Conversion process and reforestation practices of coffee plantations in Chiapas, Mexico

The Agro-ecosystems in the Tropics are nowadays mostly based on annual monocultures. Typically, big forest areas are chopped down and burned with all their biodiversity and complex food chains, to give space to simplified systems reminescent of shifting cultivation. However, the traditional long-term fallowing of exhausted soils is reduced. With perennial crop systems the negative effects of forest logging are mitigated. Today, more than 25 million families on 12 million ha in 50 countries over the World are socially and economically dependent from coffee plantations. The low coffee prices in the world market harm not only these families but also the agro ecosystem coffee, which protects naturally a still considerable flora and fauna (POHLAN, 2002). Chiapas is the most important coffee producing state of Mexico with 31% of the national coffee production. Coffee agro ecosystems in the Soconusco area in Chiapas are under pressure due to these low coffee prices in the world market (RENARD, 2002; KRAUSE, 2002). Coffee farmers have to adapt to this situation by producing high quality coffee with added value through certification labels, or changing the coffee plantations into other more profitable crops (POHLAN, 2002). One of the possibilities for lower tropical areas is the production of high value tropical timber, which can be planted between coffee rows (JENDE, 2005). These agroforestry systems offer also a high potential for environmental services, like conservation of biodiversity, carbon fixation, erosion control and water shed management, what could be used as incentive alternatives for farmers by decision makers (KÖTZ, 2003; BAUMANN, 2002; PERFECTO, 2002; CONAFOR, 2001; DE JONG, 2000). In this study, different aspects of a gradual conversion process from coffee to timber production were evaluated, with the aim to understand, how the agro-ecosystem coffee changes in horizontal and vertical structure, in terms of biomass components, and which ecological