Shade coffee agroforests as native plant sources for restoration

Tropical agroforestry systems such as shade coffee are recognised as important refuges for biodiversity in human-modified landscapes. In these systems, many conservation initiatives aiming to sustain biodiversity against the trend of intensifying agroforestry management focus on promoting biodiverse tree overstories, but engage less with conservation opportunities and challenges associated with agroforest understories. In coffee agroforests with native shade trees, weeding of natural regeneration constitutes lost conservation opportunities. We explore the potential for reducing such losses by rescuing native tree seeds and naturally regenerating seedlings from coffee agroforests and developing local native plant nurseries, which are a critical bottleneck for restoration. For this, we draw on floristic surveys using 42 0.3 ha plots in eight polyculture shade coffee agroforests and collaborative pilot rescue, nursery development, and restoration initiatives in the Western Ghats biodi..., , # Shade coffee agroforests as native plant sources for restoration

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.9ghx3ffv5](10.5061/dryad.9ghx3ffv5)

## Description of the data and file structure

This document describes the dataset used in Osuri et al.(2025) Shade coffee agroforests as native plant sources for restoration.

### Files and variables

#### File: Osuri\_et\_al\_native\_trees.zip

**Description:** This document describes the dataset used in Osuri et al.(2025) Shade coffee agroforests as native plant sources for restoration.

The contents of the .xlsx data file are described below:

### File name:\"Osuri\_et\_al\_native\_trees.xlsx\"

#### -----Sheet 1: \"adult\_trees.xlsx\"-----

Description: This sheet contains the diameter at breast height (dbh), height and species identity of all the trees with a diameter above 10 cm in 150m x 20m vegetation plots in shade coffee agroforests. Trees that could not be identified to the species level are recorded using their genus name alone, and unidentified ...,