Transforming Tropical Agroforestry towards High Socio-Ecological Standards

Maas, Bea; Thomas, Evert; Ocampo‐Ariza, Carolina; Vansynghel, Justine; Steffan‐Dewenter, Ingolf; Tscharntke, Teja

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2020.09.002

Cited by 18 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…All agroforests belong to cacao smallholders associated in the agrarian cooperative Norandino Ltda. Associated smallholders benefit from the marketing of fine or flavor cacao both by its higher price and other socio‐ecological gains derived from cooperativism (Maas et al, 2020; Villar et al, 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birds and bats enhance cacao yield despite suppressing arthropod mesopredation

Ocampo‐Ariza

Vansynghel

Bertleff

et al. 2023

Ecological Applications

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bird-and bat-mediated biocontrol benefits the productivity of tropical commodity crops such as cacao, but the ecological interactions driving these ecosystem services remain poorly understood. Whereas birds and bats prey on herbivorous arthropods, they may also prey on arthropod mesopredators such as ants, with poorly understood consequences for pest biocontrol. We used a full-factorial experiment excluding birds, bats, and ants to assess their effects on (a) the abundance of multiple arthropod groups; (b) predation pressure on arthropods evaluated through artificial sentinel caterpillars; and (c) cacao yield over 1 year in shaded agroforestry systems of native cacao varieties in Peru. Birds and bats increased cacao yield by 118%, which translates in smallholder benefits of ca.US $959 ha −1 year −1 . Birds and bats decreased predation by ants and other arthropods, but contributed to the control of phytophagous taxa such as aphids and mealybugs. By contrast, ant presence increased the abundance of these sap-sucking insects, with negative impacts for cacao yield.Notably, high abundances of the dominant ant Nylanderia sp., known to attend sap-sucking insects, were associated with lower cacao yield along a distance gradient from the closest forest edge. According to these results, arthropod predation by birds and bats, rather than mesopredation by arthropods, was most responsible for increases in cacao yield. Moving forward, detailed research about their trophic interactions will be necessary to identify the cause of such benefits. Retaining and restoring the large benefits of birds and bats as well as minimizing disservices by other taxa in cacao agroforests can benefit from management schemes that prioritize preservation of shade trees and adjacent forests within agroforestry landscapes.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birds and bats enhance cacao yield despite suppressing arthropod mesopredation

Ocampo‐Ariza

Vansynghel

Bertleff

et al. 2023

Ecological Applications

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These recommendations pointed to the need for a greater understanding of the genetic aspects of production for NTFP harvesting, greater attention to the genetic quality of planted NTFP species by smallholders, the accurate valuation of wild and semi-wild genetic resources for tree commodity crops, and attention to critical aspects of the value chain. Particularly critical in the shift from wild collection of NTFPs to agroforestry systems is an assessment of all the benefits that rural communities obtain from various tree production modalities, their trade-offs in terms of economic, environmental aspects, and equity in the market supply chain (Maas et al 2020).…”

Section: Managing Forests and Agroforests To Conserve Their Genetic R...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation of Tree Biodiversity and Sustainable Forest Management

Vinceti¹,

Thomas²,

Jalonen³

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Nevertheless, a new interest for local elite materials (van der Kooij, 2013), which in Latin America are often fine flavor cacao (FFC; ICCO, 2015; please refer to Box 2 for definition), could encourage the diversification of plantations (Maas et al, 2020). This provides opportunities to enhance the conservation of cacao genetic resources through their use (Berthaud, 1997), but requires that farmers have access to the cultivars and varieties that best meet their needs in a context of changing environmental conditions (Ceccarelli et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local working collections as the foundation for an integrated conservation of Theobroma cacao L. in Latin America

Lavoie

Thomas²,

Olivier

2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The intraspecific diversity of cacao has traditionally been preserved in genebanks. However, these establishments face various challenges, notably insufficient funding, accession redundancy, misidentification and lack of wild cacao population samples. In natural environments, it is expected that unknown varieties of cacao may still be found, but wild populations of cacao are increasingly threatened by climate change, deforestation, habitat loss, land use changes and poor knowledge. Farmers also retain diversity, but on-farm conservation is affected by geopolitical, economic, management and cultural issues, that are influenced at multiple scales, from the household to the international market. Taking separately, ex situ, in situ and on-farm conservation have not achieved adequate conservation fostering the inclusion of all stakeholders and the broad use of cacao diversity. We analyze the use of the traditional conservation strategies (ex situ, in situ and on-farm) and propose an integrated approach based on local working collections to secure cacao diversity in the long term. We argue that national conservation networks should be implemented in countries of origin to simultaneously maximize alpha (diversity held in any given working collection), beta (the change in diversity between working collections in different regions) and gamma diversity (overall diversity in a country).

show abstract

Transforming Tropical Agroforestry towards High Socio-Ecological Standards

Cited by 18 publications

References 13 publications

Birds and bats enhance cacao yield despite suppressing arthropod mesopredation

Birds and bats enhance cacao yield despite suppressing arthropod mesopredation

Conservation of Tree Biodiversity and Sustainable Forest Management

Local working collections as the foundation for an integrated conservation of Theobroma cacao L. in Latin America

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About