The Indonesian agroforest model forest resource management and biodiversity conservation

Rural life in Indonesia is still greatly dependent on forests, although resource use by local populations often tends to be exploitative. While predation of in situ resources does exist, there are also interesting examples of conservative resource management outside natural forest by local populations throughout the archipelago. As native populations' traditional access to natural forests becomes more and more limit, forest resources are often managed through an ago-forestry reconstruction of the ecosystem: the ago-forest. In the present context of degradation of natural ecosystems and of generalized dilapidation of their resources, indigenous ago-forests reaffirm traditional responsibility over natural resources by native farmers and societies. Besides management of useful species, these ago-forests also allow conservation of a good part of animal and plant diversity. In Sumatra, results of a comparative study on biodiversity levels between natural forests, several ago-forests and mono specific plantations show the high potential of this original type of resource management system in conserving forest biodiversity in agricultural lands.

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