ABSTRACT
The degradation of forest land in northern Vietnam is a major environmental problem. It influences the lives of millions of people who live in the mountainous areas of the country, affecting their food and fuel supplies and their access to valuable forest resources. Shifting cultivation is one of the main causes of this forest degradation because pressure from an increasing population has forced the shortening of the fallow period. It is now too short to restore soil fertility for future cropping cycles and on degraded soils, crop productivity tumbles even more quickly.
