Agrodeforestation and the neglect of trees : threat to the well-being of Pacific societies

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that, if true poly-cultural agro-forestry systems and the planting of trees, are not incorporated as an integral components of current and future agricultural and forestry development strategies, there may be little future for sustainable development in the Pacific Islands in the 1990s and beyond. It is suggested that modern mono-cultural and export-oriented agricultural and forestry development has been a major contributor to deforestation, and that agro-deforestation, the destruction of, and failure to replant trees within the context of existing agricultural systems, is a threat to the wellbeing of Pacific societies, and, perhaps, a more serious economic and ecological problem than classical deforestation for many Pacific island societies whose primary indigenous forest resources are almost non-existent