RATIONALE Coffee plays a significant economic role globally and serves as a major source of foreign earnings in many producing countries. Despite challenges, world coffee production has grown steadily over the past 50 years, though it will be difficult to maintain this trend due to continued rise in production costs, as well as problems related to negative impacts of climate change and higher incidence of pests and diseases. The key to ensuring the sustainability of coffee will lie in utilizing the varied genetic resources to develop varieties with drought stress tolerances, pest and disease resistances, high cup quality, and increased production. In 2016, World Coffee Research and the Global Crop Diversity Trust spearheaded the development of the Global Conservation Strategy for Coffee Genetic Resources. METHODS A background study was done on the vulnerability of coffee genetic resources conserved ex situ and in situ, as well as on the main constraints to the use of these genetic resources. A survey of the status of major coffee collections was done, site visits were made to seven of these collections, and a study of the cost of conservation of the Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza's (CA TIE) coffee collection was done. The main objective of these assessments was to assess the security of the current conservation system, its significant gaps, its resource requirements, and its significant constraints as well as opportunities from use. RESULTS The survey and site visits indicate that the current "system" is not sustainable, secure, cost effective, or rational. What is needed is a global system that will secure unique accessions as a global resource for use by future generations to ensure the sustainability of coffee production now and in the future. CONCLUSIONS & PERSPECTIVES Through engagement of multi-national stakeholders from various aspects of coffee production, processing, breeding, conservation and research, the goal of this Global Strat