Ecology and Development Series No. 10, 2003 - ZEF

Conclusions and recommendations3. Restoration of the major canopy trees in the managed forests areas currentlyused for coffee production through replanting. This can support the idea ofmaintaining species diversity in the managed forests or forest coffee systems.4. Encourage farmers to use seedlings raised from the local coffee population forreplanting in the forests managed for coffee production whenever planting isnecessary. This can contribute to maintaining the local coffee gene pool.Research question that has to be further investigated:5. Further research on other environmental variables (e.g. soil properties, soildepth), vegetation characteristics and other microclimate and other siteconditions that are influenced by slope, and hence are affecting the abundancesof wild coffee population.6. Level of congruence of the occurrence of wild coffee population and plantspecies diversity. From this study, coffee occurrence seems to correlate withforest ecosystem of high plant species diversity. This has to be tested byexploring more forests with wild coffee population and similar forests with outwild coffee within Ethiopia. Such studies also enable to compare and prioritizeforest areas based on their importance for the conservation of coffee geneticresources and other forest biodiversity.7. Further investigation on the regeneration (germination and recruitment) ofcoffee in the managed forests. The major limiting factors for regeneration ofcoffee under the managed forest ecosystem are not clearly understood. It is alsonot clear whether the seedlings can survive and grow into mature trees in thesemanaged systems.127