ABSTRACT
Swidden cultivation with a long fallow period has long been a central component in a complex agroforestry system practiced by the Iban of northwest Borneo.Importantly, the system has also included permanent and semipermanent groves and tracts of forest, and gardens of rubber, fruit, and bamboo. These have not only been preserved and managed for gathering forest products and hunting, but the Iban have also recognized longer-term benefits such as the protection of watersheds and regeneration of the forest after farming. This chapter proposes that the managed forest in the Iban system may have provided not only the seed necessary to reforest fallowed fields, but also the habitat needed by animals that pollinate and disperse seed. These animals may thus have helped sustain both preserved and fallow forests, which, when seen as part of the total agroforestry system, may both have been essential elements in the long fallow cultivation cycle.
