Abstract
Cocoa agroforests sustain ecosystem services (ESs) to varying degrees. These services are otherwise mostly provided by other non-cocoa shade or companion trees. However, the density of shade trees is associated with services and/or disservices that drive farm-specific tree management successions. Considering the growing impacts of climate crisis on farm productivity and the need for adaptation strategies, the ESs are increasingly provisional and contingent on the prevailing vegetation, land tenure, and management successions, amongst others social and ecological factors. To assess the temporal changes in shade management, we surveyed an age gradient of “family farms” in cocoa agroforests created from forest (fCAFS) and savannah (sCAFS) land cover. We evaluated the temporal changes in farm structure, relative tree abundance, and live aboveground biomass of the major canopy strata. We used a spatial point process and linear mixed effect analysis to assess the contributions of associated perennial trees (AsT) on farm rejuvenation patterns. The density of cocoa trees was inconsistent with farm age; this was significantly high on farms in sCAFS (1544 trees ha−1) with spatially random configuration across farm age. On farms in fCAFS, we observed a transition of the cocoa tree configuration in the order regular, random, and clustering from young (with highest density of 1114 trees ha−1) to old farms. On a temporal scale, there is no clear distinction of farm structure and biomass between fCAFS and sCAFS. However, the cycle of tree species and structural composition of the canopy strata are dissimilar; the live biomass allocation for the considered use groups of tree species was different with farm age. The observed dynamics in canopy tree structure and live biomass provide insights into farmers’ temporal allocation of uses and prioritization of different tree species with farm age. We recommend the consideration of such landscape-specific, tree management dynamics in proposing on-farm tree conservation incentives. Our results are also conducive to reliable estimates of the ecosystem services from CAFS in the national implementation of conservation mechanisms such as REDD+.
Highlights
The nature and magnitude of ecosystem services (ESs) of a cocoa agroforestry system (CAFS) inevitably change across farm age and management cycles
CAFSs, one or a combination of the following problems and/or management practices could account for a reduction or change in cocoa density: pest and disease attack; droughtdriven physiological stress of trees; destruction during a natural fall or deliberate felling of associated timber trees; deliberate thinning of cocoa trees to introduce companion shade trees of fruit, timber, non-wood and other specific uses known to farmers
Our result suggests that associated trees are managed in particular ways that depend on the farm-specific challenges and not in compliance to recommendations on spacing between trees
Summary
The nature and magnitude of ecosystem services (ESs) of a cocoa agroforestry system (CAFS) inevitably change across farm age and management cycles. The provided ESs in CAFSs may depend largely on the type and density of associated non-cocoa or shade trees of interest to farmers [6] Besides other factors such as land tenure, CC is increasingly imparting landscape- and farm-specific challenges regarding tree management and the perceived services it provides. An understanding of the underlying trade-offs between farmers’ (or farm managers) practices and the type, density, and distribution of associated tree species is required on a temporal basis. This may inform about sustainable landscape management strategies, land use contributions to biodiversity conservation mechanisms such as REDD+
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