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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|258 pages
Introductory Section
chapter 3|25 pages
Swiddens and Fallows
chapter 6|45 pages
Swiddeners at the End of the Frontier
chapter 10|14 pages
Learning from Migratory Agriculture around the World
chapter 11|24 pages
Learning to Cope with Rapid Change
part 2|470 pages
Is Shifting Cultivation Really the ‘Bogeyman' of Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss?
chapter 13|8 pages
Climate Change: Adaptation, Mitigation and Transformation of Swidden Landscapes
chapter 14|18 pages
Best REDD Scenario
chapter 15|12 pages
Earning Carbon Credits through Fallow Management
chapter 16|16 pages
Formal and Indigenous Forest-Management Systems in Central Vietnam
chapter 18|10 pages
Fallows and Flooding
chapter 20|13 pages
Second Thoughts on Secondary Forests
chapter 22|29 pages
Shifting Cultivators, Curators of Forests and Conservators of Biodiversity
chapter 23|19 pages
Fallow-Management Practices Among The Tangkhuls Of Manipur
chapter 25|18 pages
Plant Genetic Diversity in Farming Systems and Poverty Alleviation
chapter 26|26 pages
Experimenting with Change
chapter 29|18 pages
Valuation and Management of Forest Ecosystem Services
chapter 31|38 pages
Ancestral Domain and National Park Protection: A Logical Union?
chapter 32|18 pages
Shifting Cultivation and Wildlife Sanctuaries in Ancestral Domains
chapter 33|9 pages
The Missing Link of Forest Regeneration
chapter 35|12 pages
Characteristics and Roles of Fallow and Riparian Forests
chapter 36|14 pages
A Plant-Resources Survey and Festival
chapter 37|21 pages
Developing Information Systems on Indigenous Plant Resources
part 3|190 pages
Specialization for Markets or Continued Agrodiversity for Subsistence?
chapter 38|11 pages
Oil Palm as a Productive Fallow?
chapter 39|28 pages
Where are the Swidden Fallows Now?
chapter 41|17 pages
Socially Constructed Rubber Plantations
chapter 42|15 pages
Rubber Plantation, Swidden Agriculture and Indigenous Knowledge
chapter 43|15 pages
Impacts of Smallholder Rubber
chapter 44|9 pages
From Subsistence Swidden Fallows to Market-Oriented Monoculture Production
chapter 46|16 pages
Tree Crops, Fallow Management and Agricultural Settlement
chapter 48|28 pages
Rice-Related Knowledge, Farming Strategies and the Transformation of Swiddens
part 4|53 pages
Concluding Section