Agroforesteries indonésiennes : contributions paysannes à la conservation des forêts naturelles et de leurs ressources

Agroforestry is a new approach which aims to reconciliate agricultural and forestry sciences. However, agroforestry is an old practice. In the humid areas of the tropical world, peasant agrosystems often associate annual crops and tree crops, agriculture and management of natural forests. The great diversity of forest environment and of agricultural systems in Indonesia gave rise to a variety of agroforestry practices, which range from fairly simple modifications of the forest ecosystem, or tree-crop enrichment fallows in shifting cultivation, to complex agroforests and sophisticated home-gardens. Facing the ever increasing problems due to deforestation and genetic erosion, village gardens in Java or complex agroforests in forest areas of Sumatra can contribute to the conservation of natural forests and of their resources. The traditional knowledge concerning utilization and management of trees, forest stuctures and sylvigenetic mechanisms, which peasants developped over centuries, is of great value. It could inspire programs involving both conservation and economic use of forests in the tropics.