Bioversity International scientist Bhuwon Sthapit presents on the importance of fruit tree wild relatives in supporting livelihoods and a series of valuable ecosystem services. He gives a good overview of the current status, uses and conservation practices of various wild fruit tree species in South and Southeast Asia. Presented at the 29th International Horticulture Congress in Brisbane, Australia. Learn more: http://www.bioversityinternational.org/news/detail/custodian-farmers-the-go-to-people-for-agricultural-biodiversity/

1. Harnessing the Diversity of Wild Relatives of
Tropical Fruit Tree Species for Sustainable Livelihoods
Bhuwon Sthapit, R. Vasudeva, Salma Idris, Suchitra Changtragoon, Winarno,
Panida Rungrattakul, Supatra Limpiyaprapan and Ramanatha Rao
22 August 2014, International Horticulture Conference, Brisbane, Australia

2. The Tropical Fruit Tree Project
in partnership with

3. • Wild fruit trees: Extraordinarily valuable resource
• Provide important genetic resources
• Important source of income to dis-advataged rural households
• Key element to overcome poverty
• Provider of several ecosystem services
Tropical Fruit Trees (TFT)

4. Tropical Fruit Tree resources are in danger
Today their genetic resources are
threatened due to Habitat loss and
Climate Change
Conserving the Wild Relatives of TFTs in
their Natural Surroundings is Important
because:
 Populations to continue to evolve
and
 Generate new genetic variations that
are adapted to changing conditions

5. However, the conservation of
TFT Resources is complicated:
• Ex Situ conservation is NOT always possible:
• Recalcitrant seeds: cannot be stored in genebanks
• Field Gene Banks: are expensive / sudden collapse
• In Situ conservation is limited due to :
• Requirement of vast wilderness area for effective conservation
• Effective population sizes cannot be achieved easily

6. Key to the conservation
& use of wild relatives
• Which wild relatives are important? Knowing them
• Where are these resources? Geographic distribution
• Why/how are they being used? Documenting traditional uses
• How are they being protected? Good practices of on-farm diversity
• What policies are Important? Policy environment for protection

7. • 36 Communities in
four countries: India,
Indonesia, Malaysia
and Thailand
– Documenting Species
Richness
– Understanding their
local uses
– Multiple Values
Project Sites

8. Methods and Materials
• Multiple Sources of Information:
– PRA, Baseline Surveys
– Focus group discussions on traditional
knowledge documentation
– Fruit Diversity Fairs
– Community Fruit Catalogues
– Key informant surveys of Custodian
Farmers
• Information obtained:
– through personal interview
– field observation methods
• Credit: R. Vasudeva

9. Field Visits:
Good practices

10. Salient Results

11. Table 1. Consolidated List : Wild Relatives of TFTs (Partial)
Sl.no. Wild species Local name India Indonesia Malaysia Thailand
Mangifera
1 Mangifera indica a a a a
2 M. appalanta a
2 M. andamanica a
3 M. caesia a a
4 M. foetida a a a
5 M. griffithii a a
6 M. havilandi a
7 M. laurina a a
8 M. odarata a
9 M. pajang a
10 M. pentandra a a
11 M. quadrifida a a
12 M. torquenda a a
13 M. camptosperma a
14 M. cochinchinensis a
15 M. lagenifera a
16 M. duperreana a
17 Mangifera sp. Mamuang a
18 Mangifera sp.. Mamuang namtan a
19 Mangifera sp. pakkrabog a
20 Mangifera sp. Mamuang samhoy a
21 Mangifera sp. Mamuang tansine a
22 Mangifera sp. Mamuang kaeo a

12. Number of wild species of major tropical fruit tree species found to
be used by the communities in different countries
Genus No. of
Communities
India Indonesia Malaysia Thailand
Mangifera 2 11 11 7
Garcinia 5 3 8 14
Nephelium - 5 7 4
Citrus 8 - - 1

