A global view of shifting cultivation: Recent, current, and future extent

Mosaic landscapes under shifting cultivation, with their dynamic mix of managed and natural land covers, often fall through the cracks in remote sensing–based land cover and land use classifications, as these are unable to adequately capture such landscapes’ dynamic nature and complex spectral and spatial signatures. But information about such landscapes is urgently needed to improve the outcomes of global earth system modelling and large-scale carbon and greenhouse gas accounting. This study combines existing global Landsat-based deforestation data covering the years 2000 to 2014 with very high-resolution satellite imagery to visually detect the specific spatio-temporal pattern of shifting cultivation at a one-degree cell resolution worldwide. The accuracy levels of our classification were high with an overall accuracy above 87%. We estimate the current global extent of shifting cultivation and compare it to other current global mapping endeavors as well as results of literature searches. Based on an expert survey, we make a first attempt at estimating past trends as well as possible future trends in the global distribution of shifting cultivation until the end of the 21st century. With 62% of the investigated one-degree cells in the humid and sub-humid tropics currently showing signs of shifting cultivation—the majority in the Americas (41%) and Africa (37%)—this form of cultivation remains widespread, and it would be wrong to speak of its general global demise in the last decades. We estimate that shifting cultivation landscapes currently cover roughly 280 million hectares worldwide, including both cultivated fields and fallows. While only an approximation, this estimate is clearly smaller than the areas mentioned in the literature which range up to 1,000 million hectares. Based on our expert survey and historical trends we estimate a possible strong decrease in shifting cultivation over the next decades, raising issues of livelihood security and resilience among people currently depending on shifting cultivation

Politics and professionalism in community development: Examining intervention in the highlands of northern Thailand

It has been suggested that the practice of international development assistance is so deeply problematic that the only moral choice is to abandon the work altogether. The practice of community development in the Third World has been the subject of extensive critique for several decades. Scholars and development practitioners speak of the 'tyranny' of development and discuss the ways in which development is a means of control and domination rather than an altruistic enterprise whereby wealthier nations lend assistance to poorer nations. How are these debates relevant to highland development programs in northern Thailand? And how are development practitioners responding to the suggestion that they are making things worse rather than better? This paper explores the history of development in the hills and suggests some ways that development practitioners can - and do - take on board recent critiques of development while continuing to work for the betterment of highland lives and livelihoods

Policies, Political-Economy, and Swidden in Southeast Asia

For centuries swidden was an important farming practice found across the girth of Southeast Asia. Today, however, these systems are changing and sometimes disappearing at a pace never before experienced. In order to explain the demise or transitioning of swidden we need to understand the rapid and massive changes that have and are occurring in the political and economic environment in which these farmers operate. Swidden farming has always been characterized by change, but since the onset of modern independent nation states, governments and markets in Southeast Asia have transformed the terms of swiddeners’ everyday lives to a degree that is significantly different from that ever experienced before. In this paper we identified six factors that have contributed to the demise or transformation of swidden systems, and support these arguments with examples from China (Xishuangbanna), Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. These trends include classifying swiddeners as ethnic minorities within nation-states, dividing the landscape into forest and permanent agriculture, expansion of forest departments and the rise of conservation, resettlement, privatization and commoditization of land and land-based production, and expansion of market infrastructure and the promotion of industrial agriculture. In addition we note a growing trend toward a transition from rural to urban livelihoods and expanding urban-labor markets

Increasing Demand for Natural Rubber Necessitates a Robust Sustainability Initiative to Mitigate Impacts on Tropical Biodiversity

