Despite years of research documenting the multiple co-benefits of shade-grown coffee it is losing the battle to more intensive coffee cultivation which could lead to increased deforestation, loss of biodiversity and soil depletion while leaving communities more vulnerable to flooding and landslides.  The transition towards more intensive varieties and the new global landscape for coffee is detailed in, "Shade Coffee: Update on a Disappearing Refuge for Biodiversity" (BioScience, April 16, 2014). Gund Fellow, V. Ernesto Méndez, co-authored the piece with Jha, Bacon, Philpott, Laderach and Rice.