest has been cleared than in forested, shade coffee areas. The dense forest canopy also shields delicate understory plants from the harshness of direct sun and rain.

Land without the cover of forest is prone to erosion. Forested soils, however, are held in place by the forest's complex root systems and collect fallen debris from the forest canopy, which becomes natural compost. Farmers working beneath the canopy have less need for fertilizers and herbicides when cultivating coffee in the nutrient-rich soil of the forest.