Abstract:

The work reported in this special issue of Acta Botanica Yunnanica began in the l980s and took off in l990, follOwing a meeing betWeen Guo Huijun and others at the Kunming Institute Of Botany and Dr Nick Menzies of the Foal Foundation Bejing Office. Mainly with Ford Foundation support, the raditional Land Management Systems Researeh Programme was set up, expanding its activities after l992 under the title of the Yunnan Agroforestry Systems Researeh Proect and Indigenous Land Resources Management Programme (W). By l994, YAF had published l6 Working Papers. It was this work, carried out all over Yunnan, al-though focusing ultimately into a small number of main sites, that identified four main types of agroforestry in Yunnan, with 82 forms and 220 associations (Guo and padoch, l995). It also revealed the great dynamism of the systems, in response both to changing economic conditions and to the major innovations in national land tenure policy of the period since 1950.

Key words: Special,issue, Acta Bowtanica