Infodoc : Sciences, Techniques et Culture

There is no direct definition of "trees outside forest" (TOF), a neologism coined in 1996. The concept is defined by default by reference to the forest by a special FAO committee. These trees are widely unrecognized and national forest inventories do not include them, except in some very rare cases. Although we can find them all over the world, these trees have long been overlooked by legislations and policies in a failure to view TOF as a separate entity, despite their social, economic and ecological importance which is widely underestimated. Their definition, seeking to be universal shows some weaknesses, especially with regard to dry and arid countries. It must be fine-tuned again so that all nations feel directly concerned. The present FAO policy aims to grant them at last the im[...]

There is no direct definition of "trees outside forest" (TOF), a neologism coined in 1996. The concept is defined by default by reference to the forest by a special FAO committee. These trees are widely unrecognized and national forest inventories do not include them, except in some very rare cases. Although we can find them all over the world, these trees have long been overlooked by legislations and policies in a failure to view TOF as a separate entity, despite their social, economic and ecological importance which is widely underestimated. Their definition, seeking to be universal shows some weaknesses, especially with regard to dry and arid countries. It must be fine-tuned again so that all nations feel directly concerned. The present FAO policy aims to grant them at last the importance they deserve, but paradoxically enough the criteria used to define them reduce their occurrence to very few cases. This article points out to the various points lacking
in their definition which therefore needs to be specified and it proposes a number of modifications. Different groups previously classified as TOF by FAO are declassified and conversely. These woody plants could be renamed without reference to the forest, using the term of "Urban and Agro-Silvo-Pasture Woody" (UASPW), all the more so as they generally escape forest management and control strategies.