Abstract
Coffee agroforestry systems deliver ecosystem services (ES) critical for rural livelihoods like food but also disservices that constrain livelihoods like fostering coffee-pests. Since such ES are tree-based, maximizing ES and limiting constraints requires knowledge on optimizing on-farm tree composition especially trees adapted to local conditions. The study was in three sites along a rainfall gradient in Central Uganda where we: assessed tree diversity in coffee agroforestry; ranked tree suitability for providing ES according to farmers’ knowledge; and then proposed an approach for optimizing on-farm tree composition for delivery of ES. We collected data on tree diversity and, farmers’ knowledge of tree species and the ES they provide. Farmers ranked ES in order of importance to their livelihoods (‘Needs rank’) and ranked trees according to suitability for providing ES. Using Bradley Terry modeling, we grouped trees into ‘ES groups’ according to suitability for providing different ES and ranked ‘ES groups’ according to tree diversity (‘Diversity rank’). Tree-suitability for providing ES and importance of ES to farmers varied with rainfall regime but tree diversity did not match farmers’ needs for ES. We propose the FaD–FaN (matching farm tree diversity to farmers’ needs) approach for optimizing tree species composition with respect to tree-suitability for farmers’ priority ES. Farmers locally prioritize ES needed and identify trees that best serve such ES. The approach then focuses on modifying on-farm tree diversity to match/suit farmers’ priority ES. The FaD–FaN approach caters for varying socio-ecological conditions; it’s adaptable for other coffee and cocoa-growing areas worldwide.
Highlights
Areas suitable for coffee production will shrink up to 40% if temperatures increase by 2 °C by 2050 and 4 °C by 2100 (IPCC 2014; Adhikari et al 2015)
Stratified random sampling was used to select study farms where rainfall zoning was the stratum and within each rainfall zone, we randomly chose 100 coffee farming households totaling to 300 households that we studied in two phases
Tree-species richness ranged from 29 species ha-1 in low rainfall zone to 39 species ha-1 in high rainfall zone (Table 1)
Summary
Areas suitable for coffee production will shrink up to 40% if temperatures increase by 2 °C by 2050 and 4 °C by 2100 (IPCC 2014; Adhikari et al 2015). Ecosystembased adaptation practices can deliver an optimized set of ES that can support farmers to adapt to, and mitigate climate change effects and improve livelihoods: The most promising ecosystem-based adaptation practice in coffee production is agroforestry (Vignola et al 2015). Optimizing ES delivery is critical for context-specific agroforestry options including synergies between climate change mitigation and adaptation (Rahn et al 2014; Vaast et al 2016). Since biodiversity underpins ES delivery (Cardinale et al 2012), targeted changes in tree diversity can influence ES derived from coffee agroforestry (Cardinale et al 2011; de Beenhouwer et al 2013). The study: assessed tree diversity in coffee farms; used farmers’ knowledge to evaluate tree suitability for providing ES; and proposes an approach for optimizing on-farm tree
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