Mammals Make Use of Cashew Plantations in a Mixed Forest–Cashew Landscape

Abstract

Heterogeneous landscapes harboring mosaics of natural habitat and agriculture are increasingly gaining conservation focus in the tropics. While research on cash crops such as coffee, rubber, and oil palm has led to an understanding of their role as supplementary habitats, such has remained limited in cashew plantations despite it being a cash crop of global significance. We conducted a study to understand the occurrence of terrestrial mammal species in a mixed forest–cashew landscape in the northern Western Ghats, India. During January to April 2016, we used trail cameras to sample a total area of 25 km2 divided into 100 grid cells of 0.25 km2 each. We deployed six trail cameras for a 24 h period in each grid cell and obtained photo-captures of 11 species in forests, of which nine were detected in cashew plantations, but most species showed low capture rates. For three of these species—Indian crested porcupine, sambar, and wild pig—we modeled habitat use as a function of site-specific attributes. Wild pig showed a higher probability of use of cashew than forest, while porcupine and sambar did not show any pronounced differences between the two land uses. The probability of habitat use by sambar and porcupine was positively influenced by undergrowth but not for the wild pig. Wild pig habitat use was positively related to increased proximity of human settlements and increasing distance to forests, but the pattern was unreliable for sambar and porcupine. Our preliminary study demonstrates that a subset of terrestrial mammals in the forest makes use of cashew plantations and highlights the need for further research in forest–cashew landscapes to assess conservation opportunities.

State-led agricultural subsidies drive monoculture cultivar cashew expansion in northern Western Ghats, India

“…Many of them stated that the ongoing “ forest clearing ” and “ deforestation ” for cashew expansion meant that “ habitat is lost ” and this is bound to have negative effects in terms of crop depredation and human-wildlife conflict. Majority of respondents stated that they saw wild animals in agricultural lands and in their villages, and not just within forests, consistent with a camera-trapping study which showed that wildlife used cashew plantations as habitats [ 40 ]. However, farmers still planned on clearing private forests for cashew cultivation.…”

“…The Western Ghats has lost 33,579 km 2 of forest cover between 1920s and 2013, with conversion to plantations as the main driver of deforestation, followed by agriculture and land degradation [ 39 ]. Questions related to how cashew expansion occurs, how these farming systems operate, and how cashew affect forest cover in the Western Ghats are poorly studied and require urgent attention given that monoculture cashew plantations are on the rise in these landscapes [ 40 ] and forests in this region have significant biodiversity value [ 41 , 42 ].…”

Bird community structure in a mixed forest-production landscape in the northern Western Ghats, India

“…While no ‘pests’ like Parakeet species were found during this study, they have been known to forage on the cashew nut in other similar landscapes. Rege (2016) found that out of 11 species of large mammals in the forests, 9 were also found in the adjoining cashew plantations in the same Tillari landscape.…”

“…Past studies in cashew have looked at mammalian diversity (Rege 2016) human primate interactions (Hockings et al, 2012, 2013; Casanova et al, 2014), butterfly diversity (Vasconcelos et al, 2015; Mahata et al, 2019) and spider diversity (Bhat et al, 2013). However, there have been no studies on birds so far.…”

“…Despite cashew and rubber plantations being a major land use in the Western Ghats, often adjoining natural forests, their potential for conservation of biodiversity has been very little studied. Rege (2016) found that of 11 large mammals found in the forests of northern Western Ghats, nine were also found in adjoining cashew plantations. We were thus interested in comparing bird diversity, i.e.…”