The management of tree genetic resources and the livelihoods of rural communities in the tropics: non-timber forest products, smallholder agroforestry practices and tree commodity crops
By I. Dawson, R. Leakey, C. Clement, J. Weber, J. Cornelius, J. Roshetko, B. Vinceti, A. Kalinganire, Z. Tchoundjeu, E. Masters and 1 more. 2014
146 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Products and services provided by trees in forests and farmland support the needs and promote the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people in the tropics. Value depends on managing both the diversity of tree species present in landscapes and the genetic variation within these species. The benefits from trees and their genetic resources are, however, often not well quantified because trade is frequently outside formal markets, there is a multiplicity of species and ways in which trees are used and managed, and genetic diversity within species is frequently not given proper consideration. We review here what is known about the value of trees to rural communities through considering three production categories: non-timber products harvested from trees in natural and managed forests and woodlands; the various products and services obtained from a wide range of trees planted and/or retained in smallholders’ agroforestry systems; and the commercial products harvested from cultivated tree commodity crops. Where possible, we focus on the role of intra-specific genetic variation in providing support to livelihoods, and for each of the three production categories we also consider wider conservation and sustainability issues, including the linkages between categories in terms of management. Challenges to ‘conventional wisdom’ on tree resource use, value and management – such as in the posited links between commercialisation, cultivation and conservation – are highlighted, and constraints and opportunities to maintain and enhance value are described.
Subfields: Forestry, Global and Planetary Change, Horticulture
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1a755df49ef454f6621eb24453562ae0f155b6fd
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In Forestry
In Global and Planetary Change
Citations in the corpus
- Utilization and transfer of forest genetic resources: A global review (2014, background): “Risks should be considered in the context of the large benefits that people receive worldwide from transferred tree germplasm (these benefits need better measuring; Dawson et al., 2014, this special issue).”
- The role of forest genetic resources in responding to biotic and abiotic factors in the context of anthropogenic climate change (2014, background): “…only does climate change pose a threat to forests themselves, but also to the millions of people who depend on them directly for their livelihoods (Dawson et al., 2014, this special issue), and to the billions who are supported by forests through the provision of environmental services that are…”