Agroforestry and Biodiversity Conservation in Tropical Landscapes

Chapter 7

Achieving Biodiversity Conservation

Using Conservation Concessions

to Complement Agroforestry

Eduard Niesten, Shelley Ratay, and Richard Rice

Throughout the tropics, cultivation of agricultural commodities drives habi-
tat conversion and biodiversity loss (McNeely and Scherr 2001). A role clearly
exists for targeted interventions to decelerate and mitigate the impacts of this
process, and in many cases agroforestry presents an alternative that is prefer-
able to clearcuts and monocultures. However, from a strict conservation
perspective, agroforestry systems are a compromise rather than a solution
(Terborgh and van Schaik 1997). Although agroforestry initiatives can create
corridors or buffer zones in a patchwork of forest and production areas, they
nevertheless impose a disturbance on the ecosystem; given a choice, biodiver-
sity protection is better served by continuous intact habitat than by the
fragmentation inherent in a patchwork (Laurance and Bierregaard 1997).
Moreover, agroforestry systems may or may not be sustainable in the medium
to long term and therefore offer uncertain outcomes even where adopted as a
conservation strategy.
Agroforestry rests on the premise that forests and the natural resource base
must generate income from a flow of products to benefit farmers. Confining
income to that which can be generated from flows of physical output limits
the scope for action by conservation interests and income opportunities for
local stakeholders. The danger of exclusively linking income to production is
particularly well illustrated in areas with deteriorating economic prospects for

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