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Drink coffee, save wildlife

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications


Take a sip for a cause. Pick up a bag of the all new Zoo Special Reserve coffee at any Seattle Caffé Vita store and your daily cup of home-brewed joe will support Woodland Park Zoo and our work in animal care, conservation and education. That’s because for every bag of Zoo Special Reserve purchased at Caffé Vita, $1 will be donated to Woodland Park Zoo!

The Zoo Special Reserve coffee is well-balanced with aromas of cocoa and hazelnuts. It has a smooth, clean and sweet flavor. But more than being good to drink, it’s also good to the planet.

The eco-friendly coffee originates from a farm in the Santa Rosa district of Guatemala and is shade-grown, organic and Rainforest Alliance-certified. The farmers who grow this coffee promote biodiversity by setting aside over forty percent of their land as a nature reserve, which protects the habitats of native tropical animals and birds such as gray foxes, armadillos, anteaters, parrots and butterflies. The Zoo Special Reserve coffee beans were sustainably farmed using innovative systems of composting, recycling and water conservation under the belief that healthy, organic soil and diverse shade cover produces superior coffee.

Switching to an earth-friendly coffee choice is one of the simple, everyday conservation actions we recommend to zoo fans who are looking to reduce their impact on the planet. Big thanks to our partners at Caffé Vita for helping us to make this great, earth-friendly coffee available to our community and for helping to support our mission.

Our partnership with Caffé Vita continues when they travel with Woodland Park Zoo’s Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP) to Papua New Guinea (PNG) this June. TKCP works with indigenous landowners in Papua New Guinea to improve community livelihoods while protecting biodiversity and the habitat of the endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroo. Caffé Vita will join TKCP in the YUS Conservation Area to provide expert advice to villagers who have begun to farm shade-grown coffee for possible export through TKCP’s livelihoods program.

Though coffee has long been grown in YUS region, rugged terrain and high transport costs have historically prevented a viable coffee market from developing. TKCP is working to transform coffee growing into a reliable income source for YUS landowners pledging land to conservation by helping to bring YUS coffee to U.S. markets in the coming months.

If you want to help support community conservation in Papua New Guinea, text ROOS to 20222 to donate $5 to Woodland Park Zoo’s Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program. Messaging and data rates may apply. For details visit http://www.zoo.org/textROOS.

Photos (from top): Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo, Daniel Shewmaker, Daniel Shewmaker, Zachary Wells/TKCP, Zachary Wells/TKCP, Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo.

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