Agroecosystems and Primate Conservation in The Tropics: A Review

Abstract

Agroecosystems cover more than one quarter of the global land area (ca. 50 million km(2) ) as highly simplified (e.g. pasturelands) or more complex systems (e.g. polycultures and agroforestry systems) with the capacity to support higher biodiversity. Increasingly more information has been published about primates in agroecosystems but a general synthesis of the diversity of agroecosystems that primates use or which primate taxa are able to persist in these anthropogenic components of the landscapes is still lacking. Because of the continued extensive transformation of primate habitat into human-modified landscapes, it is important to explore the extent to which agroecosystems are used by primates. In this article, we reviewed published information on the use of agroecosystems by primates in habitat countries and also discuss the potential costs and benefits to human and nonhuman primates of primate use of agroecosystems. The review showed that 57 primate taxa from four regions: Mesoamerica, South America, Sub-Saharan Africa (including Madagascar), and South East Asia, used 38 types of agroecosystems as temporary or permanent habitats. Fifty-one percent of the taxa recorded in agroecosystems were classified as least concern in the IUCN Red List, but the rest were classified as endangered (20%), vulnerable (18%), near threatened (9%), or critically endangered (2%). The large proportion of threatened primates in agroecosystems suggests that agroecosystems may play an important role in landscape approaches to primate conservation. We conclude by discussing the value of agroecosystems for primate conservation at a broad scale and highlight priorities for future research.

A Meta-Analysis of Human–Wildlife Conflict: South African and Global Perspectives

“…Our findings that a large number of primate species were main DCAs are consistent with that of Estrada et al [76] who showed that globally agricultural landscapes, such as orchards, crop farms and forestry plantations, were raided by approximately 57 different primate taxa in agro-ecosystems in which PAs and forestry or fruit plantations are contiguous. High levels of forest fragmentation and agricultural infringement were implicated as the cause of human-primate conflict [76]. The ability of primates to adapt to anthropogenic-dominated agricultural ecosystems and their often overlapping diets with humans brings them into conflict with farmers [76,77].…”

“…as exceptional examples that cause extensive damage to crops in Uganda and Ethiopia, and they were perceived by subsistence farmers as the greatest threats to crop yields [17,75]. Our findings that a large number of primate species were main DCAs are consistent with that of Estrada et al [76] who showed that globally agricultural landscapes, such as orchards, crop farms and forestry plantations, were raided by approximately 57 different primate taxa in agro-ecosystems in which PAs and forestry or fruit plantations are contiguous. High levels of forest fragmentation and agricultural infringement were implicated as the cause of human-primate conflict [76].…”

“…High levels of forest fragmentation and agricultural infringement were implicated as the cause of human-primate conflict [76]. The ability of primates to adapt to anthropogenic-dominated agricultural ecosystems and their often overlapping diets with humans brings them into conflict with farmers [76,77]. Additionally, our findings that primates and carnivores were high-scale conflict species, concur with several other studies [6,46,53,62], that the threats facing felids, canids and primates are often identical and occur in the same region [78].…”

Seed Dispersal of Threatened Tree Species by a Critically Endangered Primate in a Brazilian Hotspot

“…Accordingly, fruits of the exotic oil palm were frequently consumed in the young secondary forests (51.8% of feeding on fruits), while seeds of native manilkaras were frequently swallowed in the old secondary forests (31% of feeding on fruits). The mixture of exotic species and native trees could be used favourably in species management for conservation, as the exotic species supplement the capuchins' food needs [Gosper and Vivian-Smith, 2009;Estrada et al, 2012]. However, the high consumption of oil palm seeds may not provide all the required nutrients, and different food items are needed to balance the capuchins' nutrient intake.…”

Agroecosystems and primate conservation: Shade coffee as potential habitat for the conservation of Andean night monkeys in the northern Andes

“…There is growing evidence supporting the idea that agroecosystems can (1) provide temporal habitat for migrating taxa (e.g., birds) and/or (2) extend the available habitat and increase resource availability for resident species (Estrada et al, 1999(Estrada et al, , 2012Perfecto and Ambrecht, 2003;Perfecto and Vandermeer, 2008;Rice and Greenberg, 2000). Only recently, studies have begun to assess the ability of primates to survive within agroecosystems (Estrada et al, 2012).…”