The study was conducted using a completely randomized
design with four age categories; long-term
secondary forest referred to as forest land-use, 3, 15
and 30-year-old shaded-cocoa plantations as treatments.
Three replicate sites each measuring approximately
35 m 9 35 m were randomly established in
each of selected treatments making a total of 12
experimental plots. The treatments represented three
distinct phases: specifically the planting and developing
(3-year), productive (15-year) and maturity (30-
year) phases in the growth of a cocoa plantation after
forest conversion (Isaac et al. 2005). The forest
treatment represents the period before forest conversion.
The distance between replicate sites varied from
0.5 to 9.0 km, i.e., replicates were widely distributed
over the respective forests.