Search Results (13)

Forest certification has become an important market-based tool for promoting environmental sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and improved governance across agricultural and forest production systems. This state-of-the-art (SotA) review examines forest and cocoa certification schemes in Brazil, focusing on cocoa-based agroforestry systems in southern Bahia. Major programs, including the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Brazilian Forest Certification Program (Cerflor), Instituto Biodinâmico (IBD), UTZ Certified (UTZ), Rainforest Alliance (RA), and Geographical Indication (GI) systems, were analyzed for implementation, sustainability outcomes, and accessibility across producer groups. This SotA review identifies persistent barriers to certification adoption, including high costs, complex regulations, limited technical capacity, and unequal access among producers. Certification adoption varies substantially among producer groups, with cooperatives playing a critical role as intermediaries that reduce barriers and facilitate market access. Finally, this SotA review proposes a conceptual classification of cocoa producers and an AI-enabled perspective for deforestation-free certification in biodiversity hotspots such as southern Bahia, offering new insights into sustainable cocoa production and forest conservation. Full article

Coastal regions of Ecuador, particularly Esmeraldas and Manabí, face significant challenges related to energy access, waste management, and sustainable agricultural development. This study evaluates the renewable energy potential of cocoa waste biomass generated by smallholder farms in these provinces. A total of 20 cocoa farms, either certified or in the process of certification under the Rainforest Alliance standard, were surveyed to quantify the volume of agricultural and agro-industrial residues. Residual biomass generation ranged from 50 to 6500 tons per year, depending on farm size, planting density, and management practices. Spatial analysis revealed that Esmeraldas holds the highest concentration of cocoa waste biomass, with some farms reaching a gross energy potential of up to 89.07 TJ/year. Using thermochemical conversion scenarios, effective energy potential was estimated, and 75% of the farms exceeded the viability threshold of 100 MWh/year. The results confirm the feasibility of cocoa biomass as a renewable energy source, mainly when managed collectively at the community level. Incorporating this waste into decentralized energy systems supports circular economy models, enhances energy self-sufficiency, and aligns with sustainable supply chain goals promoted by certification schemes. This study contributes to national efforts in energy diversification and provides a replicable model for integrating renewable energy into rural agricultural systems. Full article

Coffee production faces major sustainability issues and consumers increasingly look to choose certified coffee as awareness grows. While consumers’ understanding of sustainability issues is limited, independent voluntary certification schemes such as Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, and certified organic—three high-profile schemes—can play a role in future-proofing coffee production through standard-setting. These schemes can also inform consumers about sustainability issues from economic, environmental, and social perspectives, thus driving up demand for sustainably grown coffee, and supporting an enabling environment for farmers and coffee-producing countries to improve the status quo. Sustainably grown coffee ensures that farmers sustain production while protecting the environment and the income that farmers rely on to maintain their livelihood. Based on a thematic analysis and synthesis of previous studies, this paper examines the social, economic, and environmental effects of voluntary certification schemes for coffee production. It evaluates the current state of coffee production and explores how certification schemes can be effective in encouraging more sustainable practices among producers. Three major voluntary certification schemes are evaluated to identify the impacts on producers, including key barriers and enablers to comply with sustainability standards and to determine how fit-for-purpose certification schemes are in assuring future sustainable coffee production. Full article

Despite the important role that flower-visiting insects play in agricultural production, none of the previous studies of coffee pollinators in Colombia have incorporated functional diversity into their analysis. Therefore, this study aimed to quantify the abundance, richness, and functional diversity of insects that visit flowers in coffee crops. Twenty-eight plots were selected among five sites in the north, center, and south of Colombia. In each plot, coffee flower insect visitors were collected and recorded on 90 trees at eight-minute intervals per tree, at three different times over three days. All sampling was carried out during two flowering events per year, over three years, resulting in a total of 1240 h of observations. Subsequently, the insects were taxonomically identified, and the number of individuals and species, as well as the diversity of the order q, were estimated. Functional diversity was also characterized in the bee community. The results: (a) 23,735 individuals belonging to 566 species were recorded; of them, 90 were bees, with the native species being the most abundant during 10:30 and 13:00 h; (b) bees formed five functional groups, with corbiculate and long-tongued non-corbiculate bees being the most abundant and occupying the largest regions of functional space; (c) potential pollinators in coffee crops are Apis mellifera, Nannotrigona gaboi, Tetragonisca angustula, Geotrigona cf. tellurica, and Partamona cf. peckolti. Coffee crops host a wide diversity of flower visitors, especially bees, which could be beneficial for productivity and contribute to the maintenance of plant species that accompany coffee cultivation. Full article

