Carbon balance, canopy spatial structure and renovation benchmarks in old cocoa agroforestry systems of the Dominican Republic

Abstract Rehabilitation and renovation (Rh/Re) are essential elements in the cocoa cultivation cycle. Cocoa farmers must decide on whether to rehabilitate (Rh) or to renovate (Re) a cocoa orchard when its productivity declines due to ageing, disease outbreaks or other causes. Cocoa Rh/Re interventions alter standing biomass while retaining variable amounts of old canopy, roots and soil carbon. We quantified carbon stocks and structural attributes across a 52-farm project frame in in two growing regions in the Dominican Republic using 40 vegetation inventories, 50 soil records, 26 preparation-site intervention records and 25 matched inventory–intervention pairs. Above-ground biomass was estimated with diameter-compatible allometry; woody roots and 0–15 cm soil carbon was accounted for separately. Mean live-biomass stock was 192.63 ± 34.21 Mg CO₂e ha⁻¹ (n = 40) and mean live-plus-soil stock was 306.60 ± 36.45 Mg CO₂e ha⁻¹ for 38 farms with linked soil data. In matched farms, estimated preparation-site above-ground removal averaged 93.72 ± 11.44 Mg CO₂e ha⁻¹, which is almost half of the above-carbon stocks. Group-specific Clark–Evans spatial indices, vertical structure and soil latent factors were integrated at farm level. Across all farms, 21 total-stem arrangements (cacao + companion trees) were classified as aggregated, 16 as approximately random and 3 as regular. Finally, a fixed 35-year renovation scenario produced 73.94 Mg CO₂e ha⁻¹ of new cocoa and boundary-tree stock, 19.78 Mg CO₂e ha⁻¹ below the mean removal proxy suggesting that Rh/Re interventions do not compensate for the above-ground carbon removed from target cacao orchards. This study provides a reproducible plot-level accounting framework for Rh/Re implementation while distinguishing measured stocks, removed above-ground stocks, residual below-ground reserves and future regrowth and carbon sequestration scenarios.