Domestication of Trees or Forests: Development Pathways for Fruit Tree Production in South-east Asia - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 70

4

Domestication of Trees or
Forests: Development
Pathways for Fruit Tree
Production in South-east Asia

K.F. W IERSUM

Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

4.1 Introduction

When considering the process of domestication of wild species, wild and
domesticated plants are normally juxtaposed, and the changes in biological
properties are considered as the main feature of the domestication process. A
tree is normally considered 'wild' when it grows spontaneously in self-
maintaining populations in natural or semi-natural ecosystems and can exist
independently of direct human action (FAO, 1999). It is considered to be
domesticated when the tree has been selected purposively for specific genetic
characteristics and when it is propagated and cultivated in managed
agroecosystems (Leakey and Newton, 1994). Such a dichotomy, however,
should be considered as a first approximation only, as in reality several
intermediate stages between truly wild and fully domesticated trees exist.
Moreover, as illustrated by the above definitions, the process of domestication
does not only involve changes in tree properties but also changes in
exploitation systems. In this coevolutionary process, several intermediate
phases may be distinguished. For instance, the exploitation practices for fruit
production may evolve from collecting wild fruits in the forest, to fruit
cultivation in enriched fallows and homegardens, to fruit production in
orchards and corporate plantations (Verheij, 1991). Consequently, the major
questions to consider in fruit tree domestication research concern not only what
biological properties need to be adjusted, but also in what type of production
system the trees should be cultivated.
In the past, it was often considered that the process of fruit tree
domestication involves a linear process from collection of fruits in natural
forests to cultivation of improved tree species in specialized tree production
systems such as monocrop plantations. Such specialization makes it possible to
limit competition by other crops and optimize commercial production, and thus