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Agroforests in the Humid Tropics: vanishing in South-East Asia, expanding in Africa?

Agroforests in the Humid Tropics: vanishing in South-East Asia, expanding in Africa?. Hubert de Foresta IRD – AMAP Montpellier France WCA II, Nairobi August 2009. Agroforest dynamics at landscape scale. South – East Asia: Malaysia, Thailand: almost completely vanished

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Agroforests in the Humid Tropics: vanishing in South-East Asia, expanding in Africa?

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  1. Agroforests in the Humid Tropics: vanishing in South-East Asia, expanding in Africa? Hubert de Foresta IRD – AMAP Montpellier France WCA II, Nairobi August 2009

  2. Agroforest dynamics at landscape scale • South – East Asia: • Malaysia, Thailand: almost completely vanished • Indonesia: on-going conversion • Africa: • Guinea, Cameroun, Ethiopia: expansion • Ghana: on-going conversion (Ruf, 2008) • Togo, Côte-d’Ivoire, others: no report…

  3. Agroforest dynamics landscape scale • South – East Asia: On-going conversion of Rubber agroforests in Sumatra - Ekadinata A. and G. Vincent, 2004: Assessing landcover in the Bungo district, Jambi, using multitemporal imagery. SAU Working Document, vol. 12, pp 1-19. - de Foresta H., 2008: Forêts et foresteries dans les régions tropicales. In Hallé F. et Lieutaghi P. (eds) Aux origines des plantes, vol. 2 Editions Fayard, Paris, pp 138 – 155. - Feintrenie L. and P. Levang, 2009: Sumatra’s rubber agroforests: advent, rise and fall of a sustainable cropping system. Small-scale Forestry. DOI 10.1007/s11842-009-9086-2 • Africa:On-going expansion of Coffee agroforests in Guinée Forestière, Guinea, and Cocoa agroforests in central Cameroun - Camara A.A., 2007: Dynamiques régionales et systèmes ruraux en Guinée forestière. Vers la conception d’un observatoire pour le développement. PhD. Thesis, Avignon University, 272 pp. - Camara A.A., Jagoret P., Lamanda N. and J.M. Kalms. 2008. Une approche géoagronomique pour l'analyse comparative des dynamiques spatio-temporelles des systèmes agroforestiers d'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre : Guinée – Cameroun. In : IRAG, CIRAD, IRD, ISAV. Atelier de réflexion Les agroforêts d'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre : dynamiques, performances et avenir ? du 11 au 15 novembre 2008 à Sérédou (Guinée): 9 pp. Research Need : duplication of such data supported studies regarding agroforest dynamics at landscape scale…

  4. Rubber agroforest, Sumatra • First ½ XXth century: the way to get rich… • Changing socio-economic context, especially since the 1980’s… • Dramatic progress in monospecific rubber plantation productivity, increasing demographic pressure, decreasing land availability, growing integration into the market economy, growing monetary needs… • Oil-palm as a new opportunity since mid 1990’s… • >>> Rubber agroforest: lower returns to labour and land… Massive on-going conversion of agroforests

  5. Coffee-based agroforests, Guinea Relatively high population pressure (ca. 70 inh./km2), but… • A low level of integration into the market economy… • Coffee production is « The » way to get monetary income… • The agroforest canopy trees provide a number and variety of NTFP’s useful and used in the daily life for household consumption… Expansion of agroforests at the expense of rainfed rice rotating cropping system…

  6. Which future for agroforests? • Agroforests are doomed to disappear when countries develop and rural areas increasingly integrate the globalized market economy… • If nothing is done to support agroforests…

  7. Which future for agroforests? • Why support agroforests? • Because agriculture is not only about food prodution, but also about managing the environment (« multifunctionality », a corollary of the sustainable development paradigm). • Because in developed countries, the current trend for agricultural research and policy is to re-integrate biodiversity into agriculture. • Agri-environmental schemes financially supporting biodiversity friendly agricultural practices; • Agriculture and Biodiversity Action Plan (France, May 2009): « generalize agricultural practices favouring biodiversity »! • Because in agroforests, agricultural production and biodiversity conservation already go hand in hand…

  8. Which future for agroforests? • What can be done to support agroforests? improve competitiveness of agroforests by increasing their profitability without threatening their environmental value… • Site-specific, system specific, improvements: a room for cropping-systems agroforestry research… • Rubber (a canopy tree) / Coffee (an understorey tree) • Guinée (rainfed rice) / Cameroon (Cassava, yam, plantain) • Generic improvements: a room for policy-oriented agroforestry research…and for policy… • Timber: agroforests everywhere offer a favourable environment for raising high value timber • Payment for environmental services, especially biodiversity conservation (with adaptations to site and system specificity…)

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