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This paper seeks to examine the contribution of cocoa-based agroforestry systems (CAFS) in the conservation of native tree species of nearby forests. The study was conducted in two sites in Mbankomo sub-division of Cameroon, where a field inventory was carried out in both land use systems in 26 sample plots of 30 9 30 m 2 each, in 20 cocoa agroforest plots and six adjacent secondary forests plots. Tree diversity, composition and structure in the cocoa agroforests and secondary forests were characterized, a-diversity was evaluated and similarity/ dissimilarity of species composition assessed using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). The results reveal that all the CAFS appear to conserve 46 % of forest tree species found in nearby forests. This may be justified by the multipurpose use of forest tree species during the implementation and the evolution of the CAFS on a spatial-temporal scale. CAFS harbored lower forest tree species diversity at the plot level compared to nearby forest stands meanwhile the non-parametric estimator suggested that both land uses conserve approximately the same species richness. Mean values for species richness, the Shannon and reciprocal Simpsons indices diversity, stem density and basal area were significantly higher in forests than in CAFS (p \ 0.001). The NMDS showed a clear dissimilarity which was confirmed by the R statistic = 0.998 and p value = 0.009 of the analysis of similarities test between cocoa agroforests and forest stands. In conclusion, the results show that CAFS can serve as reservoirs for the conservation of forest tree species; this can be expanded if the issue of ownership of timber forest trees is addressed in the forest law.

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