Vanilla Cultivation on Fallow Land Promotes Biodiversity
Published:13 Sep.2022 Source:University of Göttingen
How can biodiversity be preserved whilst securing the economic livelihood of smallholder farmers growing vanilla in Madagascar? There is a way, according to a new study. The research team shows that vanilla plantations established on fallow land do not differ in terms of yield from those established in the forest. Cultivation on fallow land also increases biodiversity there.
If the farmers planted the vanilla more densely or increased the length of the vanilla plants, the harvest was higher, but the number of tree and reptile species decreased. However, this had no negative impact on birds, amphibians, butterflies, ants and herbaceous plants. "We also observed that species diversity can be increased by high tree cover on plantations and in the landscape," says co-author Professor Teja Tscharntke, an agricultural ecologist at Göttingen University. Co-author Professor Ingo Grass, ecologist for tropical agricultural systems at the University of Hohenheim, adds: "Promoting vanilla cultivation on fallow land is ecologically and economically significant. This contributes to the current UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration. In addition, this study illustrates possibilities for promoting and conserving biodiversity outside protected areas."