Conclusion: agroforestry and biodiversity conservation in tropical landscapes (2025)

Agroforestry: a refuge for tropical biodiversity?

Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 2008

As rates of deforestation continue to rise in many parts of the tropics, the international conservation community is faced with the challenge of finding approaches which can reduce deforestation and provide rural livelihoods in addition to conserving biodiversity. Much of modern-day conservation is motivated by a desire to conserve ‘pristine nature’ in protected areas, while there is growing recognition of the long-term human involvement in forest dynamics and of the importance of conservation outside protected areas. Agroforestry – intentional management of shade trees with agricultural crops – has the potential for providing habitats outside formally protected land, connecting nature reserves and alleviating resource-use pressure on conservation areas. Here we examine the role of agroforestry systems in maintaining species diversity and conclude that these systems can play an important role in biodiversity conservation in human-dominated landscapes.

Agroforestry and Biodiversity Conservation in Tropical Landscapes

Tropical Agroforestry, 2013

Agroforestry and the conservation of forest cover and biodiversity in tropical landscapes–on–site and off–site effects and synergies with environmental legislation

2006

Agroforestry as alternative land���use production systems for the tropics

2000

The science of agroforestry has progressed signijcantly during the past three decades. This article describes and documents various prominent traditional agroforestry systems. In-depth research on interactive processes of some agrisilvicultural systems have been undertaken and quantified. It has been found that the presence of woody species can enhance nutrient cycling, and can improve soil productivity, soil conservation and soil biotic and faunal activities. In simultaneous systems however, their presence can also cause competition with the associated food crops. Most agroforestry systems constitute ecologically and bio-physically sustainable land use systems. Some are highly sustainable and economically viable, in particular the highly complex and specialized types, such as the damar and rubber agroforests in Indonesia. Agroforestry systems have potential uses in stabilization of sloping lands and buffer zones around forest reserves, for recovering degraded lands, and for improving the productivity of the bush fallow system. Despite rapid progress in biophysical research, field application of the science of agroforestry is still minimal. This article examines the possibilities of exploring the multiple contributions of trees to food security, rural income generation, diversity of products and ecosystem conservation within sustainable agroforestry contexts. Research efforts in the new millennium need to fociis more on practical research and also on socioeconomic and policy factors that can enhance beneficial application of the science in the near future to smallholder farmers in the tropics.

Traditional Agroforestry Systems and Conservation of Native Plant Diversity of Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests

Sustainability

Traditional agroforestry systems (TAFS), which integrate crops with wildlife, are important reservoirs of human culture and technical experiences with a high capacity for biodiversity conservation. Our study aimed to evaluate the capacity of TAFS to conserve the floristic diversity of tropical dry forests (TDF) in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley, Mexico. We compared TAFS and TDF by measuring their forest cover, floristic composition, and structure, in addition to documenting the motivations of people to maintain native vegetation in their agricultural fields. We conducted a restricted randomized sampling of perennial plant species, including nine sites of TAFS and nine of TDF to determine the alpha, beta, and gamma diversity. Furthermore, we conducted semi-structured interviews with peasants who managed the agricultural plots we studied. We also performed workshops with people of the communities where surveys were performed. Our findings show that TAFS can maintain, on average, 68% of...

Agroforestry and Biodiversity Conservation – Traditional Practices, Present Dynamics, and Lessons for the Future

Biodiversity and Conservation, 2006

The environmental services that agroforestry practices can provide, and especially their potential contribution to the conservation of biodiversity, have only recently attracted wider attention among agroforestry and conservation scientists. This new view is consistent with the ecosystem approach to natural resource management advocated by the Convention on Biological Diversity. This collection of six papers, which is based on a Workshop held in June-July 2004, brings together studies of biodiversity impacts of traditional agroforestry practices from Central and South America, Africa and Asia. The contributions highlight the considerable potential of traditional agroforestry practices to support biodiversity conservation, but also show their limits. These include the importance of sufficient areas of natural habitat and of appropriate hunting regulations for maintaining high levels of biodiversity in agroforestry land use mosaics, as well as the critical role of markets for tree products and of a favourable policy environment for agroforestry land uses. In combination the case studies suggest that maintaining diversity in approaches to management of agroforestry systems, along with a pragmatic, undogmatic view on natural resource management, will provide the widest range of options for adapting to changing land use conditions.

