ABSTRACT
Research has confirmed that traditional shifting cultivation practices employed by peasants of the Philippines Cordillera are not necessarily destructive. On the contrary, many of the systems used in the cultivation of their swiddens, locally called uma, have a strong conservation orientation (Angelo and de los Santos 1987), and, as a consequence, uma cultivation has been sustainable over a long period. This is attributed to the wisdom of the farmers, their careful use of resources, and their practice of controlled burning. As Olofson described it in 1981:
Burning requires a good deal of skill and precise evaluation of the microenvironment and the general climatic context to make certain that a thorough and even fertilizer layer is achieved and that adjacent forest and dwellings are not accidentally damaged. Burning among traditional shifting cultivators is therefore controlled.
