Abstract

The potential of agricultural landscapes for tree species diversity conservation in perennial crop was examined in the Southeast of Côte d’Ivoire. Based on botanical survey of trees and shrubs species, the beta diversity has been assessed and diversity profile, species accumilation curves, and rank abundance have been compared from 70 plots of 500 m² selected in the Yapo Protected Forest (YPF), a Voluntary Natural Reserve (VNR), the Community Forests (CF) and the four main crop systems: cocoa (Theobroma cacao), cola (Cola nitida), teck (Tectona grandis) and rubber (Hevea brasiliensis). Results show that 7.3% of stems recorded in old forests can be met in all types of farm habitats. The YPF is more diverse than the other habitats. VNR, CF, and cola-cocoa-rubber farms have the same trees species diversity level when we considered only the most abundant spceies. Farms of rubber contribute to decreasing tree species diversity. In all habitat types, most species are scarce. The highly abundant species are non pioneer species in YPF and VNR, pioneer species in CF and exotic species in farms. A substantial number of tree species can be found on farms that is increasing beta diversity in the study area. Further researchs are required to determine the drivers of these results in the study area.

Key words: Agroforestry, diversity profile, farmland, old growth forest, Côte d’Ivoire.