Coffee Resilience Matrix: A Framework for Mondulkiri Farms

Quick answer: On 21 September 2026, the Sustainable Coffee Challenge published a position paper that defines coffee resilience and introduces a Coffee Resilience Matrix covering farms, farming households and landscapes, across three capacities: absorptive, adaptive and transformative. The paper is global, with no Mondulkiri-specific data, but its structure gives Cambodian stakeholders a clear set of questions to ask as El Niño risk builds.

What the paper says

Conservation International's announcement describes the paper, "Coffee Resilience: Building a Shared Foundation for Collaborative Place-Based Investment", as developed by Conservation International, IDH and Treevaluation. It defines resilience as the ability of coffee farms, farmers and landscapes to withstand and recover from climate shocks, adapt to changing conditions and transform when existing systems are no longer sufficient.

The reason for the paper is a gap the authors identify: companies, investors and development organisations assess resilience with different frameworks. The paper offers a shared definition, a practical framework and a vision of what resilient coffee landscapes look like. It is the first instalment in a Coffee Resilience Series that will explore how risks can be assessed and prioritised, how outcomes should be measured and how financing can be mobilised at landscape scale.

The matrix in plain terms

The Coffee Resilience Matrix organises actions along two axes:

• Three levels of the coffee system: farms, farming households and landscapes.
• Three forms of resilience capacity: absorptive (withstanding a shock), adaptive (adjusting to changing conditions) and transformative (changing the system when it is no longer enough).

That gives nine cells. The point is that a farm-level fix, such as a better planting practice, is different from a household-level one, such as income diversification, and different again from a landscape-level one, such as protecting forest and water.

Why the timing matters

The same week, Perfect Daily Grind's 25 September recap warned that a strong El Niño could disrupt flowering and ripening in Brazil's key growing regions, and that speculators were positioning for more volatility. It also reported that the Rainforest Alliance expects to certify 80,000 hectares under a new regenerative agriculture certification in Brazil, corresponding to an expected 1.6 million 60kg bags. These are Brazilian examples, but they show the sector moving from general talk of sustainability toward defined frameworks and certification.

Applying the matrix to Mondulkiri as questions, not claims

We have no verified data in these sources on how Mondulkiri farms would score on the matrix, and we are not going to invent any. What the matrix does offer is a way to organise questions that a buyer, investor or development partner could reasonably ask:

Farms

• Absorptive: How do farms cope with a dry spell? Is there shade, soil cover or water storage?
• Adaptive: Can farmers adjust planting, pruning or harvesting to changing rainfall?
• Transformative: If conditions shift, can a farm change varieties or practices?

Farming households

• Do households depend only on coffee, or do other crops and income sources buffer a poor season?
• What savings, credit or support exist after a bad harvest?

Landscapes

• What forest, water and soil features around the farms support stability?
• Who manages shared resources, and how are land rights handled?

Our earlier article on Mondulkiri's climate resilience, "A Forest Buffer, Not a Guarantee", makes a related point: forested, smaller-scale farming has not faced a documented shock on the scale seen in Vietnam, but that is a partial buffer, not proof of immunity. The matrix helps turn that caution into a checklist.

What would make the analysis credible

A resilience claim is only as good as its evidence. For Cambodia, useful inputs would include rainfall and temperature records for the growing areas, farm-level observations over several seasons, documentation of shade and soil practices, and clear information about household income sources. Without them, any statement that Mondulkiri is "resilient" is an opinion.

How different stakeholders could use it

Farmers and producer groups can use the nine cells as a self-check, noting where practices already exist and where gaps remain, without needing outside scores.

Buyers can include resilience questions in supplier conversations, alongside traceability and quality data, to understand supply risk across seasons.

Development partners and investors can use a shared framework to compare projects, which is the gap the paper says it was written to close.

Researchers can identify which questions lack local data for Cambodia, such as long-run climate records for the growing areas, and design studies around them.

Each group needs the same foundation: honest records. A framework cannot fill in missing information; it can only show where it is missing.

Why this matters for Fine Robusta

Fine Robusta relies on consistent lot quality, and weather shocks can disrupt cherry ripeness and yields. A buyer who is deciding whether to build a multi-year relationship with a small origin will think about whether supply is stable. Showing that a producing area understands its risks, and has practical responses, supports that decision more than general reassurance.

What the series may add

Because the paper is the first instalment, later parts on risk assessment, outcome measurement and financing may offer tools a small origin can use directly. It is sensible to read them as they appear rather than assume what they will contain.

Frequently asked questions

Does the paper say anything about Cambodia?

No. It is a global framework, and applying it to Mondulkiri is our interpretation.

Is El Niño certain to affect coffee in 2026/27?

The sources describe it as a risk that could complicate the supply picture, not a certainty.

Who published the paper?

The Sustainable Coffee Challenge, with Conservation International, IDH and Treevaluation as developers.

OCC takeaway

The Coffee Resilience Matrix offers a shared vocabulary for climate risk. For Mondulkiri, its value is in the questions it prompts at farm, household and landscape level, and in the evidence needed to answer them.

Sources

• Conservation International, Sustainable Coffee Challenge Sets Out Common Ground for Coffee Resilience, 21 September 2026: https://www.conservation.org/press/sustainable-coffee-challenge-sets-out-common-ground-for-coffee-resilience-
• Perfect Daily Grind, Coffee News Recap, 25 September 2026: https://perfectdailygrind.com/2026/09/coffee-news-recap-25-september-2026/