Clash of the titans: structure, diversity and farmer decision-making in cocoa agroforest development on forest margins, Cameroon

With support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) the World Agroforestry Centre, (ICRAF), Africa humid tropics has been testing hypotheses since 2003, that, multi-strata, diverse cocoa agroforests, managed according to farm er’s decisions and with options for deliberately incorporating high value indigenous trees can help fight Poverty and meet Environmental objectives; thus mitigation this ‘clash of the titans’ of sustainable development in sensit ive forest margins of Cameroon. In order to better understand the tree integration co ntext and thereby make the process more relevant to farmer needs and sensitive to ecological questions, a study was carried out in some cocoa systems, with three overarching questions: (i) was large-scale integration of fruit and medicinal trees possible (ii) How do we ensure that, a useful multi-strata structure develops (iii) How do we balance ecological and socio-economic prerogatives This anthropocentric, above ground, study evaluated the spatial relationships between fruit and medicinal trees above 5 m in height within cocoa systems an d their ‘usefulness’ to farmers. In total, 6 hectares of non-contiguous, cocoa plantations we re sampled. Data comprised of (i) the shortest horizontal inter-tree distances between species, (ii) the height classes frequenc y and distribution, and (iii) ‘usefulness’ perception of trees. In carrying out these studies a number of statisti cally testable assumptions were made. We assumed with farmers that, tree integration would be favoured by, (i ) greater variation in shortest horizontal, inter-tree distances; (ii) a 3:1 ratio with respect to fruit, to medicinal/timber/shade trees, of height classes 11-15m and 20 m respectively, where the in termediate classes of, >5 10m (cocoa, young trees, etc) and >15

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