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While this aspect of rural development has been left in the inter-household, and community level. To deal with this
gap between natural resource management, farming systems complexity, a user approach in agroforestry research and
research, and rural women's programs, it is precisely at development must stratify clients by class, sex, household
this level that many rural people integrate trees, crops, composition, and social organization, as it affects access
and livestock with personal and community needs and objec- to resources and spatial patterns of activity and resource
tives. It is also the site of many gender-based land use use.
conflicts. In many areas women are moving rapidly into An example from Bhaintan watershed in the Lower
activities and spaces formerly occupied by men, though Himalayas, Uttar Pradesh State, India (Raintree et al.
often with less security of access to productive resources. 1985) illustrates the role of gender in the interplay
The rural landscape is the drawing board for-integrated between multiple users and landscape units in analysis of
agroforestry diagnosis and design beyond the single farm or agroforestry potentials. The landscape sketch (Figure
the individual plot (Rocheleau and Hoek 1984). Since women 11.2) shows the distinct division in land use and cover
are responsible for collecting water, fuelwood, and other which is closely related to tenure. There is a pronounced
"off-farm" resources, they have a vested interest in the division of use control, and access to specific landscape
planning of the larger landscape. Women's access to off- features, based on sex.
farm lands, woodland and water resources, and gathered The relative share of production (and land use presproducts can be better addressed when landscape is fully sure) from a given area also varies by user group (Figure
integrated into agroforestry analysis and design. 11.3). In turn, the relative importance of particular
Tenure is inextricably tied to the evolution and design areas to each user group also varies. In this case, the
of landscape, and to the place of women's resources and forest reserve is most heavily used by men, yet it is most
interests in the landscape. Land and tree tenure are important to poor women in terms of its relative conparticularly important for tree planters and managers, tribution to their livelihood. While women's harvest from
compared to annual cropping that is more ephemeral or the forest may be "minor" compared to men's timber offtake,
animal husbandry which is a more mobile enterprise. Where the forest products are major components of women's total
agroforestry designs apply to several categories of land, income. Moreover, poor women's interest in renewable use
land use, and plants in a complex landscape, then tenure and sustained yield may be more compatible with national
assumes even greater importance. and village level objectives for the commons and forest
Community development cycles (settlement, expansion, reserves.
diversification, land use intensification) will determine The potential for commercializing minor forest products
in large part the future availability of landscape niches versus timber resources in the Himalayan foothills is a
for women's agroforestry activities at the community level, good example of this (Surin and Bhaduri 1980). Women are
Oral history and discussions of possible future scenarios already interested and involved in cash enterprises based
with women and the community at large may provide some on gathering, processing, and retailing of many forest
insights into current trends. The choice of agroforestry products, and might be best servri by projects to improve
practices and landscape designs appropriate for rural women and sustain that activity rather chan by planting new
requires their involvement from the beginning in whole stands of trees that will not yield products for processing
community applications as well as in individual farm by women. Since women's enterprises depend largely on
planning. renewable products, this presents an opportunity for an
Within the context of landscape planning and design, a agroforestry system to serve women-as-gatherers, while
diverse array of agroforestry technologies can address a ensuring sustainable, renewable resources.
wide range of land use and production units. These units
may range from small plots to farms, watersheds, communal THE ROLE OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE
holdings, and public lands. The managers may be men or
women, acting as individuals/households or as whole ethnic Agroforestry as a "formal" science is in a unique posigroups, cooperatives, communities, or larger political tion to learn from and to improve upon traditional knowunits. Land use planning at multiple scales requires an ledge and practice and to combine forces with indigenous
integrated social and ecological approach to agroforestry experimental initiatives (Rocheleau and Raintree 1986).
that deals with the division of labor, responsibility, The relative ignorance of the research community about
expertise, control, and interests at the intra-household, woody plants used by rural people implies a special need