![]() Vanilla agroforests are either established through conversion of forest or on fallow land 15. The hemi-epiphytic vanilla orchid is typically grown in agroforests on support trees in combination with shade trees 24, 25. The high world market price of vanilla over the last years brought great socioeconomic benefits for Malagasy smallholders, incentivizing the expansion of vanilla cultivation 22, 23. Madagascar is the biggest producer of vanilla worldwide 21, with a majority produced by smallholders 22. Madagascar has exceptionally high rates of endemism 18 but faces great challenges in biodiversity conservation and human development in the face of extreme poverty 19, 20. Here, we focus on vanilla agroforestry in Madagascar (Supplementary Fig. Furthermore, the productivity of agroforestry systems is decisive for their overall biodiversity value, because low-yielding agroforestry systems need more land to meet the same demands as provided by high-yielding monocultures, possibly leading to more forest conversion and biodiversity loss on a landscape-level 16. Surprisingly, despite decades of research in agroforestry, land-use history is not considered in most studies on tropical agroforestry 15. cropland, pastures, fallow, or degraded land) or by thinning of forest 14, 15. Whether tropical agroforests contribute to halting deforestation or accelerate biodiversity declines thus depends on their land-use history, meaning whether they are established on open land (i.e. ![]() However, agroforestry may also result in biodiversity losses if established at the expense of forests 12, 13. This is of particular importance for degraded land that has much reduced biodiversity and services provisioning 10, and which makes up large shares of tropical landscapes characterized by subsistence agriculture and shifting cultivation 11. Agroforestry opens up promising opportunities for ecosystem restoration 8, 9, but more system-specific knowledge is needed for an even wider implementation of win–win solutions. ![]() In this context, degradation represents the decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services, and restoration aims to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems 6, 7. Restoration is an approach, that can at least partially restore levels of biodiversity and ecosystem services 6. In order to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems, the United Nations has declared the years 2021–2030 as the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 5. Solutions to the resulting ecological-economic trade-offs are urgently needed, especially in tropical landscapes that undergo rapid transformation 4. Increases in agricultural productivity are typically achieved at the cost of biodiversity 2, 3. Vanilla yields were generally unrelated to richness of trees, herbaceous plants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and ants, opening up possibilities for conservation outside of protected areas and restoring degraded land to benefit farmers and biodiversity alike.Īgricultural expansion and intensification are the main drivers of today’s biodiversity crisis 1. Nonetheless, trade-offs existed between yields and butterflies as well as reptiles. While yields increased with vanilla vine density and length, non-yield related variables largely determined biodiversity. In contrast, agroforests established on fallows had overall 12% more species and 38% more endemic species than fallows. Agroforests established in forests supported overall 23% fewer species and 47% fewer endemic species than old-growth forests, and 14% fewer endemic species than forest fragments. ![]() Here, we focused on the relation between seven different taxa (trees, herbaceous plants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, butterflies, and ants) and yields in vanilla agroforests in Madagascar. Resolving ecological-economic trade-offs between biodiversity and yields is a key challenge when addressing the biodiversity crisis in tropical agricultural landscapes. Nature Communications volume 13, Article number: 4127 ( 2022) Lala Harivelo Raveloson Ravaomanarivo 7 &.Win-win opportunities combining high yields with high multi-taxa biodiversity in tropical agroforestry ![]()
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