The Domestication of Fruit and Nut Tree Species in Vanuatu, Oceania - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 121

The richness of individual floras decreases progressively from the large island
of New Guinea (French, 1986), insular Melanesia (Whitmore, 1986; Wheatley,
1992), Fiji (Smith, 1981) to Polynesia (Whistler, 1984), but the Polynesian islands
also host some of the most improved morphotypes for a given species. This is the
case, of course, for the famous seedless breadfruits but also for a few other
species. The reduction of species diversity from west to east, New Guinea being
the richest reservoir, is also responsible for bottlenecks, with drastic narrowing of
the genetic base on the oceanic islands (Lebot, 1992, 1999).
The majority of societies in Melanesia cultivate fruit trees and regularly eat
fruits and nuts (Barrau, 1962). In Polynesia, however, the situation is different and
species introduced subsequent to contact with Europeans are nowadays becoming
ever more dominant, to the detriment of indigenous species. The aim of this
chapter is to review the present status of indigenous fruit and nut species exploited
in Vanuatu (Fig. 7.1), Melanesia, and to discuss their stage of domestication,
improvement, future breeding prospects and commercial development.
7.2 Stage of Domestication
A comprehensive list of indigenous Oceanian species of fruit trees is presented
in Table 7.1. A list of nut trees is presented in Table 7.2. These species are not
equally exploited. Some are only foraged while others are protected; only a few
are truly cultivated.
7.2.1 Foraged species
Numerous species are simply foraged from the wild. They are naturally
disseminated by bats, birds and/or ocean currents when they can reproduce
spontaneously. This is the case with Aceratium , Burckella , Corynocarpus , Ficus ,
Garcinia , Garuga , Haplolobus , Horsfieldia , Maesa , Mangifera , Myristica ,
Parartocarpus , Parinari , Phyllocladus , Pipturus , Planchonella , Pleiogynium ,
Pouteria , Semecarpus , Syzygium and Terminalia species. Quite often their growth
is protected by humans who avoid weeding out or destroying the seedlings and
young trees. These species are well identified by local communities and are
designated in vernacular languages by a name and often by a qualifier to
distinguish the diverse morphotypes existing within species. In most cases, villagers
know the exact location of all the useful trees and are thus in a position to harvest
them according to the season and to their needs. The harvest is often
opportunistic and occurs when people walk through their territory to reach their
food gardens or to exploit forest resources. However, when the frequent cyclones
destroy their gardens foraged species become essential to secure subsistence. Nuts
are collected from Adenanthera , Agathis , Barringtonia , Canarium , Castanopsis ,
Cordia , Elaeocarpus , Finschia , Heritieria , Pandanus , Pangium , Pouteria , Sterculia
and Terminalia species. For these foraged species, most of the fruits and nuts are
eaten raw or cooked on the spot as people move through their territory or work in
their plots and they are rarely picked up to be taken back to the village.