(1) Background: The participation of insects in the pollination of self-pollinating plants, such as coffee, is still controversial. This study determined the effect of flower-visiting insects on coffee berry set, yield, and quality. (2) Methods: Over 2 years, five evaluations in different locations, dates, and harvest times were carried out. Each evaluation consisted of eight treatments with 50 replicates each, arranged in a completely randomized experimental design. Treatments were established to identify the contribution of insects, wind, gravity, self-pollination, and cross-pollination to coffee yield and quality. (3) Results: The insects contributed 16.3% of the berry set, 26.9% of the berry coffee yield, and 30.6% of the weight of supremo-type beans. No differences were observed in the sensory quality of coffee produced with or without insects. For stigma receptivity, results indicate that there is a 6.3% probability of self-pollination during pre-anthesis. (4) Conclusions: The species Coffea arabica, despite being a self-pollinating plant, benefits from the presence of flower-visiting insects. During anthesis, arabica coffee flowers are ready for cross-pollination. Full article

This work is a phytosociological approach to the montane rainforests of Peru with the aim of advancing on the diversity of plant communities, which we had already begun in previous research. From 364 phytosociological plots and 3389 species of the South American tropics, we have developed a cluster, using the Sørensen index, to know the similarities between the forests and their parallelism with bioclimatic conditions. After studying the existence of characteristic groups of the Peruvian forests, we have established different communities and phytosociological units for Peru. As a result, we have described seven associations, within three new alliances, which are gathered in the new order Saurauio peruvianae-Condaminetalia corymbosae of the new class Morello pubescentis-Myrsinetea coriaceae. In addition, two associations have been described within the class Pruno rigidae-Oreopanacetea floribundae (mesotropical laurel-like forests), and three for the class Alnetea acuminatae (alder forests and palm groves). The humid forests of Peru are closer to those of Ecuador and to those of the set formed by the three Colombian mountain ranges than to those of Bolivia and Argentina, due to the common flora these share with areas of Paraguay and even of the Parana River region. Full article

The study of the forest in rainy environments of the Dominican Republic reveals the presence of four types of vegetation formations, clearly differentiated from each other in terms of their floristic and biogeographical composition, and also significantly different from the rainforests of Cuba. This leads us to propose two new alliances and four plant associations located in northern mountain areas exposed to moisture-laden winds from the Atlantic: All. Rondeletio ochraceae-Clusion roseae (Ass. Cyatheo furfuracei-Prestoetum motanae; Ass. Ormosio krugii-Prestoetum montanae); and All. Rondeletio ochraceae-Didymopanion tremuli (Ass. Hyeronimo montanae-Magnolietum pallescentis; Hyeronimo dominguensis-Magnolietum hamorii). We pay special attention to the description of cloud forest types, since they have a high rate of endemic species, and therefore there are endemic habitats, which need special protective actions. Therefore, we apply the Shannon diversity index to characteristic, companion, non-endemic, and endemic species. As result, the association Ormosio krugii-Prestoetum montanae has a Shannon_T = 2.4 and a value of Shannon_E = 0, whereas the other 3 associations have a better conservation status with Shannon values in all cases > 0: This is due to a worse conservation status of the Eastern Cordillera, in comparison with the Central Cordillera and Sierra de Bhaoruco. Due to human activity, some areas are very poorly conserved, as evidenced by the diversity index and the presence of endemic tree and plant elements. The worst conserved in terms of the relationship between characteristic plants vegetation (cloud forest) in areas with high rainfall are in the Dominican Republic, along with its floristic diversity and state of conservation. This study has made it possible to significantly increase the botanical knowledge of this important habitat. Full article

Plantations support local economies and rural livelihoods in many mountainous regions, where poverty and a fragile environment are often interlinked. Managing plantations sustainably and alleviating poverty is a major challenge. This study reports on the findings of a household livelihood survey in the central mountainous region of Hainan Island, a global biodiversity hotspot. The survey aimed to identify rural household livelihoods, strategies to lift rural households out of poverty and potential environmental consequences of different livelihood strategies. Households were divided into five groups based on their main source of income: plantations, crops, livestock, local off-farm income and remittances. Plantations were the main source of income for 74% of households and provided 46% of the total income. Plantation land area, planting diverse tree species and intercropping were significantly associated with higher income. Reallocating land by family size could increase the proportion of households above the poverty line in the plantation group from 51.3% to 85.3%, while making only 3.3% of households worse off. Lower income households tended to apply more chemicals to plantations, which suggests that they create more strain on the environment. Improving household income through dynamically allocating plantation land and diversifying planted species could therefore be beneficial both socially and environmentally. Our results emphasize the importance of dynamic plantation land allocation and diverse plantation planting in poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability. Full article

