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Tropical Rainforests and Agroforests under Global Change pp 461–476Cite as

Contribution of agroforestry to biodiversity and livelihoods improvement in rural communities of Southern African regions

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Part of the book series: Environmental Science and Engineering ((ENVSCIENCE))

Abstract

It has been widely documented that the traditional farming system of shifting cultivation contributes to huge annual losses of forest cover, altering the structure and distribution of species resulting in loss of biodiversity. On the other hand, formal institutional approaches to natural forest biodiversity conservation focused on protecting the tree species in parks and reserves while neglecting their conservation in farming systems. Improved agroforestry systems (AFS) such as improved fallows that mimic shifting cultivation and other AFS provide benefits that contribute to rural livelihoods, improved socioeconomic status and ecosystem functioning of land use systems. Recently, there is an increasing recognition of the contribution of agroforestry to improve ecosystem services and livelihoods especially in rural areas. Compared with subsistence agriculture, AFS provides added benefit by generating cash income from the marketing of diverse products. In southern Africa, research that aims to addressed biodiversity and socio-economic issues includes domestication of diverse priority indigenous fruit tree species; and the evaluation of soil fertility replenishing Agroforestry technologies. This paper discusses the contribution of the natural forest resource and AFS to the improvement of the socio-economic livelihoods of smallholder farmers and the promotion of the conservation of biodiversity drawing on evidence from research conducted in southern Africa over the last two decades.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Copperbelt University, School of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 21692, Kitwe, Zambia

    Kanungwe Felix Kalaba & Stephen Syampungani

  2. Department of Forest and Wood Science, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, 7602, South Africa

    Paxie Chirwa

  3. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), P. O. Box 30798, Lilongwe 03, Malawi

    Clifford Oluyede Ajayi

Authors
  1. Kanungwe Felix Kalaba
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  2. Paxie Chirwa
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  3. Stephen Syampungani
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  4. Clifford Oluyede Ajayi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kanungwe Felix Kalaba .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. FG Agrarökologie, Univ. Göttingen, Waldweg 26, Göttingen, 37073, Germany

    Teja Tscharntke

  2. Albrecht-v.-Haller-Inst. für, Pflanzenwissenschaften, Universität Göttingen, Untere Karspüle 2, Göttingen, 37073, Germany

    Christoph Leuschner

  3. Fak. Forstwissenschaften u. Waldökologie, Inst. Forstbotanik, Universität Göttingen, Büsgenweg 2, Göttingen, 37077, Germany

    Edzo Veldkamp

  4. Inst. Geographie, Universität Göttingen, Goldschmidtstr. 5, Göttingen, 37077, Germany

    Heiko Faust

  5. Dept. Biology, Bogor Agricultural University, IPB Kampus Baranang Siang, Bogor, 16144, Indonesia

    Edi Guhardja

  6. Dept. Forest Management, Tadulako University, Kampus Bumi Tadulako, Tondo Palu, Indonesia

    Arifuddin Bidin

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Kalaba, K.F., Chirwa, P., Syampungani, S., Ajayi, C.O. (2010). Contribution of agroforestry to biodiversity and livelihoods improvement in rural communities of Southern African regions. In: Tscharntke, T., Leuschner, C., Veldkamp, E., Faust, H., Guhardja, E., Bidin, A. (eds) Tropical Rainforests and Agroforests under Global Change. Environmental Science and Engineering(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00493-3_22

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