Plant species diversity in cocoa and rubber tree landscapes in Côte d’Ivoire

Abstract

In Côte d’Ivoire, although slash and burn practice, particularly associated with cocoa and rubber farming, have greatly contributed to the degradation of forest cover and biodiversity loss. There is a dearth of studies documenting the latter. A study was conducted in the central-west and southern regions respectively with the objective to bridge this gap by assessing the diversity of trees species in cocoa and rubber landscapes. An inventory of tree species in eighteen cocoa and rubber plantations was conducted respectively in 45 plots of 400 m² each. Also, 15 plots of the same area were delimited in forests considered as reference systems. Cocoa plantations are 8 times richer than rubber plantations. Moreover, tree density varied from 36 to 56.8 stems.ha-1 in cocoa plantations including 6 species with special-status for conservation and from 0 to 5 stems.ha-1 in rubber plantations. This study confirmed that rubber farming is a driver of tree diversity loss thereby revealing the need to work out credible rubber agroforestry options. As for cocoa farming, the high diversity of companion trees is indicative of the high potential of transitioning to cocoa agroforestry. The contribution of this study to agroecological transition based on cocoa and rubber agroforestry in Côte d’Ivoire is discussed.