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Werribee Open Range Zoo has sustainability on it’s mind & mouth.

Werribee Open Range Zoo is passionate about animals, and sustainability.

They also have another secret passion and that is, coffee!  So, it was a no brainer to combine all their loves and create a sustainable speciality brew that works towards helping save the wildlife. And just like that Coffee for Wildlife was born, with the tag line “Make your cup count: support farmers, protect forests, save wildlife.”

Wild orangutans, monkeys and tree kangaroos are directly benefiting from the blends of shade-grown coffee launched by Zoos Victoria in partnership with Melbourne-based family-owned business Genovese coffee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zoos Victoria chief executive Dr Jenny Gray said shade-grown Coffee for Wildlife products support farmers, protect forests and save wildlife. The beans are sourced from partners in Ethiopia, Sumatra and Papua New Guinea who know the importance of wildlife conservation.

“We have looked for farmers with the same ethic we have, the same ethic of protecting biodiversity into the future.”

Rather than rapidly growing coffee in the sun, which removes habitat where wildlife lives, shade-grown Coffee for Wildlife is grown beneath rainforest tree canopies. While it takes longer for the coffee to ripen in the shade, this also produces more complex and delicious flavours and, importantly, preserves precious wildlife habitat.

“When grown in a genuinely sustainable way, coffee plantations can benefit the environment, support local communities, and produce a great brew,”

The zoo’s Ethiopian coffee is a chocolatey single origin from the forests of Ethiopia, while protecting the home of vulnerable vervet monkeys. The Ethiopian beans grow wild and through minimal intervention beneath tree canopy in Afromontane forest in an area called the Bench-Sheko zone, in the country’s southwest.

The coffee is sourced via a long-standing initiative – the Community Conservation of Wild Coffee and Natural Forest Management Project – that supports the community-based conversation of wild and minimal-intervention coffee.

The Sumatran beans have a spice and herbal freshness, and are sourced to protect Orangutan habitat. The Sumatran beans are sourced from the Orang Utan Coffee Project, who work with 350 smallholder farmers in seven villages located in the Gayo Highlands in Aceh.

Each of these villages borders on the internationally significant Leuser Ecosystem, an approximately 1-million-hectare area that is the last place on Earth where rhinos, tigers, elephants and orangutans all still roam. The Orang Utan Coffee Project aims to protect wildlife by preserving the remaining rainforest habitat of the Leuser Ecosystem.

The growers are paid a premium for their commitment – upholding organic standards and cultivating the coffee according to the strict Orang Utan Coffee Project guidelines – to protect tropical rainforest.

The Papua New Guinean coffee has a honey sweetness with a hint of almond and helps protect species including the Matschie’s Tree Kangaroo. This coffee is grown in the cloud forests of the YUS Conservation Area (Yopno-Uruwa-Som) on Papua New Guinea’s rugged Huon Peninsula, and is sourced through the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program. Around 1,000 families farm the coffee, and all have pledged to protect portions of their land as habitat for wildlife, such as the Endangered Matchie’s Tree Kangaroo.

The Survival Blend is a unique blend of all three single origin coffees that tastes like bergamot and blueberry with a light body and mild acidity.

Coffee for Wildlife products are packaged in certified at-home compostable bags, which are biodegradable along with the coffee grounds.

Coffee for Wildlife products can be purchased here