ABSTRACT

Shifting cultivation is one of the oldest forms of subsistence agriculture and is still practised by millions of poor people in the tropics. Typically it involves clearing land (often forest) for the growing of crops for a few years, and then moving on to new sites, leaving the earlier ground fallow to regain its soil fertility. This book brings together the best of science and farmer experimentation, vividly illustrating the enormous diversity of shifting cultivation systems as well as the power of human ingenuity. 

Some critics have tended to disparage shifting cultivation (sometimes called 'swidden cultivation' or 'slash-and-burn agriculture') as unsustainable due to its supposed role in deforestation and land degradation. However, the book shows that such indigenous practices, as they have evolved over time, can be highly adaptive to land and ecology. In contrast, 'scientific' agricultural solutions imposed from outside can be far more damaging to the environment and local communities. 

The book focuses on successful agricultural strategies of upland farmers, particularly in south and south-east Asia, and presents over 50 contributions by scholars from around the world and from various disciplines, including agricultural economics, ecology and anthropology. It is a sequel to the much praised "Voices from the Forest: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Upland Farming" (RFF Press, 2007), but all chapters are completely new and there is a greater emphasis on the contemporary challenges of climate change and biodiversity conservation.

part 1|258 pages

Introductory Section

chapter 1|22 pages

The View of Swidden Agriculture

By the early naturalists Linnaeus and Wallace

chapter 2|37 pages

Shifting Cultivators and the Landscape

An essay through time

chapter 3|25 pages

Swiddens and Fallows

Reflections on the global and local values of ‘slash and burn' 1

chapter 4|35 pages

Agroforestry Pathways Revisited

Voices from the past

chapter 5|12 pages

Shifting Cultivation and Its Changes

In Yunnan province, China

chapter 6|45 pages

Swiddeners at the End of the Frontier

Fifty years of globalization in northern Thailand, 1963-2013

chapter 8|13 pages

Shifting Agriculture and Fallow Management Options

Where do we stand?

chapter 9|22 pages

Chena Cultivation in Sri Lanka

Prospects for agroforestry interventions

chapter 10|14 pages

Learning from Migratory Agriculture around the World

To improve both swidden and modern agriculture in Southeast Asia

chapter 11|24 pages

Learning to Cope with Rapid Change

Evergreen agriculture transformations and insights between Africa and Asia

part 2|470 pages

Is Shifting Cultivation Really the ‘Bogeyman' of Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss?

chapter 12|20 pages

Swidden Transitions

In an era of climate-change debate

chapter 13|8 pages

Climate Change: Adaptation, Mitigation and Transformation of Swidden Landscapes

Are we throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

chapter 14|18 pages

Best REDD Scenario

Reducing climate change in alliance with swidden communities and indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia

chapter 15|12 pages

Earning Carbon Credits through Fallow Management

On lands affected by shifting cultivation in northeast India

chapter 16|16 pages

Formal and Indigenous Forest-Management Systems in Central Vietnam

Implications and challenges for REDD+

chapter 17|22 pages

Changing Strategies of Shifting Cultivators

To match a changing climate

chapter 18|10 pages

Fallows and Flooding

A case study on the potential contribution of fallows to flood mitigation

chapter 20|13 pages

Second Thoughts on Secondary Forests

Can swidden cultivation be compatible with conservation?

chapter 21|19 pages

Biodiversity and Swidden Agroecosystems

An analysis and some implications

chapter 22|29 pages

Shifting Cultivators, Curators of Forests and Conservators of Biodiversity

The Dayak of East Kalimantan, Indonesia

chapter 23|19 pages

Fallow-Management Practices Among The Tangkhuls Of Manipur

Safeguarding provisioning and regulatory services from shifting-cultivation fallows

chapter 24|5 pages

Some Lesser Known Facts

About jhum in Nagaland, northeast India

chapter 25|18 pages

Plant Genetic Diversity in Farming Systems and Poverty Alleviation

In Vietnam's northern mountain region

chapter 26|26 pages

Experimenting with Change

Shifting beliefs and rice varieties in swidden communities in northern Laos

chapter 27|29 pages

Is the ‘Bogeyman' Real?

Shifting cultivation and the forests, Papua New Guinea

chapter 28|13 pages

The End of Swidden in Bhutan

Implications for forest cover and biodiversity

chapter 29|18 pages

Valuation and Management of Forest Ecosystem Services

A skill well exercised by the forest people of Upper Nam Theun, Lao PDR

chapter 30|20 pages

Benuaron

The fruit gardens of the Orang Rimba

chapter 31|38 pages

Ancestral Domain and National Park Protection: A Logical Union?

A case study of the Mt Kitangland Range National Park, Bukidnon, Philippines

chapter 33|9 pages

The Missing Link of Forest Regeneration

Dwindling shifting cultivation in India's Northwestern Ghats

chapter 35|12 pages

Characteristics and Roles of Fallow and Riparian Forests

In a mountainous region of northern Laos

chapter 36|14 pages

A Plant-Resources Survey and Festival

A community-based approach to biodiversity education and conservation

part 3|190 pages

Specialization for Markets or Continued Agrodiversity for Subsistence?

chapter 38|11 pages

Oil Palm as a Productive Fallow?

Swidden change and new opportunities in smallholder land management

chapter 39|28 pages

Where are the Swidden Fallows Now?

An overview of oil-palm and Dayak agriculture across Kalimantan, with case studies from Sanggau, in West Kalimantan

chapter 40|24 pages

Busy People, Idle Land

The changing roles of swidden fallows in Sarawak

chapter 41|17 pages

Socially Constructed Rubber Plantations

In the swidden landscape of southwest China

chapter 42|15 pages

Rubber Plantation, Swidden Agriculture and Indigenous Knowledge

A case study of a Bulang village in Xishuangbanna, China

chapter 43|15 pages

Impacts of Smallholder Rubber

On shifting cultivation and rural livelihoods in northern Laos

chapter 44|9 pages

From Subsistence Swidden Fallows to Market-Oriented Monoculture Production

Drivers of land-use change in the Lao PDR, in the context of market globalization

chapter 45|11 pages

Transformation of a Landscape

Shifting cultivation, biodiversity and tea

chapter 46|16 pages

Tree Crops, Fallow Management and Agricultural Settlement

In the Cuyonon system of shifting cultivation

chapter 47|14 pages

Governmental Pressures on Swidden Landscapes

On Palawan Island, the Philippines

chapter 48|28 pages

Rice-Related Knowledge, Farming Strategies and the Transformation of Swiddens

Among the Batak of Palawan Island, the Philippines

part 4|53 pages

Concluding Section

chapter 50|14 pages

The Bidayuh of Sarawak

Gender, spirituality and swiddens