Key words: buffer zone, commercial agroforestry, forest resource management,
fruit trees, multistory agroforest, West Sumatra
Abstract. The agroforestry garden system in Maninjau in West Sumatra is characterized
by an intensive integration of forest species and commercial crops, forming a forestlike
system. The intimate association of different species provides both subsistence and
commercial products which supplement rice production. This complex agroforest is
managed by the combination between cultural practices and respect of natural processes
of vegetation production and reproduction. It represents a profitable production system
and constitutes an efficient buffer between villages and protected forest. It is a good
model of association between integration of forest resources and cultivation of cash
crops in the form of a sustainable and flexible system.