164 165
(women's responsibility), and wild fruits were also cited agroforestry research and action programs must incorporate
as important woodland products, with supply problems and address women's and men's distinct domains of both
occurring mainly near towns and old villages (Huxley et al. knowledge and concern.
1985; Mattson, in press). CONCLUSION
Trees play an important part in the land use system,
including those planted or "kept" in home compounds, fallows, and cropland as well as those found in woodland. A Women's interests in agroforestry research and developconsiderable body of knowledge and experience exists with ment will not be the same everywhere. They will usually be
respect to both indigenous and exotic, wild and domesti- nested within a larger tangle of conflicting and complecated species. Some men had extensive knowledge of exotic 2mentary relationships between and within rural households. fruit tree horticulture, including layering and grafting Whether or not ownership is legally demarcated, most rural
techniques. Both men and women readily identified their people operate in overlapping domains of access and conrespective favorite non-domesticated tree species by use, trol on a variety of resources involving a complex array of
those species in short supply, and those that they would activities and purposes. Technological changes in domains
consider planting now, or in the future in the event of controlled by men may drastically alter the terms of
limited supplies or access (Huxley et al. 1985). Both men access, control, production, and ecological stability on.
and women also provided information on site requirements, shared lands and resources, or in women's separate places
potential for management (tolerance to coppicing, pol- and activities. Aside from the differential effects of
larding), relative growth rates, and relative leafy biomass technology and land use change on men and women, the interproduction for several species that occur in miombo ests of different groups of women may diverge signifiwoodland succession (Mattson 1985; Huxley et KI7I85). cantly. Among the factors that may divide women's
While both men and women knew the miombo woodland ecosystem interests are age, class, household composition, ethnic
well, their experience tended to b-eT-lided by species. group, location, and sources of livelihood.
In spite of the extent of the surrounding woodlands, The proposed land user perspective can incorporate
mayfarmers surveyed were often conscious of relative land women as one of a number of valid client groups and active
lmny ae npoimt omres rvradras participants in agroforestry research and action programs.
lMists basped onr proximityd tou maresfivers and roads This approach can address women's distinct needs, contheir land rights prior to the imminent return of the sritopruiis n neet narfrsr
mining population to their home area. People's decisions technology and land use innovations. Since it is based on
to intensify cropping in place or to expand their cropland a premise of dealing with multiple users and multiple
varied mainly with household composition, village develop- interests in any given place, the land user perspective
ment cycles, and the quality of the village site and ser- clan also accommodate both women's relationship to the
vices. In many cases people were unwilling to move out and larger community and the differences between groups of
away into outlying woodlands, and they chose instead to women within a given community. This approach combines an
intensify production. explicit concern for women's interests with a commitment to
Many women heads of households and sub-households cited address those interests within the larger web of social and
woodland gathering and home garden intensification as their ecological relationships in which they live.
best strategies to supplement household food supply and NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
cash income. As a group they were less able to move into
new woodland areas and they expressed a greater interest in
more intensive use of both woodlands and farmlands. A similar version of this paper was published in
If national programs are prepared to follow the lead of a book edited by H. Gholz,' 1987. Agroforestry: Realities,
rural land users, knowledge of indigenous science and Possibilities and Potential. Boston, MA: Martinis Nijhoff,
users' initiatives may alter national agricultural and in the chapter entitled: The User Perspective and the
rural development policy. Useful information and tech- Agro-forestry Research and Actior Agenda.
niques can best flow from the scientific community to the
rural land users once its known what they already know, and
what else might be most useful to add to their store of
knowledge and tools. A well-informed basis for