Land or plants: Agricultural tenure in agroforestry systems

The distinction between the rights to land and rights to plants is often overlooked when viewing agricultural tenure in developing countries. This distinction is crucial to understanding traditional agricultural systems, especially where agroforestry is practiced or its introduction has been proposed. Rights to land versus rights to plants are viewed in two Asia-Pacific agroforestry systems: one in Indonesian Borneo and the other in Papua New Guinea. Conflicts are discussed between the traditional dichotomy of land and plant rights and government policy. The success of an indigenous agroforestry system based on plant rights is contrasted to the failure of a proposed agroforestry system for similar reasons. It is concluded that the perceptual separation of land and plant rights needs to be explored if agroforestry practices are not only to be ecologically and economically feasible but also culturally acceptable.