Wild Arabica coffee naturally occurs exclusively under the shade of trees in the isolated highland forests of Southern Ethiopia. (Photo credit: Paola Viesi via Worldwatch Institute) By Matt Styslinger Nourishing the Planet A Worldwatch Institute Blog January 17, 2010 It is hard to imagine modern life without coffee. But one thing that rarely crosses our minds as we sip our morning cups is that coffee is an African native. Worldwide coffee is a $90 billion a year industry, there are 125 million people whose livelihoods depend on it, and 25 million of those are small-scale farmers in developing countries whose sole source of income is coffee production. Of the two globally cultivated coffee species (Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora)—commonly known as Arabica and Robusta—Arabica is the most admired and dominates 70 percent of all coffee production. The species naturally occurs exclusively in the isolated highland forests of Southern Ethiopia. For thousands of years, people ...