Résumé
Among the Mvae farmers of the coastal rain forest of southern Cameroon, postagricultural secondary regrowths cover different meanings and functions, depending of the conceptual frame retained for their study. Using Mvae perception of their environment as a web for analysis, distinct typologies emerge whether post-agricultural regrowths are considered as spatial components of agroecosystems, as fallows characterizing land rotation, or as land units among the whole system of territorial ownership. Notion of "fallowing" is no more suitable for describing kaleidoscopic entities which entail multiple levels of relevance. An integrative and dynamic approach of the land use system as a whole, raises the importance of trapping arid gathering inside regrowths. Such non restrictive approach opens new pathes for a sustainable management/conservation of the biodiversity of tropical rain forests, based on the traditional exploitation of faunal and plant resources inside postagricultural secondary regrowths.