Seeing the trees: Farmer perceptions of indigenous forest trees within the cultivated cocoa landscape

Abstract

Throughout Ghana's high forest zone, cocoa farmers clear secondary or primary forest to establish new farms, capturing the capacity of nutrient-rich forest soils to increase cocoa yields. However, many cocoa farmers preserve remnant forest trees on existing farms as an integral and necessary component of the production landscape, making decisions about tree removal and tree retention based on a unique set of selection criteria. How they perceive trees plays a crucial role in daily management decisions made at the micro level, which in turn influence landscape patterns on the macro level. The central question of this research relates to how Ghanaian farmers perceive forest trees within the cultivated cocoa landscape. The research data were collected using an exploratory case study approach that combined ethnographic and survey techniques, and draws on 34 farmer interviews, 34 farm surveys, and interviews with key informants representing diverse stakeholder interests in the Domeabra Traditional Lands, Ashanti-Akim in south central Ghana. The research data were analyzed to identify the important functions of forest trees as perceived by study participants, both as a biophysical component within the farm ecosystem and as an input to the rural economy.

Farmer perceptions of plant–soil interactions can affect adoption of sustainable management practices in cocoa agroforests: a case study from Southeast Sulawesi

“…At times, respondents considered indicators not commonly addressed by scientific studies (Table 3). This has been the case in other regions where farmers were acutely aware of processes directly tied to crop productivity, such as the risk of physical damage caused to cocoa trees by falling branches from shade trees (Atkins andEastin 2012, Lamond et al 2016) or the appearance of yellow leaves, which are indicative of poor cocoa tree health and can be expected to lead to decreased productivity (Isaac et al 2009). Similarities in farmer perceptions regarding physical soil properties (Joshi et al 2004) and the usefulness of shade trees in coffee or cocoa agroforests (Albertin and Nair 2004, Anglaaere et al 2011, Gyau et al 2014 have been observed across different regions.…”

Cocoa and Climate Change: Insights from Smallholder Cocoa Producers in Ghana Regarding Challenges in Implementing Climate Change Mitigation Strategies

“…Since the link between climate change perceptions and people's likelihood of subscribing to environmental protection strategies (in general) has already been established [34,35], we evaluated the level of accuracy with which local indigenous small holder farmer climate change knowledge compares with empirical weather data. Farmers' reliance on their indigenous knowledge and associated perceptions, leading into a defined climate experience, leads them into taking core decisions regarding their farming/cultural practices [30]. Ultimately, the accuracy of climate change perceptions, or specifically the potential for negative impacts of climate variability, are essential for maintaining cocoa agriculture [20].…”

“…Since agroforestry emphasizes "people" as its key element [28], understanding cocoa farmers' perceptions of issues such as tree planting, and local/indigenous knowledge on the role of climate on sustainable forest management and environmental conservation is important in answering questions on land use, land-use change (deforestation) and cocoa production. This suggests that, agroforestry is not just about the cocoa and associated shade trees [29], as there is a strong linkage between farmers' perception and management decisions on tree retention on cocoa farms in Ghana; positive perceptions of shade trees increase the probability that a farmer will retain trees on cocoa farms [30]. The importance of stakeholder perception on the success of conservation projects has been previously demonstrated; for example, in Kenya, stakeholder perceptions influenced adoption of new and improved strategies [31].…”

Shade trees have limited benefits for soil fertility in cocoa agroforests

“…While there is some anecdotal evidence from interviews with farmers that shade trees improve soil fertility in cocoa systems (e.g. Anglaaere et al, 2011;Atkins and Eastin, 2012;Dumont et al, 2014), the existing empirical evidence is limited and equivocal. With respect to soil carbon (C), Ofori-Frimpong et al (2007) showed increases, while Gockowski and Sonwa (2011), Jacobi et al (2014), and Mohammed et al (2016) showed no effect of shade trees.…”