Organic shade-grown coffee has grown in popularity, with many believing that shade-grown production methods are a step towards increasing biological diversity and sustainability. In this study there was no significant diffierence in herbivores, predators, decomposers, beneficial arthropods, or the ratio of herbivores to beneficial arthropods in shade-grown or the two cut habitats. Coffee yields were twice as high in the two cut areas both in terms of total number of undamaged fruits produced and of total fruit weight. Because coffee plants in the cut areas were provided with nutrients and those in the shade-grown habitat were not, it is likely that other factors, such as lack of organic soil inputs, may have had a greater influence on yields than shade level.
