ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Dyn.
Sec. Environment, Politics and Society
From Tradition to Sustainability: Toraja Arabica Coffee as Heritage, Conservation Practice, and Source of Livelihood
Provisionally accepted
A.Nixia Tenriawaru1
Rahim Darma1*
Busige Nisantha2Nolila Mohd Nawi3Hamed Noralla Bakheet Ali4Siti Hardiyanti Syam1Riri Amandaria5
Riad Azkar6- 1University of Hasanuddin, Faculty of Agriculture, Makassar, Indonesia
- 2Faculty of Management & B. Finance, University of Colombo, College House 94 Kumaratunga Munidasa Mawatha, Colombo 00700, Sri Lanka, Kumara, Sri Lanka
- 3Universiti Putra Malaysia Fakulti Pertanian, Serdang, Malaysia
- 4Omdurman Islamic University, Omdurman, Sudan
- 5Universitas Negeri Makassar, Makassar, Indonesia
- 6Institut Pertanian Bogor Sekolah Pascasarjana, Bogor, Indonesia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Toraja Arabica coffee is a globally renowned specialty product that is valued for its unique taste, cultural heritage, and ecological significance. Despite its premium reputation, the sector faces persistent challenges, such as low productivity, weak infrastructure, price volatility, and dependence on middlemen, which limit farmers' bargaining power and income. Additionally, heritage branding risks reducing rich cultural traditions to mere marketing, while ecological pressures threaten the fragile highland ecosystems. This study explores the transition of Toraja coffee "from tradition to sustainability," emphasizing its multifunctional role in highland communities. Using a qualitative case study approach, data were collected through interviews, focus group discussions, expert questionnaires, field observations, and secondary sources involving farmers, cooperatives, traders, SMEs, coffee shop owners, extension officers, and government representatives. The findings reveal that Toraja coffee is more than a commodity; it represents cultural identity through rituals and kinship, promotes conservation via shade-grown agroforestry, and serves as a vital livelihood source. However, structural imbalances and ecological and cultural vulnerabilities hinder long-term resilience. Strengthening cooperatives, improving infrastructure, adopting climate-smart practices, and developing balanced branding strategies are essential steps toward achieving sustainability. Toraja coffee demonstrates how cultural and ecological values can be integrated with global markets while highlighting the risks of commodification and inequality.
Keywords: agroforestry, Cultural heritage, Livelihood resilience, Sustainability pathways, Value chain governance
Received: 06 Jan 2026; Accepted: 13 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Tenriawaru, Darma, Nisantha, Mohd Nawi, Bakheet Ali, Syam, Amandaria and Azkar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rahim Darma
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.