Can rubber agroforests conserve biodiversity in Jambi (Sumatra)?

Rubber agroforests (RAF) consist of rubber planted and managed by farmers with limited agricultural inputs, that allow natural forest regeneration to take place from
seed banks and active seed dispersal. Thus, RAF stands have uneven-age structure and high biodiversity. The natural forest area of Indonesia has rapidly decreased in recent decades, due to legal and illegal logging, fires and conversion to other land use types; on the other hand the RAF area remained approximately constant. The RAF habitat has therefore become more important for biodiversity conservation. Some species found in RAF are categorized as ‘critically endangered’ and ‘endangered’ species (based on IUCN/SSC, the World Conse rvation Union – Species Survival Commission). Species richness and species accumulation curves for the seedling and sapling stages were
similar between natural secondary forest and RAF, however in the tree stratum, i.e. trees > 10 cm dbh, selective thinning by farmers leads to reduction of species diversity. Ex-situ conservation in RAF is challenging and will need to be based on a participatory approach to increase awareness of opportunities and threats, and has to provide appropriate incentives to maintain the endangered species and enrich the RAF with trees that have direct use values for farmers and the local community that traditionally had access to RAF under customary law.