Study explores factors affecting the choice of species planted

Côte d’Ivoire has lost almost 90% of its forest cover in 40 years due to intensive cocoa production. To reverse this trend, the country has adopted a ‘zero deforestation’ agricultural policy and committed to rehabilitating its forest cover through the planting of high-value tree species in cocoa landscapes using a participatory approach.

The country’s new (2019) forest code, which sets out the rules relating to sustainable forest management, aims among other things to "strengthen, for the benefit of present and future generations, the contribution of the forest sector to sustainable development by promoting environmental functions, socio-economic and cultural forest resources, as well as preserve and enhance biological diversity and contribute to the balance of forest and other associated ecosystems” (Article 2, Chapter II).

Agroforestry offers important solutions to the challenge of maintaining forest cover, conserving biodiversity, and sustaining ecosystem services – whilst reaping the benefits of productive agricultural landscapes. In this context, the The Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) is conducting various agroforestry projects across Côte d’Ivoire to improve and sustain the livelihoods of cocoa-producing communities, while restoring degraded cocoa landscapes in buffer zones and protected areas.

Within this suite of projects, the team carried out a study to understand the factors affecting which tree species farmers chose to introduce into – or retain in – their cocoa farms. “Our hope is that this study will be used by decision-makers and scientists to design biodiverse and multi-strata cocoa-based agroforestry systems in Côte d’Ivoire,” said Alain Atangana, lead author of the study and a scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF’s Côte d’Ivoire office. “Rebuilding forest cover in Côte d’Ivoire is strongly linked to the restoration of biodiversity.”

The researchers interviewed 683 households – and visited their farms – in 16 study sites across Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa-producing zone. They did not ‘start from scratch’, but based their hypothesis on factors previously reported as influencing the adoption of agroforestry systems, to predict the number of tree species introduced by farmers in their farms.

The team found that the number of tree species planted increased significantly with expected benefits such as shade and the production of edible fruits and nuts. This was also reported in a previous (2014) ICRAF-led study, which found that farmers “want more trees on their farm, both to sustain their cocoa production and to diversify their livelihood, particularly in relation to their food security, as shown by the important presence of fruit trees in cocoa fields”. The number of tree species retained when clearing land for cocoa cultivation, meanwhile, increased with expected benefits, and decreased in intensive cocoa-production areas.

The researchers recommended that, as the expected benefits and experience in tree-planting drives farmers’ planting activities on cocoa farms, it will be important to build a species database that details the benefits farmers can expect from trees – including edible and marketable products. They also advocated for the implementation and upscaling of continuous training centers – such as Rural Resource Centers (RRCs) – to help farmers strengthen their skills in agroforestry.

“This study should be regarded as a starting-point that paves the way to carry out further studies on how tree diversity increases yield and overall production in cocoa systems, through the management of soil fertility and ecological health, and the production of useful and marketable products from a range of different species,” said Atangana. “This will help farmers across the country to progress towards more comprehensive and contextually-appropriate agroforestry systems.”