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Landscapes of bio-cultural diversity: shifting cultivation in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa

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Abstract

This article presents a study of shifting cultivation in Guinea-Bissau, illustrating the diversity, flexibility and resilience of these multifold agricultural practices and of its non-linear relation with deforestation and biodiversity conservation. The comparative analysis of the country’s three social and agro-ecological regions shows that the shortest fallows are not associated with the longest cultivation periods and with higher population densities. Further, the fast-track conversion of shifting cultivation into permanent agriculture with orchards is similar in the three regions, and is not occurring in response to land scarcity, shorter fallows and decreasing soil fertility. The article, then, adds depth to the understanding of the complexity of shifting cultivation in Africa and of its multiple routes of transformation into permanent agriculture.

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Notes

  1. Unpublished data of the Institute of Meteorology of Guinea-Bissau.

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Acknowledgments

Research in 2008 and 2009 was conducted within the framework of the project ‘Assessment of CO2 removal capacity and quantification of carbon stocks in the forests of Guinea-Bissau’ funded by the Guinea-Bissau and Portuguese governments, and by grants from the Portugal-Africa Foundation. In 2011 and 2012 fieldwork was continued within the framework of PTDC/AFR/111546/2009 and PTDC/AFR/1117785/2010 projects, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Insightful comments had been made by José Miguel Pereira, Florent Okry, Dominic Gleaver, Jean-Louis Couture, Amy Ickowitz, João Silva, Luís Catarino and Duarte Oom. The first author also thanks the Department of Anthropology of Yale and the Technology and Agrarian Development Group of Wageningen University, for the feedback provided when she was a Visiting Fellow in 2010–2011 and in April 2010, respectively. The second author acknowledges the Compromisso com a Ciência 2007 contact supported by FCT.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tropical Research Institute (IICT), Apartado 3014, Lisbon, Portugal

    Marina Padrão Temudo & Rui Figueira

  2. African Studies Centre, Oxford University, Oxford, UK

    Marina Padrão Temudo

  3. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, 4485-601, Vairão, Portugal

    Rui Figueira

  4. UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil

    Manuel Abrantes

Authors
  1. Marina Padrão Temudo
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  2. Rui Figueira
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  3. Manuel Abrantes
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Correspondence to Marina Padrão Temudo.

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Temudo, M.P., Figueira, R. & Abrantes, M. Landscapes of bio-cultural diversity: shifting cultivation in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. Agroforest Syst 89, 175–191 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-014-9752-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-014-9752-z

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