ABSTRACT
Rising concern over the contribution of deforestation to global warming has increased public attention on the scale of environmental destruction resulting from shifting cultivation and agricultural land settlement in tropical moist forest regions from Amazonia to Indonesia (Houghton, 1990; 1991; Williams, 1990; Sanchez et al., 1993). In addition to the environmental consequences of rainforest colonization, the experience of land settlement schemes in the humid tropics has demonstrated the difficulty of maintaining productivity and ensuring sustainable livelihoods (Helmsing, 1982; Hulme, 1987; Oberai, 1988). Many of the principal consequences of land setdement are well known and can be briefly summarized into two general areas of concern for sustainability: the use of environmental resources and the building of livelihood security.