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Strong international demand for natural rubber is driving expansion of industrial-scale and smallholder monoculture plantations, with >2 million ha established during the last decade. Mainland Southeast Asia and Southwest China represent the epicenter of rapid rubber expansion; here we review impacts on forest ecosystems and biodiversity. We estimate that 4.3-8.5 million ha of additional rubber plantations are required to meet projected demand by 2024, threatening significant areas of Asian forest, including many protected areas. Uncertainties concern the potential for yield intensification of existing cultivation to mitigate demand for new rubber area, versus potential displacement of rubber by more profitable oil palm. Our review of available studies indicates that conversion of forests or swidden agriculture to monoculture rubber negatively impacts bird, bat and invertebrate biodiversity. However, rubber agroforests in some areas of Southeast Asia support a subset of forest biodiversity in landscapes that retain little natural forest. Work is urgently needed to: improve understanding of whether land-sparing or land-sharing rubber cultivation will best serve biodiversity conservation, investigate the potential to accommodate biodiversity within existing rubber-dominated landscapes while maintaining yields, and ensure rigorous biodiversity and social standards via the development of a sustainability initiative

Review: Biodiversity conservation strategy in a native perspective; case study of shifting cultivation at the Dayaks of Kalimantan

Abstrak. Setyawan AD. 2010. Review: Strategi konservasi biodiversitas dalam pandangan suku asli; studi kasus perladangan berpindah Suku Dayak di Kalimantan. Nusantara Bioscience 1: 97-108. Suku asli umumnya konservasionis sejati, mereka membangun strategi konservasi sumberdaya alam hayati dan lingkungan yang berkelanjutan. Dayak adalah suku asli Kalimantan yang telah tinggal selama ribuan tahun dan menggunakan sistem perladangan berpindah untuk mengelola hutan ulayat, karena tanah Kalimantan miskin hara mineral, dimana keberadaan fosfor menjadi faktor pembatas budidaya tanaman pangan. Di hutan tropis, kandungan terbesar fosfor tersimpan dalam pepohonan, sehingga untuk melepaskannya dilakukan pembakaran hutan. Hara yang terlepas ke dalam tanah dapat digunakan untuk bertanam padi gogo, hingga terserap habis, lalu peladang membuka hutan baru, sedangkan lahan lama ditinggalkan (bera) agar menjadi hutan kembali (selama 20-25 tahun). Pembukaan lahan yang berurutan, menyebabkan terbentuknya mosaik-mosaik lahan dengan umur suksesi dan keanekaragaman hayati beragam. Proses ini seringkali digabungkan dengan sistem agroforestri (kebun hutan multikultur), dimana ladang yang hendak ditinggalkan ditanami berbagai pohon berguna yang dapat terintegrasi pada ekosistem hutan, terutama karet dan buah-buahan. Sistem perladangan berpindah sering dikambinghitamkan sebagai faktor utama degradasi dan kebakaran hutan, namun dalam 300 tahun terakhir sistem ini berdampak kecil pada kerusakan hutan. Namun, produktivitas sistem ini relatif rendah dan subsisten, sehingga tidak sesuai dengan pertanian modern dimana produktivitas harus tinggi, hasil panen harus terukur, masal dan kontinyu, serta terkait dengan pasar. Peningkatan penduduk dan perkembangan industri kehutanan, perkebunan, pertambangan, dan lain-lain telah mempersempit luasan hutan ulayat untuk perladangan berpindah, sehingga masa bera diperpendek (5- 15 tahun) dan lahan terdegradasi menjadi padang alang-alang. Di masa depan, perladangan berpindah tetap menjadi salah satu pilihan suku Dayak untuk memenuhi kebutuhan padi, namun agroforestri perlu dikembangkan karena bernilai ekonomi lebih tinggi. Kata kunci: perladangan berpindah, agroforestri, Dayak, Kalimantan, konservasi, keanekaragaman hayati

Malaria mosquito resistance to agricultural insecticides: risk area mapping in Thailand

Malaria / Disease vectors / Waterborne diseases / Irrigated farming / Pest control / Insecticides / Public health / Risks / Mapping / GIS / Land use / Thailand / Chiang Mai / Mae Hong Son / Tak / Kanchanaburi