Approaching Africa-- the birth of Ethiopian Coffee

Coffee forests in Ethiopia's Balle National Park in eastern Africa are as high as 2000 meters above sea level. The coffee rich here was named one of the five best coffees in Africa in 2012. Coffee grows naturally here and is still picked and collected by a small group of about 5000 local people. Decades ago, the first road was built here to push the isolated coffee groves closer to the people. At first, coffee was carried by donkeys and later transported by truck from one of Africa's tallest roads (about 4000 meters).

This set of pictures was taken by photographer Alessandro Gandolfi. Coffee may disappear in eastern Africa over the next 40 years because of climate change, according to a new study. However, the diversity of coffee forests may be a way to address the risk of extinction of coffee due to disease or climate change.