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Coffee monoculture trends in tropical agroforested landscapes of Western Ghats (India)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2016

CÉDRIC GAUCHEREL ,
JULIE ALET  and
CLAUDE GARCIA
CÉDRIC GAUCHEREL*
Affiliation:
French Institute of Pondicherry, IFP – CNRS, Pondicherry, India UMR AMAP – INRA, Montpellier, France
JULIE ALET
Affiliation:
French Institute of Pondicherry, IFP – CNRS, Pondicherry, India
CLAUDE GARCIA
Affiliation:
CIRAD, Goods and Services of Tropical Forest Ecosystems Research Unit, F-34398 Montpellier, France ETH Zurich, Forest Management and Development Group (ForDev), Department of Environmental Systems Science, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland
*
*Correspondence: Dr. Cédric Gaucherel Tel: 33 (0) 4 67 61 65 86 Fax: 33 (0) 4 67 61 56 68 e-mail: cedric.gaucherel@cirad.fr
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Summary

Against the backdrop of the competing demands of agricultural productivity and biodiversity conservation, understanding land-use changes is critical. We studied the past, current and future landscape–dynamic scenarios for coffee and rice-coupled crops at a village scale in the Western Ghats (southern India) by integrating three levels of organization (patch, farm and soils). The village structures and dynamics from 1950 to 2010 were modelled with the Dynamic Patch Landscape (DYPAL) modelling platform and analysed with Comparison Map Profile (CMP) spatial analysis in order to assess environmental trends. Our model, combined with mathematical formalizations and multiscale analyses, was also used to project future land-use sustainability. Our findings highlight significant environmental issues affecting the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, which is also subject to increasing and differential demands for other crops that are dependent on farm production systems. Intensive coffee cultivation, with conversion of the forest cover into Grevillea robusta monoculture and ongoing paddy abandonment, have had a strong impact on the region's landscape (+30% G. robusta) and biodiversity (from –3% to –13% in the already-reduced forest cover).

Keywords

coffee agroforestsDYPAL modelling platformKodagu district (India)land cover and land-use changeCMP spatial comparison analysisrice paddy conversionbiodiversity erosion
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 183 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2016 

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