The Coffee Compromise: Is Agricultural Expansion into Tree Plantations a Sustainable Option?

Abstract

In tropical regions, land-use pressures between natural forest, commercial tree plantations, and agricultural land for rural communities are widespread. One option is to increase the functionality of commercial plantations by allowing agroforestry within them by rural communities. Such land-sharing options could address wider societal and environmental issues and reduce pressure on natural forest. To investigate the trade-offs involved, we used InVEST to model the ecosystem services provided by growing coffee under commercial pine plantations in Indonesia against other land-use options. Pine–coffee agroforestry provided worse supporting and regulating services (carbon, sediment and nitrogen retention, catchment runoff) than natural forest; however, it provided greater provisioning services (product yield) directly to smallholders. Converting pine monoculture into pine-coffee agroforestry led to increases in all ecosystem services, although there was an increased risk to water quality. Compared with coffee and root crop monocultures, pine–coffee agroforestry provided higher levels of supporting and regulating services; however, product yields were lower. Thus, opening up pine plantations for agroforestry realises additional income-generating opportunities for rural communities, provides wider ecosystem service benefits, and reduces pressure for land-use change. Lower smallholder yields could be addressed through the management of shade levels or through Payments for Ecosystem Services schemes.

Improved Coffee Management by Farmers in State Forest Plantations in Indonesia: An Experimental Platform

“…The coffee plants will need to recover from pruning, and even unpruned coffee plants will take time to respond to the changes in shade levels and fertilizer applications (with a minimum of 6 months from the formation of new flower buds to harvest). Early outcomes for the work have, however, been published [6,30,31,33,39]. We envision that this work will enable us to provide scientifically robust and practical advice regarding the management of pine-coffee systems, combining work from the trials, modelling, and socio-economic research.…”

“…NPV modelling work is still ongoing, but parameterization of InVEST models has been completed. These models have been used to explore landscape-scale impacts on ecosystem service delivery [39]. Comparisons were made between a range of alternative land uses (annual root crop, full-sun coffee, coffee-pine agroforestry, pine plantation without crops, and natural forest) and the impacts modelled based on converting the government designated plantation zone across four catchments of the Upper Brantas watershed (encompassing UB Forest and the surrounding state owned forest areas).…”

“…Comparisons were made between a range of alternative land uses (annual root crop, full-sun coffee, coffee-pine agroforestry, pine plantation without crops, and natural forest) and the impacts modelled based on converting the government designated plantation zone across four catchments of the Upper Brantas watershed (encompassing UB Forest and the surrounding state owned forest areas). The modelling showed that pine-coffee agroforestry provides a middle ground, balancing negative impacts on ecosystem services whilst maintaining crop production [39] (Figure 8). and natural forest) and the impacts modelled based on converting the government designated plantation zone across four catchments of the Upper Brantas watershed (encompassing UB Forest and the surrounding state owned forest areas).…”

“…and natural forest) and the impacts modelled based on converting the government designated plantation zone across four catchments of the Upper Brantas watershed (encompassing UB Forest and the surrounding state owned forest areas). The modelling showed that pine-coffee agroforestry provides a middle ground, balancing negative impacts on ecosystem services whilst maintaining crop production [39] (Figure 8).…”

Exploring the Relative Advantages of Local Innovation in Agroforestry

“…Meanwhile, technical experts are conducting some experimental agronomic research at the research site to support sustainable practices of the coffee-pine agroforestry; this includes pruning the pine canopy, pilot coffee pruning and fertilizer management linked to socioeconomic and environmental development models [21] . Yet, forest farmers are often unsure of external innovations because of the low sensitivity of relative advantages.…”