AGROFROESTS - PRE-DOMESTICATION OF FOREST TREES OR TRUE DOMESTICATIONOF FOREST ECOSYSTEMS

Domestication of forest resources and artificialization of forest ecos ystems in tropical forest areas are often encompassed in a linear way: from wild resources to genetically improved trees, from complex ecosy stems to controlled tree plantations. This linear evolution might be t rue for professional forestry or horticulture. However, it does not em brace the complexity of smallholder farmers practices for forest resou rces utilization. Incorporating forest resources in production systems is not a new practice in the tropics, it even constitute the very bas is of a whole facet of indigenous agricultures. But this agroforestry practice is not usually considered as a full domestication process. An d, in spite of an increasing amount of academic interest for indigenou s forest-like plantation models, agroforestry research is not yet full y considering the prospects of these models as far as forest species a re concerned. The paper focuses on the discussion of Indonesian exampl es of ecosystem manipulation and plant domestication. Complex agrofore stry systems have been developed by local people for the management of resources ranging from locally consumed forest fruits to highly valua ble industrial products such as resina and latexes. This indigenous ag roforestry is presented as an elaborate process of total transfer, not only of selected forest resources, but also of true forest structures , from the sphere of 'nature' to that of 'agriculture'. This process i s analyzed as a particular domestication strategy which integrates con ventional species domestication techniques to an original attempt of e cosystem domestication. Prospects for further developing this 'agrofor est strategy' for the domestication of forest species are then discuss ed.