Cocoa plantations in Côte d’Ivoire are usually portrayed as clear-cut zones where a monoculture crowds out all living things. However, a recent study has shown that these lands already host at least 1,05 billion young wild trees of 272 species.
The country has lost vast areas of forest — from 16 million hectares at the beginning of the twentieth century to less than three million today. The main cause is agricultural expansion. Traditional restoration programmes rely on nurseries and the planting of saplings. The new data suggest a different approach: making use of what is already sprouting on its own.
Researchers from CIRAD and Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny surveyed 145 plantations in 15 districts in the south of the country. In 725 sample plots they counted all young trees less than 10 centimetres in diameter, including tiny seedlings. It turned out that where farmers leave mature trees standing, natural regeneration proceeds noticeably more actively and with greater diversity.
The estimate of 1,05 billion trees across the entire cocoa area — 3,7 million hectares — is conservative. The real figure may prove higher. These trees emerge from seeds carried by wind and animals and represent a ready resource for restoring forest cover without additional planting costs.
The results are consistent with the national PPREF and SPREF strategy, whose goal is to bring the country’s forest cover up to 20 percent. Helping natural regeneration — preserving mature trees and protecting young seedlings — is becoming a cost-effective complement to traditional methods. In young and heavily simplified plantings, planting is still necessary, but in mature agroforestry systems the priority shifts towards supporting what is already growing.
The study was published in Restoration Ecology and carried out within the Cocoa4Future project. It shows that cocoa agrolandscapes do not necessarily become “ecological dead ends.”
By preserving mature trees on their plantations, farmers simultaneously support the future forest and their own harvest.
