Publications des agents du Cirad

Cirad

First typology of cacao agroforests in the Colombian Amazon, based on composition, structure and light availability

Suárez Salazar J.C., Melgarejo L.M., Di Rienzo J.A., Casanoves F., Ngo Bieng M.A.. 2019. In : Dupraz Christian (ed.), Gosme Marie (ed.), Lawson Gerry (ed.). 4th World Congress on Agroforestry. Book of abstracts. Montpellier : CIRAD; INRA, p. 158. World Congress on Agroforestry. 4, 2019-05-20/2019-05-22, Montpellier (France).

The cultivation of cocoa in Colombia are of key social importance. Indeed cacao plays a prime role in post conflict resolution as it is the legal crop to replace illicit crops. In the current context of the need of combating climate change, cacao agroforests are also expected to be a sustainable practice, promoting forest-friendly land use. In that context, it is necessary to describe accurately these systems, and especially accounting for their potential in terms of biodiversity conservation. Aim In this work, we present a first a typology of cacao agroforest systems in Colombian Amazonia, systems that had yet to be described in the literature. This typology is based on tree species richness, canopy structure and light availability. Material and Methods We worked in 50 agroforest plots of 2000m² each, in the Bajo Caguán area of the department of Caquetá, in the Colombian Amazonia. In each plot, we measured variables of composition (diversity of plants associated with cacao trees) and variables of vertical and spatial structure (height layers, Diameter at Breast Height, basal area, shape and area of the crown, (x, y) positions of each individual plant in each plot. We also measured variables of radiation transmitted to cacao trees in the understorey: above the cacao canopy layer, we took hemispherical photographs and measured the intensity of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR, in umol m-2 s-1) using an AcuPAR LP-80 sensor. We included variables related to light availability to evaluate the amount of transmitted radiation to the cacao trees in each type, and its suitability for cacao ecophysiological development. We also use variables of spatial organization to model the distribution of light in each plot, using two models: Shademotion 4.0 to calculate the fraction of the average of shade hours and shade area in each agroforest plot and the Spatially individual-based Explicit Forest-Simulator to calculate the degree of canopy openness in each agroforest plot.

Mots-clés : agroforesterie; theobroma cacao; services écosystémiques; biodiversité forestière; amazonie; colombie

Documents associés

Communication de congrès

Agents Cirad, auteurs de cette publication :