West African cocoa farmer tree valuation data

The study was conducted at 15 sites across Côte d’Ivoire, covering a South-North climate and vegetation gradient from evergreen to semi-deciduous forests. These sites were selected to represent varying cocoa field characteristics, including structural complexity (ranging from monocultures to agroforests), cocoa field age (young to mature), and cocoa tree productivity (low to high). Each site had 10 cocoa plots, ranging from 0.3 to 5 hectares. The study also spanned different "cocoa loops," covering areas from the eastern to western parts of the country. Cocoa farmers were involved in a ranking exercise using the stone method to assign importance to tree species across 10 categories of use.