Economic valuation of land use change : a case study on rainforest conversion and agroforestry intensification in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia

Cocoa is a cash crop which is predominantly cultivated in smallholder agroforestry systems. On a global scale, the expansion of cocoa cultivation area has dominantly taken place in areas of prior primary forests, thereby contributing substantially to the loss of remaining rainforests. Tropical rainforests provide a wide range of ecosystem services benefiting local farmers as well as regional or international communities. However, the values of these services are rarely mirrored by markets and hence not included in economic accounting when these forests are converted into other land uses. In many cocoa producing regions, the traditional cultivation under the canopy of planted or natural shade trees is increasingly switching to full-sun agroforestry systems without shade trees, with potentially detrimental effects for the agroecosystems in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem function loss. This intensification pathway is financially favourable, but risky in terms of agronomical and ecological sustainability. Indonesia is currently the third largest cocoa producer worldwide with a persistent production increase ...