Airbus Defence and Space has announced that it has been selected as the technical partner in the international Coffee Canopy Partnership. Backed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Coffee Canopy Partnership unites the world’s biggest coffee traders and roasters, led by JDE Peet’s, whose brands include Douwe Egberts and Jacobs, among others, and including the Louis Dreyfus Company, Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, Sucafina, Sucden, Tchibo and Touton. Airbus’ role will be the provision of high-resolution satellite imagery and data analysis.

The aim of the initiative is to create the first global, open and comprehensive series of maps of coffee plantations. These maps will enable plantations to achieve resilient production while avoiding deforestation, by identifying deforestation risk. The maps will also support landscape restoration. In the process they will empower local communities, coffee industries and governments while safeguarding the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers around the world.

“Leveraging our very high-resolution Pléiades and Pléiades Neo satellite imagery combined with advanced AI capabilities, Airbus helps identify deforestation risk and protect our world’s forests, while simultaneously empowering food producers and smallholder farmers with the transparency and reliable data needed to strengthen their resilience and build a truly sustainable supply chain,” explains Airbus Defence and Space Head of Space Digital Eric Even.

Pléiades satellites provide imagery with a resolution of 50 cm, while the Pléiades Neo satellites have a resolution of 30 cm. These images are combined with advanced AI models trained on large Airbus datasets, with the result that coffee plantations can now be identified and then monitored, from space, to a level of detail that was previously unobtainable. Maps resulting from this satellite data-AI combination have already been successfully developed for a number of East African countries, covering an area of more than 1.2-million square kilometres, including complex terrain. It will now be taken worldwide, with global coverage targeted for next year.

“The partnership is designed to move beyond fragmented, company-led, deforestation initiatives by fostering collaboration at a landscape scale – supporting efforts to map and safeguard coffee-growing regions, not just individual supply chains,” points out JDE Peet’s VP: engagement Laurent Sagarra. “This is not another certification scheme; it is a sector-led initiative aimed at strengthening collective action to help keep forests vibrant and reduce the risk of coffee-driven deforestation over time. We warmly invite all players in the coffee sector to join us.”