Ecological and economic sustainability of cocoa agroforests in Brazil
(2026)
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- Abstract
- Global value chains for tropical agricultural commodities have long been associated with significant environmental and socio-economic challenges, particularly in some of the world’s most biodiverse regions. Rising international demand has driven agricultural expansion and intensification, contributing to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and land degradation, while many small-scale producers remain exposed to low productivity, poverty, and structural inequalities. These intertwined challenges have intensified calls for sustainability transitions that reconcile agricultural production with environmental conservation and rural livelihoods. Agroforestry systems (AFS) have emerged as a promising nature-based solution in this context, as they integrate trees with crops within agricultural production systems and offer the potential to balance multiple sustainability goals. However, substantial variability exists within AFS as a land-use type, particularly in terms of shade-tree management, reflecting farmers’ decisions regarding the retention and removal of shade trees, and constitutes a key dimension of farm-level management within AFS. Yet, empirical evidence remains limited on how such within-system management variation shapes ecological and economic outcomes. Moreover, the effectiveness of governance instruments in valorising AFS and incentivising their sustainable management remains insufficiently understood. Against this background, this dissertation addresses these gaps through an in-depth analysis of cocoa agroforestry systems (CAFS), a globally important production system predominantly managed by small-scale farmers that offers a relevant context to examine sustainability trade-offs and synergies. Specifically, this dissertation aims to reveal how shade-tree management in CAFS shapes ecological and economic trade-offs and synergies, and to evaluate the potential of origin-based certification to promote their sustainable development. The research adopts a case-study approach in the CAFS landscapes of southern Bahia, Brazil, a region of high ecological importance in which highly shaded CAFS are widespread, support rural livelihoods, and face increasing pressures to intensify production. Following a general introduction in Chapter I, Chapter II examines the ecological implications of shade-tree management in CAFS. Using ecological data collected across 18 farms, the chapter analyses how variation in shade-tree management, in terms of shade-tree density and cover, affects the presence of the golden-headed lion tamarin, an endangered primate species highly dependent on shaded CAFS, as well as the terrestrial medium- and large-sized mammal community. The results show that reduced shade-tree cover is associated with lower golden-headed lion tamarin occupancy and decreased mammal detections, highlighting the negative effects of shade-tree removal on biodiversity. These findings indicate that ~65% of shade cover, corresponding to min. 100 shade trees per hectare, is required to sustain biodiversity conservation in the CAFS of southern Bahia, suggesting that current legal threshold of 40 shade trees per hectare is insufficient. Chapter III focuses on the economic performance of CAFS and assesses how variation in shade-tree density influences cocoa yields, production costs, revenues from non-cocoa agroforestry products, and overall returns from CAFS. Drawing on household economic survey data from 313 cocoa-producing households combined with on-farm measurements of shade-tree density, the chapter demonstrates that while higher shade-tree densities may be associated with lower cocoa yields, reductions in cocoa production costs partly offset these losses, leaving net cocoa income largely unaffected. As a result, even substantial increases in shade-tree density entail limited economic trade-offs, supporting the maintenance of shade trees in CAFS as a means to better align farm-level economic performance with the long-term ecological resilience of these systems. Chapter IV integrates ecological and economic dimensions to identify the conditions under which CAFS generate trade-offs or synergies between biodiversity conservation and farm profitability. By combining household-level economic survey data with farmers’ self-reported observations of mammal presence, and applying a multinomial probit modelling approach, the analysis shows that high economic returns per hectare within CAFS can, under specific conditions, coexist with biodiversity conservation. While higher shade-tree density can mitigate ecological trade-offs, increasing shade-tree density alone does not guarantee ecological–economic synergies, indicating that shade-tree retention constitutes a necessary but insufficient condition. Instead, the results demonstrate that synergies are contingent on supportive social and institutional conditions, including measures that promote gender equality and improve farmers’ access to information and resources relevant for farm-level decision-making. Chapter V examines the role of the Sul da Bahia Geographical Indication (GI) for high-quality cocoa as a governance instrument for the sustainable development of CAFS. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines in-depth biodiversity assessments on 18 farms with detailed household-level economic data and semi-structured interviews with key GI stakeholders, this chapter evaluates whether participation in the GI scheme is associated with improved economic and ecological outcomes at the farm level. While the GI shows potential to strengthen cocoa quality recognition, product differentiation, traceability, and regional identity, no improvement in economic returns and lower environmental performance relative to non-certified farms are observed. Its current contribution to farm-level economic and ecological benefits remains constrained by limited market uptake, weak institutional capacity and a lack of binding ecological requirements. In conclusion, this dissertation demonstrates that trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and farm profitability are not inevitable and that well-managed AFS can deliver ecological–economic synergies when embedded within supportive social, institutional, and value-chain contexts. These findings have direct implications for policy and governance, highlighting the need for incentive-based governance instruments that explicitly value the maintenance of mature shade trees within AFS and provide financial compensation that reflects the ecological services these systems already deliver. Finally, by providing robust empirical evidence on within-system variation in AFS performance, this research advances debates on sustainable agricultural transitions and highlights the value of integrating ecological and economic perspectives in the study of AFS.
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Dekegel, S. (2026). Ecological and economic sustainability of cocoa agroforests in Brazil. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/273424