This document discusses farmers' forests and small-scale forest management. It describes how farmers domesticate trees, ecosystems, and landscapes by bringing nature into the human sphere through practices like grafting selected varieties, planting, manipulating forest regeneration and development, developing infrastructure like terraces and buildings, and introducing rights. It also discusses the material and immaterial human components of domesticated forests, including their economic, symbolic, and intergenerational importance. The document notes that forest and agricultural policies do not fully acknowledge the multidimensional value of local forests and that a sustainable development framework may be more favorable. It presents new opportunities for community forests, local product certification, and environmental services but cautions about long-term trends and global trade policies that

1. More than just « small-scale
forest management »
Geneviève Michon –IRD
Robert Nasi – CIFOR
Gérard Balent - INRA

2. Farmers and forests
Chestnut forest, Corsica
Mosaic of fields and farmers’ forests
Small fragmented rural forest, France

3. Argan forest, Marocco
Eucalyptus forest, Timor
Oak parklands, Corsica

4. Domestic forest for collection, Sumatra, Indonesia
e agroforest, West Java, Indonesia
Spared forest Dipterocarp; laos
Farmers’ forest in S&B area, Sumatra, Indonesia

5. Humanity and naturality
• The material part: ecology, local knowledge and
practices
– « Domesticating »: bringing « nature » into the « domestic »
human sphere
• Domesticating trees
• Domesticating ecosystems
• Domesticating landscapes
• The immaterial part: the human component of
domesticated forests
– Economic dimension
– Symbolic dimension
– Intergenerational linkages: to the ancestors and for the future
generations

6. Domesticating trees: the visible processes
Grafting selected
varieties
Planting
wildings and
varieties
Western Chestnut
Increasing production through
working on the tree form

7. Domesticating trees: the invisible processes
Argan (Argana spinosa) tree and oil in
Marocco

8. Domesticating ecosystem: manipulating global forest development

9. Domesticating ecosystem: manipulating regeneration
« Ingeneering » the ecosystem
Ffilling natural or induced gaps

10. Domesticating landscapes: developing infrastructures
Terraces
Buildings: storing, drying, milling

11. Domesticating landscapes: introducing rights

12. Domesticating landscapes: infrastructures + rights = diversity

13. Belonging to the domesticity
Economy: support of livelihood
Political dimension
Territory
Patrimony:
transgenerational
intentions
Symbolism: linking to the immaterial world
Identity

14. And the policy framework ???
• The Agriculture / Forest divide: forest or not forest?
• Forest policies: do not really acknowledge the multidimensional
value of local forests
– Production forests? (not intensive timber production areas, too
« degraded », timber is minor)
– Conservation forests? (not biodiversity sanctuaries: too much humanity:
reserve concept not working)
– Social forest? (reluctance for full local rights, authority and legitimacy
recognition)
• Agricultural policies: care for single productions (chestnut, argan
oil), not for the maintenance of the forest ecosystem integrity
• Conservation policies: do not care for development and
modernization
• A bit of everything (production + environment + social)
• « Sustainable Development »: a more favorable framework?

15. New opportunities, new initiatives
•
•
•
•
Community forests
Local product certification (G.I.)
Biodiversity or ethnic products
Environmental services

16. But
• Long term tendancies and global trade policies
Intensive vegetable growing in Marocco
Oil palm development in
Indonesia

17. Socio-environmental intensification?