{"id":6557,"date":"2025-12-02T15:54:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T14:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/?p=6557"},"modified":"2025-12-03T10:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:26:10","slug":"tree-growth-in-west-african-cocoa-agroforestry-systems-high-timber-yields-and-superior-performance-of-natural-regeneration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/2025\/12\/02\/tree-growth-in-west-african-cocoa-agroforestry-systems-high-timber-yields-and-superior-performance-of-natural-regeneration\/","title":{"rendered":"Tree growth in West African cocoa agroforestry systems: high timber yields and superior performance of natural regeneration"},"content":{"rendered":"<script type='text\/javascript' src='https:\/\/d1bxh8uas1mnw7.cloudfront.net\/assets\/embed.js'><\/script><p class=\"c-article__sub-heading\" data-test=\"abstract-sub-heading\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/25-12-02-Kouassi-A.-K.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6559 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/25-12-02-Kouassi-A.-K-300x219.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"219\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/25-12-02-Kouassi-A.-K-300x219.png 300w, https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/25-12-02-Kouassi-A.-K-640x467.png 640w, https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/25-12-02-Kouassi-A.-K.png 685w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Key message<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">Cocoa agroforestry systems (AFS) in West Africa represent an underexplored yet promising source of timber. Within these systems, species can reach a 50-cm diameter as early as 14 years of age. Naturally regenerated trees grow 10% faster than planted ones and develop a 43% greater bole volume. These findings underscore the high timber potential of cocoa AFS and confirm natural regeneration as a superior strategy for tree renewal and wood production.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keywords\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nTimber wood; Growth trajectories; Silvicultural management; Natural regeneration; Cocoa agroforestry; West Africa<\/p>\n<div class='altmetric-embed' data-badge-type='donut' data-doi='10.1186\/s13595-025-01286-7'  style='float: right; ' ><\/div>\n<p><strong>Publication<\/strong><br \/>\nK. Kouassi, A., C. Zo-Bi, I., H\u00e9rault, B.\u00a0<i>et al.<\/i>\u00a0Tree growth in West African cocoa agroforestry systems: high timber yields and superior performance of natural regeneration.\u00a0<i>Annals of Forest Science<\/i>\u00a082, 17 (2025). <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s13595-025-01286-7\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s13595-025-01286-7<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Data availability\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nData, code, and supplementary information are available online (Kouassi et al.\u00a0<a id=\"ref-link-section-d15555634e7300\" title=\"Kouassi AK, Zo-Bi IC, H\u00e9rault B, Konan IK, Dago MR, Lasbats B, Schmitt S, N\u2019Guessan AE, Aussenac R (2024) Data and Supplementary Information: timber resource dynamics in West African cocoa agroforestry systems (Version 0.1.1). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5281\/zenodo.12581454 \" href=\"https:\/\/link-springer-com.inrae.idm.oclc.org\/article\/10.1186\/s13595-025-01286-7#ref-CR41\" data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 2024\">2024<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/zenodo.org\/doi\/10.5281\/zenodo.12581453\">https:\/\/zenodo.org\/doi\/10.5281\/zenodo.12581453<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Handling editor\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nErwin Dreyer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key message Cocoa agroforestry systems (AFS) in West Africa represent an underexplored yet promising source of timber. Within these systems, species can reach a 50-cm diameter as early as 14 years of age. Naturally regenerated trees grow 10% faster than planted ones and develop a 43% greater bole volume. These findings underscore the high timber [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1,109,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-type","category-non-classe","category-open-access","category-research-paper","cat-14-id","cat-1-id","cat-109-id","cat-15-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/240"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6557"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6579,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6557\/revisions\/6579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}