XVI International Botanical Congess

Rain forest agriculture is a late event in the economic development of this sector of the continent. Recent agricultural practices have basically relied on staples imported from Asia and America during modern times, however, the chronology of food production origin, its sources, and the nature of local staples prior to modern patterns and imports are still to be archaeologically established for vast unknown regions. This paper provides evidence concerning the exploitation of tropical oils (Canarium schweinfurthii, Eleis guineensis) in pre-farming periods. These arboricultural experiences probably started several millennia before agriculturalists appeared. These discoveries suggest that forest intensification through arboriculture of indigenous trees and, perhaps incipient food production, have led local-hunter gatherers to preadapt to later agricultural developments brought to the region by the farming migrations in AD times. This also points to the idea that some agricultural practices, conventionally assumed to have originated in the savanna and have been imported to the forest belt, could actually have started first in the forest domain prior to farming migration and before the extensive cultivation of oil resources.