Saving Jungles May Aid Nearby Coffee Plantations

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conserving tropical forests may benefit nearby coffee plantations, researchers reported on Monday.

Bees can cross over from the jungle to pollinate the coffee trees, resulting in greater yields and healthier coffee beans, the U.S. researchers found.

"Policies that allow landowners to capture the value of pollination and other services could provide powerful incentives for forest conservation in some of the most biodiverse and threatened regions on Earth," the researchers wrote in their report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers at the World Wildlife Fund, California's Stanford University and the University of Kansas said they focused on coffee because it is such an important crop.

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