Cocoa agroforests are dominant agricultural systems on the forest margins of Cameroon. Their management remains complex involving close interplay and trade-offs in social, ecological, economic and policy questions. To protect the cocoa crop and increase the net livelihood worth of cocoa agroforests, farmers maintain and or integrate diverse indigenous tree species in them. In a broadening context of environmental management these small holder, resource-poor farmers thus face important challenges in balancing livelihoods and conservation goals. This paper focuses on the characterization of cocoa agroforests on the forest margins of Cameroon in central Africa. It seeks to improve understanding of the complex relationships between livelihoods and cocoa agroforest land-use. It focuses on how farmer management decision scenarios can influence the architecture and indigenous trees biodiversity in cocoa agroforests. Methods used involved a rapid socio-economic survey, structural characterization and rapid biodiversity assessment of indigenous tree species in at least eight hectares of non contiguous cocoa agroforests. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze socio-economic and structural variables. Non parametric tests were used to evaluate changes in structural characteristics following management decision scenarios by farmers. Interpretation of results shows food security to be a major land use preoccupation of farmers. Due to revenue potential and high density of useful fruit and food trees cocoa systems can help slow down need for deforestation, maintain carbon and stabilize forest margins. Strata containing useful trees for food and fruits are most carefully managed and conserved in comparison with strata containing mainly medicinal and fuel wood trees. Despite species elimination scenario the basic proportionality and balance between bottom and upper stratums is maintained. Although overall species abundance reduces following eliminations, true diversity shows a slight positive change due probably to increased relative diversity of indigenous tree species. Summarily therefore, farmer management of cocoa systems appears undisruptive of both structure and biodiversity of indigenous trees.
Tag: indigenous forests
Above-ground transformations in Agroforestry Systems in watersheds: case of cocoa agroforests of Central Cameroon
Local knowledge passed down from ancestors to descendants indicates that a considerable proportion of the forest margins of central Cameroon was previously covered by forest savannah. These forest savannahs have since been occupied by pioneer settlers who have developed traditional agroforestry systems. These agroforests are simultaneous land management systems, in which tree components occupy the same area as crops and, sometimes, animals. Similar to home or forest gardens, the agroforests possibly constituted the first transformation of original vegetation into a consciously managed agroforestry system. To date, their value is based on their flexibility, both economically (i.e. flexible demand on labour) and ecologically (i.e. diversity of species and different harvest periods for products) and in terms of the adaptation of products to local and national markets as well as household needs (Minchon, Mary and Bompard,1989).
Prunus africana: how agroforestry can help save an endangered medicinal tree
I studied the uses of the African cherry (Prunus africana) by four ethnic groups who live near the Kilum-Ijim Forest Preserve on Mount Oku, Cameroon. Prunus africana is valued for its timber, which is used for tool handles and for fuel, and it is an important wildlife food. However, its greatest value is for traditional medicines. Healers use the bark and leaves to treat more than 30 human ailments and several animal diseases and it is the most important plant used in their practices. This study is the first to document this importance, particularly for animal medicines. I also examined the growing worldwide herbal use to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia. Market demand has caused resource depletion and an erosion of traditional resource protection practices. Preservation of the species will depend on sustainable harvesting methods and on cultivation.
Indigenous miombo fruit trees-health and wealth for the Sukuma people
A survey was conducted in Maswa District, Tanzania, in 1995, to collect information on the production and uses of miombo fruit trees. The following indigenous trees were mentioned by at least 10% of the respondents: Adansonia digitata, Azanza garckeana, Canthium burttii, Diospyros fischeri, Ficus natalensis, Grewia fallax, Tamarindus indica, Vitex mombassae, Vitex payos and Ximenia caffra. The Kiswahili and Sukuma names, and the various flower, fruit, leaf, bark, root, stem and branch uses were recorded. Recommendations for a domestication programme of indigenous fruit tree species are provided.
Agro-forests: incorporating a forest vision in agroforestry
Though extensively practiced throughout the tropics by indigenous fanners,agroforestry as a science-based technology was first introduced through forestry, not agriculture.It developed in the mid-19th century, when professional foresters stroveto improve the economie efficiency plantation establishment through the technology that later became known asthe”taungya system” (King1987). This first development of modem agroforestry was not concerned with farmers,nor wast considered a system that could improve global land utilization patterns·in forest areas. In the early1970s,when globalconcerns for the degradation offorested lands increased, agroforestry was reassessed as a system of land management applicable to,and with great potential for,both farmlands and forests.This new brandof agroforestry was primarily targeted atimproving the conditions of the rural poor.lt did not fundamentally change perceptions about farmersand farming in forestry sciences, but it did contribute to a broader vision of agricultural science sin general.Suddenly, trees in agricultural landscapes,that had.remained quite invisible to agronomists,became valued as important elementsof the agricultural system itself. But how far did this reassessment of trees in agriculture translate into a better integration of forestry and agriculture