The Role of Trees in Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture in the Tropics

Shifting agriculture in the tropics has been replaced by sedentary smallholder farming on a few hectares of degraded land. To address low yields and low income both, the soil fertility, the agroecosystem functions, and the source of income can be restored by diversification with nitrogen-fixing trees and the cultivation of indigenous tree species that produce nutritious and marketable products. Biodiversity conservation studies indicate that mature cash crop systems, such as cacao and coffee with shade trees, provide wildlife habitat that supports natural predators, which, in turn, reduce the numbers of her-bivores and pathogens. This review offers suggestions on how to examine these agroecological processes in more detail for the most effective rehabilitation of degraded land. Evidence from agroforestry indicates that in this way, productive and environmentally friendly farming systems that provide food and nutritional security, as well as poverty alleviation, can be achieved in harmony with wildlife.

COMBINING HIGH BIODIVERSITY WITH HIGH YIELDS IN TROPICAL AGROFOREST

Local and landscape-scale agricultural intensification is a major driver of global biodiversity loss. Controversially discussed solutions include wildlife-friendly farming or combining high-intensity farming with land-sparing for nature. Here, we integrate biodiversity and crop productivity data for smallholder cacao in Indonesia to exemplify for tropical agroforests that there is little relationship between yield and biodiversity under current management, opening substantial opportunities for wildlife-friendly management. Species richness of trees, fungi, invertebrates, and vertebrates did not decrease with yield. Moderate shade, adequate labor, and input level can be combined with a complex habitat structure to provide high biodiversity as well as high yields. Although livelihood impacts are held up as a major obstacle for wildlife-friendly farming in the tropics, our results suggest that in some situations, agroforests can be designed to optimize both biodiversity and crop production benefits without adding pressure to convert natural habitat to farmland. agroecosystems | ecosystem services | ecology-economy trade-offs | endemic species richness | shade trees

Agroforestry systems in the tropics: A critical review

2021

In scientific agricultural practices, agroforestry systems are gaining wide recognition due to its healthy integration of woody perennial trees, herbaceous crops and livestock’s in unit areas which are socially acceptable, economically viable and ecologically sound. In the tropics, agroforestry system has been well established practice varies significantly from region to region depending on the levels of management inputs, structure and function of woody perennials, as well as environmental and ecological fitness of the system. The most common practices in the tropics includes; improved fallow, alley cropping, multifunctional trees on farms and rangelands, home gardens, windbreak, shelterbelts, silvopastoral grazing system, taungya farming and shaded perennial-crop system. The above-mentioned system has been well known for its potential in improving and sustaining agricultural production through increased soil fertility, climate change amelioration, breaking the current challenge of...

Combining high biodiversity with high yields in tropical agroforests

Local and landscape-scale agricultural intensification is a major driver of global biodiversity loss. Controversially discussed solutions include wildlife-friendly farming or combining high-intensity farming with land-sparing for nature. Here, we integrate biodiversity and crop productivity data for smallholder cacao in Indonesia to exemplify for tropical agroforests that there is little relationship between yield and biodiversity under current management, opening substantial opportunities for wildlife-friendly management. Species richness of trees, fungi, invertebrates, and vertebrates did not decrease with yield. Moderate shade, adequate labor, and input level can be combined with a complex habitat structure to provide high biodiversity as well as high yields. Although livelihood impacts are held up as a major obstacle for wildlife-friendly farming in the tropics, our results suggest that in some situations, agroforests can be designed to optimize both biodiversity and crop production benefits without adding pressure to convert natural habitat to farmland. agroecosystems | ecosystem services | ecology-economy trade-offs | endemic species richness | shade trees