The Role of Land Use Pattern and Process in the Diffusion of Valuable Tree Species

Evidence is mounting that conventional forestry approaches will not be able to address the extent of deforestation and land degradation underway in the tropics at the magnitude with which these problems and associated consequences presently operate.Subsistence populations for whom woody biomass and food supply is most critical can embrace many difficult and complex problems involved in the non-adoption of tree planting and tree management practices.The occurrence of the unintentional or inadvertent spread of valuable tree species as a side-effect of certain patterns and practices involved in specific land-uses, invites examination of the functional aspects involved, and the transferability of these.This paper explores some of the concepts likely to be involved in the unintentional diffusion of valuable tree species across human-occupied landscapes under the influence of extensive land-uses in the tropics.The role of these concepts in the formulation of approaches designed to encourage this form of tree dissemination as a form of reforestation is also discussed.