Species Profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry

Species Profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry

Summary

This project meets the needs of extension agents, producers, and land users by creating a concise, practical, user-friendly information resource for traditional Pacific island tree species. The project is producing a series of 8–16 page fact sheets for fifty of the most important species for agroforestry in the region. Each fact sheet provides information on products, uses, interplanting applications, environmental requirements, propagation methods, and cultivation techniques.

Objectives/Performance Targets

• To strengthen NRCS and CES agent understanding of and proficiency in Pacific island tree species and their products and uses;

  To meet the defined needs of NRCS, extension, and other agricultural professionals by creating concise, practical, user-friendly species profiles (8–16 page fact sheets) for fifty outstanding Pacific island agroforestry species;

  To produce selection tables of the fifty species sorted by associated crops, agroforestry uses/products (i.e., windbreak, timber, fruit), and five climatic zones;

  To distribute a searchable CD with live Internet links and a reproducible, bound and printed set of the species profiles and selection tables to fifty NRCS, CES, and other agricultural organizations in the American-affiliated Pacific islands;

  To publish the species profiles on the Internet (www.agroforestry.net) for viewing in HTML (using a web browser) and downloading in PDF format (for reading with the free Acrobat Reader) for at least a three-year period;

  To assess the effectiveness and benefits of above objectives by conducting a follow-up survey of recipients three months after distribution of the completed species profiles.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Species selection: The fifty species were selected by nine contributing authors who were surveyed regarding their choices for top priority species from a list of 150 species candidates. [complete]

Authors: Thirty-one experts from throughout the Pacific region and mainland U.S. are authoring the fifty species profiles (see list of contributing authors above). [complete]

Reviewers: Fifty-two people have reviewed species profile drafts representing academics, researchers, producers, extension, and NGO’s. [complete]

Manuscript progress: Fifty-three species profile drafts have been submitted by authors and are in review, production, or are complete. [80% complete]

Publishing to the internet: Twenty species profiles are complete and published at: http://www.agroforestry.net/tti. [40% complete]

Photographs: Over 325 photographs of 53 species have been submitted and processed for publication. We are well exceeding our original objective of 100 photographs for the entire set of fifty species profiles. [complete]

Current web stats: Twenty completed profiles have been posted to agroforestry.net at http://www.agroforestry.net/tti. Average daily download statistics for the top nine profiles as of 12/14/04 are as follows:

Morinda citrifolia (noni) 97/day
Mangifera indica (mango) 40/day
Samanea saman (rain tree) 22/day
Santalum austrocaledonicum/yasi (sandalwood) 20/day
Aleurites moluccana (kukui) 18/day
Calophyllum inophyllum (kamani) 14/day
Casuarina equisetifolia/cunningh. (she-oak) 13/day
Erythrina variegata (coral tree) 12/day
Artocarpus altilis (breadfruit) 12/day

Author contact: Two author updates have been sent out and posted to http://agroforestry.net/proj/authorupdate1.html and http://agroforestry.net/proj/authorupdate2.html.

Dissemination partners: We have made arrangements with the USDA Plants Database http://plants.usda.gov/ and AusAID’s South Pacific Regional Initiative On Forest Genetic Resources (SPRIG) to distribute the species profiles on their websites, in parallel with distribution on agroforestry.net.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

There are many questions that Pacific island farmers, ranchers, landscapers, and landholders must have answered in order to bring native and traditional tree species back into active use. The Species Profiles are unprecedented in the practical, user-friendly, and readily accessible information they provide for extension agents to answer this need.

Community benefits

Perpetuating ecologically and culturally vital tree species.

Strengthening sustainable Pacific island development and economic diversification.

Fostering the use of locally appropriate, time-tested tree species, as opposed to unproven and potentially invasive exotics.

Empowering extension agents to support their clients in successfully re-establishing local tree favorites.

Collaborators: