Tropical agroecosystems of Latin America have long been recognized for their capacity to support biodiversity as well as provide food. At a small scale, traditional homegardens provide examples of increasing structural diversity to take advantage of vertical space and species diversity to increase dietary variety and provide a number of ecological functions within the garden. Smallholder coffee agroecosystems scale up these practices. This work aims to identify how coffee smallholders in Nicaragua balance biodiversity conservation with livelihood strategies within the perennial systems they manage. Methods include a decade of shade tree surveys and semi-structured interviews with farmers.
Results/Conclusions
Results indicate a decrease in shade tree density and maintenance of species diversity. Through interviews, producers identify a tension between biodiversity conservation and farmer livelihoods, as well as extremely localized management decision-making processes. Both factors play an important role in driving short and long term management of these coffee agroecosystems. Using these results as a case study, this presentation will contribute to the conversation on perennial polycultures in temperate regions by identifying challenges and opportunities of these systems in the tropics.