The wild coffee species are at the risk of extinction due to deforestation, pest and disease, fungal pathogens and climate change. The wild coffee species are of ethnobotanical importance to human beings as an indirect source of food. According to a publication by Science Advances, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) status of 60 percent of wild coffee species list as threatened. The germplasm banks have less than half of the total species which risks most species to extinction. The wild coffee species are used in genetic modification of the commercial crops by cross-breeding (Daley, 2019). For instance, the Coffea Arabica commonly used as a commercial plant exhibits a high level of resistance to diseases, pathogens, and effects of climate change. The wild species transfer the resistant gene to the commercial crop during crossbreeding which most deforesters barely understand. The wild coffee species have constantly been used to implement genetic diversity over the last forty years.
The two main conservation problems facing the wild coffee according to the IUCN Red List are lack of genetic conservation and human encroachment. The number of genetic materials conserved in the germplasm collections is less with a high level of interference by humans in the protected areas. The research carried out by botanists from Kew involved assigning the species into three main groups. The results showed Caffea Arabica , twenty-three species from the second group, fifty-one from the second group. The number of vulnerable groups is more than half of the existing with fewer efforts to conserve (Daley, 2019). The task of plant surveillance for the wild coffee species is challenging because of the density of some forests. The survey that began in 1997 in Madagascar with eleven expeditions to date shows that finding the plants among many trees is difficult. One of the main challenges that Davis, the botanist from Kew faced was misidentification due to the abundance of varieties especially in the dense forest in Madagascar. In the field, Malagasy botanist provide support by providing unique features to ease the process of identification. The primary solution that botanist can implement to save coffee species from extinction is to conserve germplasm collections. The world Research Coffee focuses on raising money to facilitate conservation of coffee through germplasm collections. The conserved genes of Coffea species can be used to curb the challenge of risked extinction.
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The method of data collection used in the article is from a focus group. The author gets information in the form of evident opinions from a group of botanists in the process of identifying wild coffee species worldwide. For instance, Montagnon, a scientific director argues that deforestation is one of the environmental vices that are difficult to stop. Most of the discussions are based on the answers given by different scientist regarding conservation measures of wild coffee. The responses from the different botanist and science directors are thematically used to draw a conclusion. The article demonstrates credibility because the main points are well supported using scientific facts. The author is specific about the method of conservation that works best for the coffee germ plasm collections. One of the unique ways that have proved to have a high efficacy in conservation is cryopreservation which entails freezing the germplasm collections mostly the coffee beans.
However, the author does not provide a specific sample size for his research and draws conclusion from a single group of focus. Most of the identified problems are left unsolved; the narrowness in climatic preference risks most the coffee genus to extinction due to climate change. The author does not suggest any possible solution to the problem of climate specificity.
Gardens and Krishnan show similar results regarding the best way to conserve wild tea as promotion of genetic diversity. Interbreeding aids in conservation of species by increasing resistant levels to climatic changes and pathogens ( Gardens & Krishnan, 2018) . The article recommends engagement with the coffee farmers to come up with a solution to the problem. The world of botany through Davis and colleagues focus on implementing cryopreservation to preserve the wild coffee species.
References
Daley Jim, ( 2019). Bitter Reality: Most Wild Coffee Species Risk Extinction Worldwide, Island Press
Gardens, D. B., & Krishnan, S. (2018). Ensuring the genetic diversity of coffee. In Achieving sustainable cultivation of coffee (pp. 87-100). Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing.
