Rediscovering 'Terroir' in West African agroforestry parklands.

摘要

The objective of this article is to examine how agricultural intensification and changing land tenure practices impact the management of two valuable parkland species: Vitellaria paradoxa and Parkia biglobosa. The article presents a conceptual framework that examines customary land tenure in an agroecological context. This required a variety of methods, including qualitative surveys on livelihoods and parkland management, surveys on land use history, and tree density measurements in farmers' fields. The research, conducted in northern Benin, reveals that farmers historically exploited the relative sparseness of Parkia biglobosa in natural vegetation by sowing its seeds in their fields in order to distinguish them from unclaimed land. As agriculture has intensified, farmers have abandoned this practice, which is likely contributing to the decline of Parkia biglobosa in regional agricultural landscapes. The abandonment of this practice also reveals an overlooked difference in management strategies for the two species.Digital Object Identifier http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08941920903377012