Tea breaks: how flower visitors can benefit from unplanned floral buffer strips in a Tanzanian tea plantation

摘要

Cultivation of commodity crops is altering tropical landscapes worldwide, with severe impacts on biodiversity. Forest conversion to intensive monoculture drives species loss, and over 30% of agricultural land in SE Asia is now covered by coconut, rubber and oil palm (Sodhi et al., 2004); the latter is now thought to be the greatest threat to biodiversity globally (Wilcove & Koh, 2010). A metaanalysis by Donald (2004) assessed the biodiversity impacts of several tropical commodity crops, concluding that for cocoa, coffee, rice, palm oil and soybean, intensi?ed production/increased crop area underpinned environmental destruction and biodiversity loss; insuf?cient data were available to evaluate two other monoculture crops, tea and rubber.