Generating best management practices for Avian conservation with a land-sparing agricultural system

Abstract

Here we provide guidance for the application of a land sparing production system designed to conserve forest-dependent wildlife in coffee growing regions where environmental conditions preclude coffee cultivation with a land-sharing strategy. In an Integrated Open Canopy (“IOC”) coffee system, shade trees planted with coffee may be eliminated at the discretion of the farmer to control outbreaks of leaf rust and increase yields, while an adjacent forest patch of equal or greater area than coffee is conserved. Farmers are compensated for the opportunity costs of conserving forest by the sale of carbon credits, as well as ecosystem services provided by forest patches in the form of increased pollination and pest control by forest-associated bees and birds, respectively. Previous studies have shown IOC farms support forest-dependent birds not found in shade coffee farms. To determine whether there are threshold values of IOC forest characteristics below which the conservation value of IOC farms decreases, we surveyed bird communities with point counts within IOC farms and other forest patches in Costa Rica during 2012. We detected 113 bird species, of which 49 were classified as forest-dependent. Cutpoint regression identified an area of 2.6 ha of forest, and a basal area of 25.2 m2/ha of forest, below which bird conservation value diminished. These values can serve as the foundation of best management practices for the establishment of IOC farms to afford opportunities for coffee producers to conserve biodiversity in regions where land sharing cultivation is impractical.