THINKING beyond the canopy

Smallholder chocolate forest management and

forest ecological services in West and Central Africa

Denis J. Sonwa1, Goetz Schroth2, Stephan F. Weise3, Marc J. J. Janssen4, Howard Shapiro2, James Gockowski5

1 (CIFOR), Po Box 2008 (Messa) Yaoundé-Cameroon, E-mail: dsonwa@cgiar.org2 Mars Incorporated, USA

3 Bioversity International, France4 University of Bonn, Germany

5 STCP/IITA, GhanaCIFOR-CIRAD-IRD international conference: Taking stock of smallholder and

community forestry: where do we go from here?

24 - 26 March Montpellier, France

Sustainable Tree Crop Program

THINKING beyond the canopy

Outline

Drivers & objectives of the establishment of cocoa plantations

Management of plantations and biodiversity conservation

Smallholder chocolate forest & climate change mitigation

Trade-off (socio-economic functions & ecological services

Conclusion

THINKING beyond the canopy

Forest Baseline in West AfricaThe Guinean Forests of West Africa once covered nearly 1.3

million sq. km (equal in size to the combined area of Germany, France and the United Kingdom). Only 126,000 sq km (i.e. 10%) remain.

The West African forest was identified as a biodiversity

hotspot twenty years ago (Myers, 1988).

1,900 endemic plant species and more than a quarter of Africa’s mammals, including 20 species of primates reside in the scattered remnants of these forests (Conservation International, 2007).

They constitute(d) an important biomass/carbon stock in the region.

Drivers & objectives of the establishment of cocoa plantations

THINKING beyond the canopy

Cocoa beans production

Satisfaction of the international demand for chocolate Cocoa is one of the main cash providers for national

economies of West and Central Africa

Main cash providers for local populations (important cash crop in rural households in humid forest landscape)

Drivers & objectives of the establishment of cocoa plantations

THINKING beyond the canopy

Management of plantations & biodiversity conservation

Increase of cocoa production more by land extension than intensification

Forest declining over time

Forest & Cocoa in Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana & Cote d’Ivoire *

*FAO statistics

THINKING beyond the canopy

Management of plantations & biodiversity conservation

Forest landscape &Cocoa *

*STCP, Baseline 2001-2002

Cameroon Cote d’Ivoire Ghana Nigeria----------------------- proportion of farms---------------------

Land cover/use prior to cocoa establishmentForest 0.784 0.719 0.298 0.560Fallow 0.209 0.269 0.675 0.437

Savannah 0.007 0.012 0.027 0.003

Type of cocoa production systemFull Sun 0.081 0.279 0.281 0.03Shaded 0.919 0.721 0.719 0.97

Forests are mainly transformed into agroforests (in Cameroon & Nigeria) and orchards (Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire)

THINKING beyond the canopy

3 types of cocoa plantations, Cameroon* Type A Type B Type C P

Age of plantation establishment 37 a 30 ab 24 b 0.02

Cocoa (trees/ha) 918 c 1756 a 1060 b 0.00

Cocoa (Basal area/ha) 6 a 6 a 3 b 0.00

Musa spp. (trees/ha) 53 a 21ab 11 b 0.09

Oil palm (trees/ha) 46 a 18 b 23 b 0.02

High value timber (trees/ha) 27 b 49 a 61 a 0.00

Indigenous fruit trees (trees/ha) 31 b 41 ab 62 a 0.01

Exotic fruit trees (trees/ha) 23 20 25 0.81

Other trees (trees/ha) 121 b 131 b 212 a 0.00

Total tree density/ha 1218c 2036 a 1453 b 0.00

Total basal area/ha 38 33 33 0.50

Different types of cocoa agroforests, similar total basal area, but different structures ( i.e. habitat)

Management of plantations & biodiversity conservation

*Sonwa (2004)

Carbon stock: cocoa agroforest & other land uses, Cameroon

Adapted from Nolte et al. (2001)

