Coffee, Burundi’s primary export crop, is the main source of income for more than 600,000 families, or about 30% of the population. Most of the families are small-scale farmers, and among the poorest people in the country. Unsustainable and unregulated coffee production in Burundi has contributed to land degradation, which in turn depresses productivity and increases vulnerability to climate change. Coffee farmers use steep slopes, often eliminating trees on hillsides to grow coffee under full sun, practices that contribute to land degradation and biodiversity loss.