Creating Opportunities for Domesticating and Commercializing Miombo Indigenous Fruit Trees in Southern Africa - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 146

adverse effects on the ecosystems in the long term and to reduce the
opportunity to build privately owned long-term assets on-farm. The many
consequences include the loss of biodiversity due to the collection of
propagules for the next generation of wildings; declining productivity and
population as a result of postharvest damage and inappropriate postharvest
techniques (Kadzere et al ., 2006a, b, c); and disincentives to on-farm culti-
vation. These effects limit the potential for rural dwellers and farmers to benefit
from emerging and expanded markets from improved products.
The transition from a subsistence to a market economy is important in
better optimizing the potentials for using, managing and cultivating indigenous
fruit trees. Recent assessments have confirmed the conservation and economic
benefits of wild tree products. These issues were reflected upon in several
conferences listed by Ruiz-Perez et al . (2004), including those dealing with the
role of forestry in poverty alleviation (4-7 September 2001, Semproniano,
Italy), forests in poverty reduction strategies (1-2 October 2002, Tuusula,
Finland) and rural livelihoods, forests and biodiversity (19-23 May 2003,
Bonn, Germany). In a recent global assessment of the links between the
livelihoods of forest dwellers and global commoditization, Ruiz-Perez et al .
(2004) found: (i) an increasing contribution by individual non-timber forest
products to the household economy of producers as they move from low to
high levels of commoditization; (ii) that households with diversified strategies
fall between subsistence and specialized sets of cases (household income,
market size, production per hectare); and (iii) that non-timber forest products
provide guaranteed additional income for households that earn the bulk of
their income from agriculture and off-farm sources. Households with a
specialized strategy have higher household incomes, command higher prices
and trade value for tree products, and produce more per hectare.
These results show that households that engaged in cultivation had higher
returns to labour, used more intensive technology for production, and had
higher productivity per hectare, associated with stable tenure and a stable
resource base. Wild harvesting on the other hand, was associated with
declining resource base. In Africa, wild harvesting poses increased pressure on
resources and collectors are more vulnerable to climatic restrictions (Ruiz-Perez
et al ., 2004). In southern Africa the resource base is fragile, market
opportunities for farm crops are limited, and markets for indigenous fruits are
limited and informal. The importance of safety-net and subsistence functions
should be emphasized, but not at the expense of lack of conservation and
deliberate cultivation of the few priority fruit trees.
In addition, increasing market demand for wild forest products tends to
increase overexploitation (Ruiz-Perez et al ., 2004) and leads to harvest damage
(Kadzere et al ., 2001, 2006a, b, c). Increased competition for access and use
may also lead to village conflicts and rivalry due to shortage of fruits in
communally owned lands or state forests, which are generally regarded as
a public good (Ramadhani, 2002) - this is the phenomenon known as
the tragedy of the commons. There is a need for policy interventions and
institutional arrangements to redefine property rights to indigenous fruits in the
commons.