Agroforests in the Humid Tropics: vanishing in SouthEast Asia, expanding in Africa

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-dIvoire, 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 Sumatras
  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 dun 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 1980s
• 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 1990s
• gtgtgt 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 NTFPs 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 researchand 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)