Multifunctional shade-tree management in tropical agroforestry landscapes - a review

1. Agricultural intensification reduces ecological resilience of land-use systems, whereas paradoxically, environmental change and climate extremes require a higher response capacity than ever. Adaptation strategies to environmental change include maintenance of shade trees in tropical agroforestry, but conversion of shaded to unshaded systems is common practice to increase short-term yield.
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\n2. In this paper, we review the short-term and long-term ecological benefits of shade trees in coffee <i>Coffea arabica, C. canephora</i> and cacao <i>Theobroma cacao</i> agroforestry and emphasize the poorly understood, multifunctional role of…