13. Globally Significant Wild Relatives
Indonesia:
three wild species of Mangifera
such as Kasturi (M. casturi),
Kuini (M. odorata), and Binjai (M.
caesia) have been deemed
globally significant wild species
These genetic resources
have uniquely adapted to the
waterlogged ecosystems of
Sarawak Islands in Indonesia
and Malaysia.
Bioversity InternationalB. Bhuwon Sthapit

14. a
India:
three wild varieties of Garcinia and one variety of Citrus are some of
the examples for their global threat status and due to specific use as
medicine
Garcinia indica : Orange, green and yellow morphotypes
• Credit: R. Vasudeva
Globally Significant Wild Relatives

15. Pic: R. Vasudeva
Inter-specific grafting of Garcinia to
overcome the genetic limitations of
one species, innovated by a
Custodian Farmer in India.
An inter-specific grafting yields valuable
fruit and comes up in drier conditions also
Thailand:
M. odorata and M. duperreana are used as
rootstock to scion of commercial varieties of
M. indica
Garcinia gummi-gutta:
Highly valued but needs very moist
conditions and not tolerant to drier
conditions
Garcinia indica:
Root stock resistant to drought
Use of wild relatives in
plant breeding/propagation

16. Credit: R. Vasudeva
Sustainable Diets
In India, wild aromatic pickle
mango (WPM) is:
• harvested from wild,
• used for preparing aromatic
pickles and
• semi-domesticated in the home
gardens.

17. Sustainable Diets
Sarawak, Malaysia:
Communities plant and
harvest both wild and semi-domesticated
fruit trees such
as durian, Rambutan,
Artocarpus spp (tarap) fruits,
Mangosteen etc. as sources
of sustainable and naturally
biofortified diets.

18. Local Livelihoods and Uses
Number of major uses of wild species in different countries
Genus India Indonesia Malaysia Thailand
Mangifera 09 3 10 04
Garcinia 05 2 6 04
Nephelium - 2 7 03
Citrus 5 - - 07
Credit: R. Vasudeva

19. Is there an association between
the utility and the frequency of wild relatives?

20. An example from the Western Ghats, India
• Two communities were considered
• 13 major utility of the all Tropical fruit trees were considered
• A cultural importance value was computed.
This index measures the use-value of a plant by including the number of
informants citing a given use-value.
(Philips and Gentry in 1993)
Where ‘N’ is the number of informants, ‘NU’ is the number of use-values cited and
‘UR’ is the number of different uses mentioned by each informant i.

21. Association between the Cultural Value Index (CI) and log
frequency of the wild species in home gardens
Communities maintain those wild species
that are MOST useful them
Association between the cultural importance value and its frequency in typical coastal and upper
ghat village communities of the Western Ghats of India

22. Ecosystem services of wild relatives
Sarawak, Malaysia:
Profusely flowering wild species such as
M. foetida, M. odorata, Nephelium
lappaceum – ak, Spondias cytherea,
Bouea macrophylla, Phyllanthus acidus
provide shelter to trigona bee populations.
Western Ghats, India:
wild aromatic pickle mango types are
found throughout riverine forests and are
well known for stabilizing river banks.

23. Conclusions
In 36 communities of four South and Southeast
Asian countries that plant breeding uses of wild
species and wild relatives of target crops are
limited to use of rootstock or scion for
domestication process.
Local communities value them for culturally
associated sustainable diets, nutrition and other
goods and services provided including
ecosystem and evolutionary services provided.
Among the initial populations examined, those
which are genetically most diverse within,
should merit a high priority for conservation.
Credit: R. Vasudeva

24. This study is the output of the UNEP/GEF-supported regional project
“Conservation and Sustainable Use of Cultivated and Wild Tropical Fruit Diversity:
Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods, Food Security and Ecosystem Services”,
implemented in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand.
The project is coordinated regionally by Bioversity International in collaboration with
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi; Indonesian Centre for
Horticulture Research and Development (ICHORD), Jakarta; Malaysian Agricultural
Research and Development Institute (MARDI), Kuala Lumpur; Department of
Agriculture (DOA), Bangkok.

25. Thank you
www.bioversityinternational.org