Farming in the forest
Shifting cultivation using ‘slash and burn’ practices is often seen as unproductive and outmoded, destroying forest resources, and causing air pollution, soil erosion and floods. It is clear, forests are being destroyed at a terrifying rate.
How can unsustainable ‘slash and burn’ systems evolve in more sustainable and permanent integrated systems? How can such an evolution process be supported and what are the economic and social preconditions for developing integrated systems?
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4 - 4written by Coen ReijntjesShifting cultuvaton using slash and burn practices is often seen as unproductive and outmoded, destrying forest resources and causing air pollution, soil erosion and floods. But indigenous people have practised shifting cultivation for centuries. At the moment, population growth, land competition, the creation of plantations and nature reserves, make it difficult to maintain long fallow periods and shifting cultivators are forced into more settled forms of agriculture. This issue looks at the intensification possibilities, remembering that if the sustainable use ofthe forest is to develop further, researchers, policy makers, colonist farmers and consumers will also have to change their approach, and not just the shifting cultivators.
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5 - 6Examples of successful, top-down technical approaches for stabilising and improving the productivity of shifting cultivation systems are difficult to find. However, there are many compelling examples of shifting cultivators who are successfully managing local resources to intensify land use. The Indigenous Fallow Management Network, initiated by ICRAF-SE Asia, has documented and analysed many such cases.
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7 - 7written by Roland BunchThe evidence collected by the Indigenous Fallow Management (IFM) Network and the Consortium for Tropical Soil Cover and Organic Resources Exchange (TropSCORE) makes clear that it is time to change our scientific understanding of soil fertility management in the tropics.
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8 - 9written by Chris ErniOver the last 30 years, the Buhid of South Central Mindoro in the Philippines have considerably adapted their shifting cultivation practices. This has led to more intensive and careful land use practices making it possible to sustain the livelihoods of a growing population on their ancestral lands.
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10 - 11written by Paul Burgers , Dede WiliamsResearch by the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Kerinci, West Sumatra, Indonesia, identified a flexible system in which a complementary relationship had developed between indigenous forest management strategies and agriculture. Understanding the dynamics of this relationship at household level provides us with insights into how far such integrated agroforestry systems can be promoted among households in the forest margins to help secure rural livelihoods.
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12 - 13written by Ranil SenanayakeThe NeoSynthesis Research Centre is Mirahawatte, Sri Lanka, has examined alternatives to modern forestry and has developed a strategy to intensify agriculture in an ecologically sound way. Twenty years of field experimentation has lead to an apporach that tries to work according to nature\'s designs. This system is known as Analog Forestry. The Centre\'s work proves that moving towards ecologically designed tress crops brings back economic and ecological stability.
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14 - 16written by Patricia VazAnalog agroforestry is an approach to sustainable 'farming in the forest' which builds on the principles of indigenous fallow management and natural species succession. It is being developed by different organisations in the humid tropics, among others in Sri Lanka and Brazil. Remarkable results were obtained by Ernst Götsch, who started with analog agroforestry in Brazil. Starting from completely degraded soils, above average yields of cacao were obtained and biodiversity increased remarkably within 5-8 years. Patricia Vaz explains the principles and practices of this approach which is now being used by a rapidly growing group of farmers.
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17 - 18Extraction of maté leaves has always been an important economic activity in Paraná, Brazil. Now, improving the production of maté groves has become the entry point of a Regenerative and Analog Agroforestry (SAFRA) programme initiated by the Central-Southern Paraná Farm Workers Forum. Farmer experimentation, farmer-to-farmer exchange, technical training and multi-media communication are important methodologies in this programme which is now extending to value adding and marketing of other forest species, especially medicinal plants.
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19 - 19written by John RaintreeEvery cultural community has its own particular set of defense mechanisms and external constraints. During my stay with the Tagbanwa, shifting cultivators in a remote area of the Philippines, I observed several mechanisms including low cultural value and lack of incentives for innovation, low self estimation of ability of individuals to innovate, etc. Under normal conditions, these constraints might not pose problems for cultural viability. But if the whole system is in crisis and under pressure to change, then such defense mechanisms can inhibit innovations that mught help the culture to survive.
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20 - 22written by Delbert RiceThe Ikalahan inhabit the upper, forested regions of the Cordillera and Caraballo Mountains of northern Luzon in the Philippines. Traditionally, they are shifting cultivators, primarily focused on the production of their staple food crop, sweet potato. Recent developments forced them to take action to conserve their natural resource base and think of additional livelihood strategies. By enriching fallow vegetation they have succeeded in halving the traditional fallow period, and using \"Forestry Improvement Technology\" they have increased the benefits derived from the forest while improving its biodiversity.
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23 - 23When shifting cultivation intensifies and the cash needs of producers and collectors increase, more agricultural and non-tress forest products will reach the local, regional, national and international markets. Some of these products have a high niche market potential because most shifting cultivation because most shofting cultivation areas are rich in biodiversity and can produce high value speciality products.
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24 - 25In 1994, the Natural Resources Institute and the Centro de Investigacion Agrícola Tropical (CIAT) in Bolivia tried to identify ways of making the present farming systems more sustainable and productive. Participatory on-farm, trials combined with other approaches were used to validate technical options, including combinations of novel perennial crops, leguminous cver crops, agroforestry mixtures and small livestock. As a result, the Ichilo-Sara project was developed in the eatern lowlands of Bolivia.
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26 - 27In Laos, shifting cultivators have become increasingly reliant on livestock for their cash income. Scarcity of fodder has raised their interest in collaborative efforts to improve fallow management by introducing forages such as grasses and leguminous fodder and tree species. The authors report on the experiences of the Forages for Smallholders Project.
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28 - 28North Sumatra is a province in the Indonesian archipielago. Its tropica rain forest has a rich natural biodiversity to which traditional swidden agriculture has contributed a rich agro-biodiversity. However, this richness is steadily being replaced by monocultures. The Pesticide Action Network began to develop alternative agricultural models to counter the problems caused by monocultures
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36 - 36written by Tony Jansen , Roselyn Kabu MaemouriThe Solomon Islands are located in the western Pacific Ocean. Most of the country is covered by rainforest and 80& of thepopulation live in small isolated communities and practice shifting cultivation. Slash and burn practices are the customary way of preparing garden sites, but when we look more closely at traditional methods we find there are different approaches to the use of fire.
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