Abstract
Abstract Forests are being converted to agriculture throughout the Afrotropics, driving declines in sensitive rainforest taxa such as understorey birds. The ongoing expansion of cocoa agriculture, a common small‐scale farming commodity, has contributed to the loss of 80% rainforest cover in some African countries. African cocoa farms may provide habitat for biodiversity, yet little is known about their suitability for vertebrate fauna, or the effect of farm management on animal communities. Here, we report the first in‐depth investigation into avian diversity and community composition in African cocoa, by assembling a dataset of 9,566 individual birds caught across 83 sites over 30 years in Southern Cameroon. We compared bird diversity in mature forest and cocoa using measures of alpha, beta and gamma diversity, and we investigated the effect of cocoa farm shade and forest cover on bird communities. Gamma diversity was higher in cocoa than forest, though alpha diversity was similar, indicating a higher dissimilarity (beta diversity) between cocoa farms. Cocoa farms differed from forest in community composition, with a distinctive decrease in relative abundance of insectivores, forest specialists and ant‐followers and an increase in frugivores. Within cocoa farms, we found that farms with high shade cover in forested landscapes resulted in higher relative abundance and richness of sensitive forest species; shady farms contained up to five times the proportion of forest specialists than sunny farms. Synthesis and applications. Sunny African cocoa farms were less able to support sensitive bird guilds compared with shaded farms in forested landscapes. Our findings support the notion that certain ecological and dietary guilds, such as ant‐followers and forest specialists are disproportionately affected by land‐use change. In light of the current push to increase cocoa production in sub‐Saharan Africa, our results provide policymakers opportunities for more wildlife‐friendly cocoa schemes that maximize avian diversity.
Highlights
Agricultural expansion is the main cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss worldwide (Newbold et al, 2015)
We found that farms with high shade cover in forested landscapes resulted in higher relative abundance and richness of sensitive forest species; shady farms contained up to five times the proportion of forest specialists than sunny farms
Trade-offs exist between agricultural production and biodiversity conservation, yet these aims need not be mutually exclusive: high-yield food production and high biodiversity are able to coexist in tropical smallholder agroforestry systems, in which agricultural crops are grown among shade trees (Clough et al, 2011; Perfecto & Vandermeer, 2010; Priess et al, 2007)
Summary
Agricultural expansion is the main cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss worldwide (Newbold et al, 2015). Cocoa cultivation has caused mass deforestation in countries such as Ivory Coast, where it is grown industrially in full-sun monocultures because of lack of forest land (Maclean, 2017) In other countries such as Cameroon, the 5th top exporter of cocoa worldwide, it is grown in a less intensive manner, usually under a thick forest canopy (Rice & Greenberg, 2000). Animals are affected by habitat connectivity as has been shown in Brazil where farms in forested areas support higher diversity of birds, bats and frogs than farms in disturbed non-forested landscapes (Cassano et al, 2009; Faria et al, 2006). We asked the following questions: (a) Are bird communities in cocoa farms less diverse than in the forest? (b) Is bird community composition different between forest and cocoa? (c) How do shade and forest cover influence bird communities in cocoa farms?
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