Coffee bees

Coffee, one of the five most important crops of developing nations and employing over 25 million people worldwide, needs nearby rainforests which harbour pollinating bees, according to researchers from the World Wildlife Fund and two US universities.

Pollination by wild bees increased coffee yields by 20 percent when tropical forest existed within about half a mile of the forest, they found.

And coffee trees visited by wild bees from the jungle were 27 percent less likely to produce “peaberries” — small, mis-shapen seeds that result from inadequate pollination.

For their study the WWF's Taylor Ricketts and colleagues focused on Finca Santa Fe, a large coffee farm in the Valle General of Costa Rica. The farm has several areas of forest on its borders.