This chapter provides an ecological approach to the problem of coffee leaf rust. It first provides a brief overview of the research which has stemmed from a more technocentric approach to understanding and subsequently control CLR. The authors intentionally keep this section brief, but try to highlight areas which are of potential ecological and evolutionary interest within this thread of research. This technocentric approach has been the main line of inquiry regarding coffee leaf rust and there are various resources available which provide in-depth information for ongoing research on these topics for interested readers. Next, the chapter synthesizes and discusses the sparsely available information about the community ecology and natural enemies of coffee leaf rust around the world. The chapter then presents two case studies about coffee which the authors feel represent a more ecological (i.e. intelligible) approach to understanding the pathogen.