Tropical Biomes and the Traditional Land-Use Systems Practiced in the Tropics

Tropical Agroforestry Alain Atangana • Damase Khasa Scott Chang • Ann Degrande Tropical Agroforestry 1 3 Alain Atangana Scott Chang Renewable Resources Renewable Resources University of Alberta University of Alberta Edmonton Edmonton Canada Canada Institute of Integrative Ann Degrande and Systems Biology West and Central Africa Regional Program Université Laval World Agroforestry Centre 2208 Pavillon C.-E. Marchand Yaounde Quebec G1V 0A6 Cameroon Canada Damase Khasa Forest and Wood Sciences Université Laval Quebec Canada ISBN 978-94-007-7722-4 ISBN 978-94-007-7723-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7723-1 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2013951527 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Preface Agroforestry, the deliberate introduction or retention of trees on farmlands, is wide- ly recognized as a sustainable land-use management practice, including for tropical landscapes that are threatened as a result of non-sustainable land-use practices. There is a need to promote environmentally friendly land management practices and tropical ecosystems that provide local people with their everyday needs for food, cash, shelter and medicine, among others. Agroforestry is a land-use practice that has come of age. Agroforestry techniques have been practiced traditionally worldwide for millennia. Since the recognition of agroforestry as a discipline of agricultural science, numerous institutions have been dedicated to agroforestry research either on a global scale (e.g., the World Agroforestry Centre, formerly known as the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, ICRAF) or regionally. In addition, agroforestry curricula have been developed for undergraduate and gradu- ate trainings in many universities. Agroforestry practices have been particularly popular in the tropics. Despite rapid developments in agroforestry practices and improvements in agroforestry theory, textbooks on tropical agroforestry are lacking. The authoritative textbook on agroforestry by Nair (1993) was published 20 years ago, and that was before the advent of tree domestication, an important agroforestry practice today. In addition, many other research activities and emerging issues, such as agroforestry for integrated pest management, biofuel production, carbon sequestration, mitiga- tion of climate change and REDD + (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, including conservation and sustainable management of forests and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks) mechanism, have become prominent in the agroforestry agenda of recent years. Therefore, there is an urgent need to de- velop and make available up-to-date educational material on tropical agroforestry for teaching agroforestry to students in agroforestry programs in general, and to students in tropical regions in particular. This textbook strives to provide up-to-date information on tropical agroforestry and, thus, to provide educational material spe- cific to the tropical context. This textbook is intended for agroforestry students, teachers and practitioners. This textbook is divided into five main parts. Part I describes the tropical biomes and the traditional land-use systems practiced in the tropics. It also highlights the v vi Preface negative impact of non-sustainable land-use systems on land and forest resources. This background is followed by an introduction to agroforestry, including the ra- tionale, history and definition of agroforestry, and the description of major agroforestry systems that are found in the humid and semiarid tropics. Agroforestry tree domestication in the tropics constitutes the fourth and last chapter of the first part of the textbook. In Part II, the benefits and services of agroforestry systems, including tree-crop interactions, nitrogen fixation and mycorrhizal associations, soil conservation, carbon sequestration, biodiversity and integrated pest management in agroforestry are discussed. Research methods in agroforestry, including diagnosing methods, experimental design and on-farm research are covered in Part III. Part IV deals with economic and cultural considerations in agroforestry. The last section, Part V, provides an outlook on agroforestry in the 21st century. Lastly, this part cov- ers biofuel production, phytoremediation, carbon markets, and modeling in tropical agroforestry. As this is the first edition of the textbook, errors and omissions are unavoid- able. The authors would greatly appreciate feedback from readers, instructors, and students who use this textbook for their agroforestry classes. Suggestions and comments can be sent to any of the four authors: [email protected] (ARA), [email protected] (DPK), [email protected] (SXC) and [email protected] (AD). The authors Acknowledgments The completion of this textbook was mainly supported by the International Office of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (formerly the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)) through a project on training and management of natural resources in the Congo Basin (FOGRN). The CIDA-funded project was a collaborative effort led by Université Laval with the aim of strengthening forestry and agroforestry training in three countries most rep- resentative of the Congo Basin: Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cameroon and Gabon. Project partners were the University of Alberta, Centre d’enseignement et de recherche en foresterie (CERFO), Oxfam-Québec (Canada), and eight institutions in the Congo Basin: University of Dschang and École nationale des eaux et forêts-ENEF (Cameroon); École nationale des eaux et forêts-ENEF (Gabon); the Institut supérieur d’études agronomiques (ISÉA) de Tshéla, Institut supérieur agro-véterinaire (ISAV) Kimwenza, Université de Kinshasa, and the École régio- nale d’aménagement intégré des forêts et territoires tropicaux-ERAIFT (DRC); and the Réseau des institutions de formation forestière et environnementale d’Afrique centrale-RIFFEAC (Cameroon). We are indebted to CIDA for funding this project. We also acknowledge the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for partially supporting this work through funding to the Univer- sity of Alberta (SXC) and Université Laval (DPK). Many people provided photos for this textbook. We thank Prof. Roger Leakey, Drs. Serge Bobo Kadiri (University of Dschang), Jules Bayala (ICRAF), and Pierre- Marie Mapongmetsem (University of Ngaoundéré, Cameroon) for their support. We also thank Dr. Bill Parsons (Centre for Forest Research, University of Sherbrooke, Canada) and Ms. Kether Hayden for providing language editing of earlier drafts of this textbook. Dr. Estelle Campagnac (IBIS, Université Laval) provided useful comments on an earlier draft of the eightieth chapter of this textbook. Dr. Julie Godbout provided drawings for this textbook. The authors vii Table of Contents Part I Tropical Biomes, Land Use Issues and Introduction to Agroforestry Systems 1 Tropical Biomes: Their Classification, Description and Importance �� 3 1.1 Tropical biomes: Classification and Description �� 3 1.1.1 Classification of Biomes Based on Climate �� 4 1.1.2 Other Classification Systems of Biomes �� 8 1.1.3 Main Tropical Humid and Semiarid Biomes �� 12 1.2 The Importance of Tropical Forest and Semiarid Ecosystems �� 18 Bibliography �� 20 2 Major Land Use Issues in the Tropics, and the History of Agroforestry ��.................................................................. 23 2.1 Introduction �� 23 2.1.1 Impacts of Traditional Natural Resource Use on Tropical Ecosystems �� 24 2.1.2 History of Agroforestry �� 27 Bibliography �� 31 3 Definitions and Classification of Agroforestry Systems �� 35 3.1 Introduction �� 35 3.1.1 Definition of Agroforestry �� 35 3.1.2 Some Basic Concepts in Agroforestry �� 37 3.1.3 Classification of Agroforestry Systems �� 38 Bibliography �� 47 4 Major Agroforestry Systems of the Humid Tropics �� 49 4.1 Introduction �� 49 4.2 Homegardens ��

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