While working on the USDA roading project it became apparent that an adverse environmental change had taken place over the last few decades in this high elevation coffee-growing region. This adverse environmental change was the introduction of non-shade coffee. In the past, shade grown coffee was an acceptable compromise between the need for the local population to utilize steep slopes for developing and maintaining a livelihood and leaving the area in 100% forest cover to minimize slope failures. The basis of this compromise is that shade-grown coffee maintains a heavy forest canopy (cover), which minimized soil movement and slope failure during heavy rains. The forest cover, in a shade coffee plantation's upper canopy intercepts rainfall, while the residual tree's root systems hold erodible soils in place.

With the introduction of non-shade coffee it has become apparent that these steep slopes are now being rapidly deforested leaving little protection to the slopes and creating a condition that is conducive for major slide activity to occur in the future. In addition, it seems that the local population is also becoming more aware of water quality issues such as the effects of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers on their water sources.

In the mid 1980s, AID had initiated a coffee program with an initial program design goal of reducing coffee plant diseases and improving yields. The scope of the project was to manage the overstory shade density at a level that would minimize plant disease and maximize coffee yields. Unfortunately during this time period local coffee growers felt that full sunlight plant varieties would be more advantages due to their higher yields than shade grown coffee, and began planting the non-shade variety of coffee.

The USDA Hurricane Mitch project presently has a small coffee component. Cornell University is working on trying to increase organic coffee production in the Rio Humuya watershed. In addition, they are trying to find a specialty market for different varieties of coffee. To this consultant's knowledge, they are not addressing the larger issue of reversing the trend of planting non-shade coffee that started in the mid 1980s. This is the real issue that needs to be addressed in order to minimize the negative impact that non-shade coffee has on a mountain slope's stabilization during heavy rain events.

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