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 75

Table 4.2. Phases in the process of exploitation of tree crops (Wiersum, 1997a).

Phase 1
Procurement of wild tree products by Gradual change from uncontrolled, open-

gathering/collection access gathering of forest products to

controlled gathering of wild tree products

Phase 2
Initial production of wild tree products

Gradual change from systematic collection of
wild tree products with protective tending of
valued tree species to selective cultivation
of valued trees by artificial in situ
regeneration of native trees

Phase 3
Cultivation of wild trees

Cultivation of selected native tree species in
artificially established plantations

Phase 4
Cultivation of fully domesticated trees Cultivation of genetically selected or improved

tree crops in intensively managed
plantations

homegardens with a mixture of fruit trees, other tree crops and vegetables,
or mixed smallholder plantations.

● Mixed or monocultural fruit tree plantations : cultivated mixed stands,

almost exclusively of planted, and often biologically adjusted, fruit tree
species. Often this concerns commercial plantations.
The different categories are not discrete: gradual transformation from one
category to another may occur. Many of these systems have been developed
through the creativity of local farmers (Wiersum, 1997b). The presence of the
various indigenously developed fruit production systems has been extensively
studied, notably in South-east Asia (Michon, 2005). Box 4.1 gives an example
of an indigenous process of domestication of production systems in respect to
the popular South-east Asian fruit tree, the durian ( Durio zibethinus ).
The locally evolved fruit tree production systems are often dynamic, as they
gradually evolve in response to changing conditions. Such changes may involve
a variety of ecological, socio-economic, cultural and political factors (Arnold and
Dewees, 1995; Belcher et al. , 2005). The four most important changes which
may affect the structure and species composition of fruit tree production are:
1. Changed ecological conditions, such as resource depletion or land
degradation.
2. Changed technological conditions caused by the introduction of new
agricultural and forestry techniques.
3. Changed economic conditions such as development of new markets and
increased commercialization, changed demands for forest products and
changed opportunities for off-farm employment.