Taking advantage of natural regeneration potential in secondary forests to recover commercial tree resources in Côte d’Ivoire

The great mistake of plantation programs in cocoa agroforests – Let's bet on natural regeneration to sustainably provide timber wood

“…From an ecological point of view, the immediate proximity of oldgrowth forests strongly favours the success of natural regeneration (Doua-bi et al, 2021). In the still recent post-forest context of Côte d'Ivoire, conserving the few remaining forests in the landscape and leaving remnant trees as an "ecological memory" in the cocoa fields or their surroundings would be very favourable to the natural regeneration of spontaneous trees (Amani et al, 2021).…”

“…transplanted trees hereafter). It is important, when evaluating potential timber production from cocoa agroforests, to consider trees origins (Doua-Bi et al, 2021) to better estimate (i) the current timber resource, i.e. all remnant, spontaneous and (trans)planted commercial trees that have reached a sufficient size to be harvested today; and (ii) the future timber resource, i.e.…”

Promouvoir l’agroforesterie ? Les leçons de la Côte d’Ivoire

“…Il en résulte des systèmes agroforestiers qui, du point de vue des indicateurs couramment utilisés par les agronomes (surface terrière relative, nombre d'arbres à l'hectare), semblent similaires aux systèmes agroforestiers de reforestation si bien qu'il est absolument nécessaire de considérer leurs histoires, ou trajectoires (sensu Amani et al, 2022), respectives pour pouvoir les distinguer. Il existe donc une diversité de systèmes agroforestiers dans le verger cacaoyer ivoirien où des cacaoyers coexistent avec des cohortes d'arbres (Sanial et al, 2023) aux histoires très différentes : des arbres rémanents issus de la forêt préexistante et qui n'ont pas été coupés/brûlés lors de la défriche ; des arbres spontanés issus de la régénération naturelle (Doua-Bi et al, 2021) que le planteur a volontairement épargnés lors des entretiens et choisi de laisser grandir naturellement ; des arbres plantés pour produire des biens et services que les deux autres cohortes ne fourniraient pas. La prise en compte du poids relatif de ces trois cohortes d'arbres permet de reconstruire l'histoire de la cacaoyère et sa trajectoire agroforestière (figure 1).…”

Lessons from a regional analysis of forest recovery trajectories in West Africa

“…Secondary forests resulting from this deforestation represent a large part of the West African landscape and are valuable to local people. These secondary forests provide valuable ecosystem services, including timber and fuelwood, fodder for livestock, non-timber forest products, and also contribute to water purification (Amani et al 2021, Doua-Bi et al 2021, Sanial et al 2022. In order to ensure that these secondary forests can continue to provide these services and cleared land is reduced to a few suitable areas, it would be necessary to • Promote sustainable, i.e.…”

“…In West Africa, secondary forests arising from the abandonment of agricultural fields occupy a prominent place in today's landscapes. Secondary forests have a distinct floristic composition (Amani et al 2021) and lower biomass (N'Guessan et al 2019) than the original old-growth forests, but they can still provide a wide range of goods and services to human societies (Amahowe et al 2018, Doua-Bi et al 2021, locally (e.g. provision of fuelwood, non-timber forest products), regionally (e.g.…”