ABSTRACT
The fallow-management practices of Tangkhuls could be contributing significantly to safeguarding and ensuring ecosystem services for themselves and for the future. This chapter deals with a research study that adopted both ecological methods for quantitative assessments and participatory approaches such as focus-group discussions and interactions with key informants (including elders) for qualitative aspects. Eight study villages were selected for the research, located within the district of Ukhrul in India's northeastern state of Manipur. Agriculture is the main occupation of the inhabitants of the study villages; shifting cultivation is the predominant form. Safeguarding the provisioning and regulatory services of fallows is initiated when vegetation is first cleared from plots in preparation for shifting cultivation. It is clear that while from an ecosystem-management point of view, larger representation from the Euphorbiaceae family may probably be preferred, from the purely utilitarian point of view of communities, a higher representation from families such as Fagaceae may probably be preferable.
