Everyone agrees that logging and agriculture can cause deforestation. But does shifting cultivation, or ‘slash and burn’ farming destroy forests particularly? Are local farmers solely to blame? Recent research by Overseas Development Institute (ODI) suggests the role of shifting farming in starting forest fires has been exaggerated. It is not, in fact, a major cause of biodiversity loss. The report finds that the causes of deforestation are many and varied, and that governments and international investors are also responsible.

Pressure from the environmental movement has provoked renewed discussion of the threat of shifting cultivation to forestry development and biodiversity. Many international agencies now acknowledge that the causes of deforestation are more complicated than previously thought. The term ‘shifting cultivation’, itself, refers to several types of land use such as forest pioneer farming and fallow shifting cultivation. Fallow shifting cultivation, in turn, includes long fallow and short fallow, both of which have complex management systems.

The study found that forest pioneer farming methods account for much of the destruction in Amazonia as forest clearance by migrants is increasingly promoted. Deforestation is also caused by:

resource privatisation

land speculation

financial incentives for land conversion

poor policies on land tenure

government development projects

resettlement schemes.

Attempts to modify shifting cultivation systems through development assistance projects have often ended in comprehensive and expensive failure. This is due to several factors such as the following:

From the farmers’ perspective, shifting cultivation systems may offer greater shorter-term efficiency than any available alternative.

Incentive schemes have proven unsustainable because they lack the necessary understanding of the underlying factors. These include, for example, the social hierarchy of forest communities, which are ranked according to kinship, length of residence and original claim to the land

The report found that a situational approach is needed to generate policies appropriate to the different causes of deforestation. It suggested that the following factors should be taken into account:

• There is need for a careful diagnosis of the farming system before any attempt is made to change practices.
• Development interventions need to make the link between societal interests and farmer decision-making.
• Changes to the land tenure system - giving farmers greater security of their cultivation rights - are likely to be a necessary first step in any attempt to change farming practices in the direction of permanent cultivation
• Attempts to change forest legislation will be complicated as vested interests fear losing control of timber resources.

Source(s):
‘Shifting cultivators as agents of deforestation: Assessing the evidence’ ODI Natural Resource Perspectives #29 by D. Brown and K. Schreckenberg (1998)
‘Indonesia and the 1997-98 EL Niño: Fire Problems and Long-term Solutions’ ODI Natural Resource Perspectives #28b by N. Byron and G. Shepherd (1998)

id21 Research Highlight: 9 February 2001

Further Information:
D. Brown and K. Schreckenberg
Overseas Development Institute
111 Westminster Bridge Road
London SE1 7JD
UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7922 0300
Fax: +44 (0)20 7922 0399
Contact the contributor: D.Brown@odi.org.uk

Overseas Development Institute, UK

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