ABSTRACT
To properly evaluate the claims made about 'idle' and 'degraded' swidden fallows and the alternative uses proposed for them, it is necessary to consider first the traditional management of swidden fallows and the perspectives of swidden farmers themselves. This chapter draws on a case study of two Iban longhouse communities, Batu Lintang and Nanga Tapih, in the upper Saribas basin: one of the longest-established swidden zones in Sarawak. The rubber garden was a 'managed' or 'enriched' forest fallow that rendered the swidden cycle more productive. However, from nine years onward, slower growing secondary-forest species began to take over, such as Adinandra cordifolia, Artocarpus elasticus, Cratoxylum glaucum, Euodia nervosa, Ilex cissoidea and Psychotria viridiflora. Swidden fallows in Sarawak have for centuries helped maintain the productivity of hill-farming lands that were not suitable for more intensive forms of agriculture, providing a subsistence base for longhouse communities in an agriculturally marginal environment-.