Time-averaged total system carbon in land uses

0

100

200

300

Mat

ure

fore

st

Yo

un

gse

con

dar

yfo

rest

Old

fal

low

Co

coa

pla

nta

tio

n

Yo

un

gfa

llo

w

Far

mla

nd

Land use class

Ca

rbo

n (

mg

ha

-1)

YaoundeMbalmayoEbolowa

Smallholder chocolate forest & climate change mitigation

Beside forests, cocoa agroforest store more carbon than other land uses

THINKING beyond the canopy

Zone ------------------Carbon pool--------------------- TotalAssociated plants

Cocoa tree Litter Root Soil

Ebolowa 173 11 b 4 18 38 243Mbalmayo 170 11 b 4 18 35 238Yaoundé 168 17 a 5 19 39 247HFZ 170 13 4 18 37 243 P 0.10 0.00 0.36 0.10 0.48 0.98

Carbon Stock along an Intensification Gradient (Mg ha-1)

Associated plants stored:

*70 % of the total carbon stock of the plantation.

* 13 times the carbon found in cocoa trees

P: Probability; HFZ: Humid forest zone

Means not sharing a common letter in a column are significantly different at 0.05 probability

The soil under trees stored around 15% of the total carbon stock of the cocoa agroforest

Smallholder chocolate forest in climate change mitigation

THINKING beyond the canopy

Any species providing shade to cocoa ( < 1970)

Domestication of NWFP and Timber (= 1990)

Species that can allow biodiversity conservation (= 2000)

Species that can allow climate change mitigation (ex. CDM, REDD, REDD+; now and future…) and adaptation(Now & near future)

Trade-off between socio-economic functions & ecological services

Research/Scientist preferences

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Farmer preference •Mainly edible species (ex. In Cameroon farmer plant 4 edible & 3 non edible to diverse the cocoa agroforest*)

Field observation•Less diversity in cocoa orchard of West Africa compare to cocoa agroforest of Central Africa

•Mixture of edible, timber, medicinal & other species

•Species frequent in the field are not necessarily what is needed in the market.

* Sonwa et al. (2004)

Trade-off between socio-economic functions & ecological services

Farmers & Fields realities

THINKING beyond the canopy

0

250

500

750

1000

1250

1500

1750

2000

2250

2500

2750

3000

3250

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Year

yiel

d (

kg/h

a)

No Shade,Fertilizer

No Shade,No Fertilizer

Shade,Fertilizer

Shade,No Fertilizer

challenge: How to compensate for losses resulting from low production because of shade?

* Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana(CRIG) annual reports1960-1982

Trade-off between socio-economic functions & ecological services

Shade vs. Cocoa production, Ghana*

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Main destinations of products from smallholder chocolate forest, Cameroon

Urban and peri-urban

VillageCocoa agoforest Abroad

CocoaMain proportion of cocoa beans

Small national transformation

Timber Commercialization of the main proportion

Constru-ction purpose

Edible NWFP and exotic plants

Commercialization of average proportion

Very little quantity

Household consumption

Shade plant species

Craft industry and other services

Potential that can help increase the service offer by cocoa AF

Trade-off between socio-economic functions & ecological services

Goods & services resulting from these components have not been fully commercialized

THINKING beyond the canopy

• Worldwide chocolate consumption is driving conversion of forest lands to orchard and agroforest in West and Central Africa

• Main ecological services (biodiversity conservation and carbon storage) offered by smallholders chocolate forests are due mainly to forest trees associated with cocoa

• The presence of shade trees reduce production of cocoa beans (the product with the more formal market) and thus the overall productivity of the land use

Conclusion

THINKING beyond the canopy

• Growing/maintaining trees in perennial farms is an option to diversify income, while contributing to ecological services (ex. biodiversity conservation & carbon storage).

But to make this effective at the smallholder level,

• Ownership of timber trees need to be realized/improved

• Local, national, and global stakeholders need to be engaged to address productivity, income and ecological services.

Conclusion

THINKING beyond the canopy

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