Will Agroforests Vanish? The Case of Damar Agroforests in Indonesia

Abstract

Resin producing agroforestry in the Krui area of Sumatra in Indonesia is presented as an environmentally friendly, income generating land-use system which contributes to both development and conservation objectives. We studied the change in household income portfolios in three communities in the Krui area. The studies revealed that in the period 1995-2004 agroforestry remained the main source of income. We predict, however, that due to declining resin productivity per hectare, and rising price and demand for timber, an increasing number of farmers will cut their mature agroforests in the near future. At the same time our data suggests that farmers will continue tree planting activities. In result old agroforests may vanish while new ones will be established.

Conserving forest tree diversity in Guinée Forestière (Guinea, West Africa): the role of coffee-based agroforests

“…The debate regarding the position of agroforests either as a transition stage towards specialized plantations or as a real alternative plantation system combining sustainability and profitability (Kusters et al 2008) is far from being closed. Past local development projects in the area, including those related to coffee production, have promoted specialization and high input practices, and have mostly failed.…”

Biodiversity Function and Resilience in Tropical Agroforestry Systems Including Shifting Cultivation

“…Additionally, systems are undergoing rapid changes. For example, Kusters et al (2008) [30] predicted that farmers would cut down damar agroforests in Sumatra in the near future due to external economic factors; Ekadinata and Vincent (2011) [52] have confirmed this through remote sensing data. Cacao farmers in Ghana consider traditional cacao agroforests as an archaic system, preferring lightly shaded, commercially orientated systems with newer hybrid varieties [168].…”

“…There are only few references on traditional long-term associations between planted timber trees and crops. In the Bdamar^(resin) system of Indonesia, Shorea javanica is planted by smallholder farmers for timber and resin production, combined with food crops and fruit trees [28][29][30].…”

Incorporating Agency Perspective into Community Forestry Analysis

“…Topics vary such as community conservation, indigenous forest management and utilization of particular forest products (Stoian 2005;Bajracharya et al 2006;Stave et al 2007;Kusters et al 2008). The learning process or action research approach aims to produce knowledge on how successful community forestry processes are actually developed and what factors are conducive to the successful processes.…”

“…Particular types of agency may spontaneously and simultaneously emerge in several communities that are situated within similar structural and cultural spheres (Krishna 2003). In such cases, the role of agency in community forestry processes can also be analyzed from socio-politics or cultural perspectives as meta-analysis.…”