Organization of the study

Following this Introduction, chapter 2 examines agroforestry in the Pacific generally, and with particular regard to its functional and utilitarian diversity. Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 present case-studies of specific agroforestry systems grouped according to the long-standing geographical and ethnographic division of the Pacific Islands into Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia. This division is not meant to suggest that each of these three regions has a distinct "agroforestry environment." Although only Melanesia contains continental islands, all three regions contain all the other four kinds of islands: andesiticarc islands, high volcanic islands, raised limestone islands, and coral atolls (table 1). Nor does the division into Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia reflect any rigidly distinct contrast in flora, crops, or agri culture in general. The division is used because it is widely familiar and it provides some convenience in discussion and research. Moreover, certain distinctions can be made in agroforestry practices from region to region, as will be discussed in appropriate chapters.

Following the case-studies of agroforestry in the rural Pacific, most of which remains at least partially subsistence-based, attention is turned to urban agroforestry and to agroforestry practiced in conjunction with the intensive cash monoculture of sugar cane in Fiji. The penultimate chapter examines institutional agroforestry in the Pacific - that is, the more formal agroforestry activities that are promoted by governments, companies, and various agencies, and that involve external funding, training, agronomic research, and extension services. Also briefly described in that chapter is the status of education about agroforestry in the Pacific's universities and the work undertaken by some scientific research organizations. The final chapter offers general conclusions and recommendations having to do with agroforestry in the Pacific. In the Appendix, information about the characteristics of 100 important Pacific Island agroforest species is drawn together. Although the total number of tree or tree-like species found in use in agroforestry systems in the Pacific is more than 400, the more modest annotated listing of 100 species is certainly sufficient to give a clear indication of the remarkable richness of the agroforestry resource already available in the Pacific.