Global Coffee Industry Launches Ethiopia-Focused Mapping Initiative to Tackle Deforestation and Protect EU Market Access

#EBR_News Apr 24, 2026

A coalition of the world's largest coffee companies has launched an industry‑first global mapping initiative that will begin with a pilot across six East African nations, including Ethiopia, to identify deforestation risks and help millions of smallholder farmers comply with new European Union regulations, according to a press release issued by JDE Peet's on April 22.

The Coffee Canopy Partnership, initiated by JDE Peet's, now part of Keurig Dr Pepper brings together leading coffee traders including Louis Dreyfus Company, Sucden, Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, Touton, Sucafina, and Tchibo. Using advanced satellite technology from Airbus, the partnership will create the world's first comprehensive, openly‑accessible map of global coffee production.

The pilot phase covers 1.2 million square kilometers of coffee landscapes across Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. Ethiopia's inclusion is critical: the country is the birthplace of Arabica coffee and Africa's largest producer, with coffee accounting for approximately 30‑35 percent of its foreign income and supporting around 15 million people along the value chain.

Under the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), coffee grown on land classified as forest after December 2020 may not enter EU markets. The regulation threatens to exclude millions of smallholder farmers, including many in Ethiopia ,simply because existing maps incorrectly classify their agroforestry or shade‑grown coffee production land as forest.

By leveraging Airbus's very high‑resolution satellite imagery (up to 30cm resolution), combined with artificial intelligence and on‑the‑ground verification, the partnership will establish two definitive datasets:

A 2020‑2021 baseline map showing the true extent of coffee cultivation, correcting widespread misclassifications of coffee agroforestry systems as forest; and a 2024‑2025 updated map to support the identification of potential new coffee production land and areas where forest change has occurred since 2020.

These maps are planned to be integrated into a transparent, openly accessible geospatial platform, designed to enable farmers, governments and the coffee industry to access data that can support sustainability planning and forest protection.

The pilot phase of the initiative is supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and endorsed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Building on the pilot's success, the Coffee Canopy Partnership aims to achieve worldwide coverage of all coffee‑growing regions in 2027 through expanded industry and institutional co‑investment. The Partnership plans to support coffee‑related deforestation remediation efforts over time, in collaboration with governments and local communities, with the objective of contributing to landscape restoration and reducing future forest loss.

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