The great mistake of plantation programs in cocoa agroforests-Let's bet on natural regeneration to sustainably provide timber wood

Cocoa production has been one of the main drivers of forest loss in West Africa. In the resulting post-forest landscapes, agroforestry has often been recognised as a solution to reconcile the preservation of trees and agriculture. Thus, a large number of tree plantation programs have been carried out in cocoa fields. Despite these major investments, the success of these plantations as a tool for reforestation of landscapes and sustainable timber production has never really been evaluated in fields where remnant trees, spontaneous trees and (trans) planted trees coexist. To quantify the current and future timber resource, we inventoried all trees in 150 cocoa fields distributed along the bioclimatic and historical gradients of the cocoa production area of Cote d'Ivoire, the world's leading producer. Our results show that (i) 19.6% of all associated trees are timber species, (ii) in plots where farmers actually introduced trees by planting, only 13.1% of trees have been (trans)planted, (iii) 69.7% of the current timber volume comes from remnant trees and (iv) spontaneous trees constitute 77% of the future timber resource. Based on our results, we propose 23 species along with their cultivation methods for the renewal of timber resource in cocoa fields. Overall, our results show the failure of plantation programs in cocoa fields and suggest to bet on natural regeneration to sustainably provide timber wood. Consequently, private companies supplying trees to farmers should focus on species that are complementary to those already present in natural regeneration. At the landscape level, remnant trees and residual forests should be preserved to maintain propagule sources. Finally, investments in reforestation of cocoa fields should be redirected towards training small farmers in silvicultural management techniques such as assisted natural regeneration and tree pruning.

Automated summary

Cocoa production has led to significant forest loss in West Africa. Agroforestry has been proposed as a solution to balance trees and agriculture, leading to tree plantation programs in cocoa fields. However, the success of these programs has not been evaluated in areas with remnant, spontaneous, and planted trees. We conducted an inventory of 150 cocoa fields in Cote d'Ivoire and found that a majority of timber resources come from remnant and spontaneous trees. We suggest focusing on natural regeneration and training farmers in silvicultural management techniques to sustainably provide timber wood in cocoa fields.