Researchers studying the impact of shade trees on Ecuadorian cocoa plantations have found that having just enough shade is good not only for the beans that give us chocolate, but for diverse wildlife populations.

The findings fly in the face of agricultural practices there which have increasingly involved cutting trees to make more room for the heavenly beans.

The tipping point comes when cocoa bean plots have 40 percent shade or less. This story in Conservation Magazine reports too much shade is also bad for cocoa beans.