Expansion of large-scale tree plantations for commodity crop and timber production is a leading cause of tropical deforestation. While automated detection of plantations across large spatial scales and with high temporal resolution is critical to inform policies to reduce deforestation, such mapping is technically challenging. Thus, most available plantation maps rely on visual inspection of imagery, and many of them are limited to small areas for specific years. Here, we present an automated approach, which we call Plantation Analysis by Learning from Multiple Classes (PALM), for mapping plantations on an annual basis using satellite remote sensing data. Due to the heterogeneity of land cover classes, PALM utilizes ensemble learning to simultaneously incorporate training samples from multiple land cover classes over different years. After the ensemble learning, we further improve the performance by post-processing using a Hidden Markov Model. We implement the proposed automated approach using MODIS data in Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan). To validate the classification, we compare plantations detected using our approach with existing datasets developed through visual interpretation. Based on random sampling and comparison with high-resolution images, the user’s accuracy and producer’s accuracy of our generated map are around 85% and 80% in our study region. Full article

Shaded perennial agroforestry systems (AFS) are regarded as desirable land-use practices that improve soil carbon sequestration. However, most studies assume a positive correlation between above ground and below ground carbon without considering the effect of past and current land management, textural variations (silt and clay percentage), and such other site-specific factors that have a major influence on the extent of soil C sequestration. We assessed SOC stock at various depths (0–10, 10–30, 30–60, and 60–100 cm) in shaded perennial coffee (Coffea arabica L.) AFS in a 17-year-old experimental field at the Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza, (9°53′44′′ N, 83°40′7′′ W; soil type: Ultisols and Inceptisols, Turrialba, Costa Rica. The treatments included coffee (Coffea arabica L.) grown conventionally (with chemical fertilizers) and organically (without chemical fertilizers) under two shade trees, Erythrina poeppigiana (Walp.) O.F. Cook., and Terminalia Amazonia J.F.Gmel., Sun Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) (Sole stand of coffee without shade), and Native Forest. Three replicated composite soil samples were collected from each system for each depth class, and SOC stocks in three soil aggregate fractions (2000–250 µm, 250–53 µm, and <53 µm) and in the whole soil determined. The total SOC stocks were highest under forest (146.6 Mg C ha⁻¹) and lowest under sun coffee (92.5 Mg C ha⁻¹). No significant differences were noted in SOC stock within coffee AFS and sun coffee across fraction sizes and depth classes. Organic management of coffee under heavily pruned E. poeppigiana, with pruned litter returned to soil, increased SOC stocks for 0–10 cm depth soil only. High input of organic materials including pruned litter did not improve SOC stocks in deeper soil, whereas variations in silt and clay percentages had a significant effect on SOC stocks. The study suggests that high amounts of aboveground biomass alone are not a good indicator of increased SOC storage in AFS, particularly for soils of sites with historical characteristics and management similar to this study. Full article

To tackle the multiple challenges facing the cocoa sector, voluntary sustainability standards and corporate initiatives, largely focusing on farm and farmer group scale, are often implemented by public–private–civil society partnerships of stakeholders further in the value chain. This paper looks at the social, economic, and environmental effects of such initiatives, based on empirical evidence from large-scale, mixed-method studies using a suite of socioeconomic, agronomic, and environmental indicators to compare the situation of UTZ certified with non-certified farmers in 2012 and 2015 in Ghana, and 2013 and 2017 in Ivory Coast. The results show that, on average, outcomes are mixed and generally modest. However, significant cocoa productivity and income increases were experienced by certified farmers receiving a full package of services. However, the type and intensity of services has changed over time, decreasing for half of the farmers, and productivity and income increases are levelling off. These findings suggest that whilst partnerships have created new governance arrangements with an increased focus on sustainable value chains, initiatives which result in a living income and optimise productivity, whilst limiting environmental impacts, require sectoral transformation, continued partnerships, plus a range of other policy instruments to address the persistent, wicked problems in cocoa production. Full article

Rural telecommunications projects in developing regions have a long history of unsuccessful experiences due to the complexity of such projects: Practically none of the dimensions of integral sustainability are straight forward in such projects. When sustainability becomes a priority, it is difficult for traditional alliances of development to account for all critical success factors. In the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, some institutions have developed rural telecommunications projects along the Napo River during the last 10 years. The experience has shown at each stage what aspects of sustainability were not taken into account because the partners involved did not have all the needed capacities, and this has made the alliances of partners evolve in a sustainability-driven manner. This paper analyzes these cases and assesses how sustainability has evolved in relation to the structure of such alliances. Full article

Private sustainability standards are increasingly important in food trade with developing countries, but the implications for smallholder farmers are still poorly understood. We analyze the implications of different coffee certification schemes in Ethiopia using cross-sectional survey data, and regression and propensity-score-matching techniques. We find that: Rainforest Alliance (RA) and double Fairtrade-Organic (FT-Org) certifications are associated with higher incomes and reduced poverty, mainly because of higher prices; Fairtrade (FT) certification hardly affects welfare; and Organic (Org) certification reduces incomes, chiefly due to lower yields. Cooperative heterogeneity importantly shapes these results. Results imply that private standards may not always deliver what they promise to consumers. Full article