TY - THES ID - 138157249 TI - Forests Cover Change in Certified and Uncertified Cacao Plantations in Luwu Utara, Indonesia. AU - Vervecken, Mara AU - Muys, Bart AU - Verbist, Bruno AU - KU Leuven. Faculteit Bio-ingenieurswetenschappen. Opleiding Master of Bioscience Engineering. Agro- and Ecosystems Engineering (Leuven) PY - 2023 PB - Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Bio-ingenieurswetenschappen DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:138157249 AB - Deforestation is a global issue that causes biodiversity loss and carbon emissions. Agriculture is considered one of the main drivers of this forest loss. Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) emerged as one approach to achieve sustainable agricultural production but evidence on VSS outcomes are mixed. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the environmental outcomes of cacao certification in Indonesia. The country is among the top global cacao producers. Specifically, the objective of this research is to assess the forest cover and forest cover change in and around certified and uncertified cacao plantations in Indonesia. In a first part of the research 40 plots (27 uncertified and 13 certified) in Luwu Utara, a district in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, were visited. Data was collected on plantation characteristics such as the age of the plantation, canopy closure and basal area of cacao and shade trees. This data was used to analyse relationships between different plantation characteristics. The results showed that the canopy closure of the plantations is influenced by the age of the cacao trees and the height of the shade trees. The BA of the shade trees depends on the size of the plantation and the number of shade trees per ha. The species richness of the shade trees is influenced by the previous land use, the age of the plantation and the age of the cacao trees. Finally, the number of shade tree layers logically depends on the number of shade trees per ha. Surprisingly, certification did not have an effect on any of the plantation characteristics studied, likely because it is already common practice for farmers to keep shade trees. The plantation characteristics depended on the plot locations. The forested highland areas of Luwu Utara showed plots with a higher diversity in shade tree species than the coastal lowlands due to the proximity of the forest. Cacao varieties also differed between highland and lowland. Due to a lack of farmer groups and lack of knowledge regarding improved cacao farming techniques, the farmers in the highland mostly used a local variety and rarely used productivity improving techniques. Differences based on location were also found in certification adoption. All certified plantations were located in the lowland. This can be explained by several factors facilitating certification (selection effects), namely the low forest cover making it easier for farmers to comply with deforestation criteria, reachability of plantations and access to markets as well as the presence of farmer groups and adoption of improved farming techniques (e.g., new cacao variants). In a second part, satellite imager from 2000 until 2022 was used to perform a supervised classification to study the land cover change in Luwu Utara over the last 22 years. Results showed that forest cover decreased over the last 20 years in Luwu Utara, although less than expected. Cacao plantations, together with oil palm plantations, remain deforestation drivers in Luwu Utara. This raises a question on where certification is adopted. It is the highlands where certification can have the biggest impact on deforestation and farmer welfare, but certification adoption remains low in that area. ER -