Traditional cocoa-based agroforestry and forest species conservation in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Cocoa agroforests are a common farming system in the humid zone of West and Central Africa, in which forest trees provide shade and other environmental services as well as marketable products. To determine the extent of these benefits, data were collected in nine cocoa farms located in three major cocoa producing local government areas (LGAs) in Ondo State. Reserved natural forests located in each of the three LGAs were also sampled in a group of three plots of 0.0625 ha (25 m × 25 m) per forest reserve. All trees other than cocoa in the cocoa farms and all trees with a diameter at breast height (dbh) greater than or equal to 10 cm in the forest reserves were identified and measured. A total of 21 ha of cocoa farms and 0.56 ha of natural forest were surveyed. In the 21 ha of cocoa agroforests surveyed 487 non-cocoa trees belonging to 45 species and 24 families were encountered. While the tree density (23 trees/ha) is much greater than in some other farming systems, it represents only about 8.4% of that found in 0.56 ha of nearby natural forest (276 trees/ha), which contained 163 individual trees of 62 species in 29 families. A very high proportion (86.8%) of the trees in the cocoa farms were edible fruit trees. Cocoa agroforests are therefore less diverse and less dense than the reserved natural forest but are enriched with exotic and indigenous fruit tree species producing fruits and other Agroforestry Tree Products (AFTPs) that meet the needs of the farming households.