Biodiversity for resilience of clove-based agroecosystems in Madagascar – BiodivClo

Madagascar is an island country and one of the most diverse biodiversity hotspots in the world. However, this biodiversity is threatened by climate change and by deforestation caused by demographic growth, urban and agricultural development, slash-and-burn practices, and fuelwood cutting. Even though Madagascar’s biodiversity has a high level of endemism, the cultivation of perennial cash crops introduced by humans has shaped the island's east coast landscapes.
Agriculture on the east coast of Madagascar is dominated by clove-based agroecosystems, which can have very high levels of diversification. Farmers cultivating this cash crop value both the cloves and the clove essential oil. Farmers strongly depend on clove tree incomes to ensure their food security. Therefore, farmer’s food security is affected by the economic (price of cloves and staple food), agronomic (irregular and limited yields), and environmental contexts. In addition, the production of essential oil affects the wood resource since it requires a large amount of fuelwood for its distillation.
Although crop diversification seems favorable to cash crop farmers, an analysis of the interactions between biodiversity and technical, economic, and environmental performances and resilience of clove-based agroecosystems of the east coast of Madagascar is still lacking. In addition, the ecosystem functions and services provided by plant biodiversity in clove plantations have not been sufficiently explored. Despite numerous recent studies since the 2010s, knowledge has been partitioned at limited scales (field, household, or landscape) and specific disciplines (sociology, economics, or ecology). To understand the impact of biodiversity on household resilience, a multiscale and multidisciplinary approach is necessary.
The BiodivClo project aims to analyze ecosystem services provided by biodiversity in the different types of clove-based agroecosystems, and the economic and environmental resilience of activity systems (i.e., farm and household) in relation to biodiversity. The project will bring together a multidisciplinary team and address different spatial scales, from the tree to the activity system, in an innovative approach based on field data and farmers participation. The project proposes to study (i) how clove tree cultivation and its two uses (production of cloves and essential oil) influence the plant biodiversity of agroecosystems; (ii) how farmers could rely on this biodiversity to increase and stabilize their technical, environmental (sustainability), and economic performances; (iii) how the economic and environmental resiliencies relate to the degree of plant biodiversity present in clove plantations.
BiodivClo’s expected outcomes are a better understanding of the clove bud yield determinants and their probable impact on the household economy. A better knowledge of plant biodiversity and associated ecosystem services in cash crop-based agroecosystems will be produced. This project will also seek to quantify the carbon stock in clove-based farming systems and the effect of plant biodiversity on this stock and then explore the environmental sustainability of the clove sector. Finally, BiodivClo will make it possible to estimate the contribution of biodiversity to household food security and economic resilience. The outcomes will lay the groundwork for redesigning, with the farmers, the clove-based agroecosystems and promoting their diversification to increase the sustainability and resilience of farm households.