Skip to main content

Swidden Change in Southeast Asia: Understanding Causes and Consequences

Human Ecology volume 37, pages 259–264 (2009)Cite this article

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price includes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

References

  • Andriesse, J. P. (1989). Nutrient management through shifting cultivation. In van der Heide, J. (ed.), Nutrient Management for Food Crop Production in Tropical Farming Systems. Institute for Soil Fertility, Haren, pp. 29–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Angelsen, A. (1995). Shifting cultivation and “deforestation”: a study from Indonesia. World Development 23: 1713–1729. doi:10.1016/0305-750X(95)00070-S.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brookfield, H., Potter, L., and Byron, Y. (1995). In Place of the Forest: Environmental and Socio-economic Transformation in Borneo and the Eastern Malay Peninsula. United Nations University Press, Tokyo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruun, T. B., de Neergaard, A., Lawrence, D., Ziegler, A. (2009). Environmental consequences of the demise in swidden agriculture in Southeast Asia: carbon storage and soil quality. Human Ecology this issue

  • Condominas, G. (2009). Anthropological reflections on swidden change in Southeast Asia. Human Ecology. doi:10.1007/s10745-009-9248-z.

  • Conklin, H. C. (1957). Hanunoo Agriculture. A Report on an Integral System of Shifting Cultivation on the Philippines. FAO, Rome.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conklin, H. C. (1963). The Study of Shifting Cultivation. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cramb, R. A. (2007). Land and Longhouse. Agrarian Transformation in the Uplands of Sarawak. NIAS Press, Copenhagen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cramb, R. A., Colfer, C. J. P., Dressler, W., Laungaramsri, P., Trung, L. Q., Mulyoutami, E., Peluso, N. L., Wadley, R. L. (2009). Swidden Transformations and Rural Livelihoods in Southeast Asia. Human Ecology. doi:10.1007/s10745-009-9241-6.

  • Eder, J. F. (2003). Land use and economic change in the post-frontier upland Philippines. In Mertz, O., Wadley, R. L., and Christensen, A. E. (eds.), Local Land Use Strategies in a Globalizing World: Shaping Sustainable Social and Natural Environments. Proceedings of the International Conference, August 21–23, 2003. Volume 1.. Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, pp. 79–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • FAO Staff (1957). Shifting cultivation. Unasylva 11: 9–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley, J. A., DeFries, R., Asner, G. P., Barford, C., Bonan, G., Carpenter, S. R., Chapin, F. S., Coe, M. T., Daily, G. C., Gibbs, H. K., Helkowski, J. H., Holloway, T., Howard, E. A., Kucharik, C. J., Monfreda, C., Patz, J. A., Prentice, I. C., Ramankutty, N., and Snyder, P. K. (22-7-2005). Global Consequences of Land Use. Science 309: 570–574. doi:10.1126/science.1111772.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, J. (2000). How blaming ‘slash and burn’ farmers is deforesting mainland Southeast Asia. Asia Pacific Issues 47: 1–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, J., Fujita, Y., Ngidang, D., Peluso, N. L., Potter, L., Sakuntaladewi, N., Sturgeon, J., Thomas, D. (2009). Policies, Political-Economy, and Swidden, in Southeast Asia. Human Ecology. doi:10.1007/s10745-009-9240-7.

  • Gleave, M. B. (1996). The length of the fallow period in tropical fallow farming systems: a discussion with evidence from Sierra Leone. The Geographical Journal 162: 14–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, H., Padoch, C., Coffey, K., Aiguo, C., and Yongneng, F. (2002). Economic development, land use and biodiversity change in the tropical mountains of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, Southwest China. Environmental Science & Policy 5: 471–479. doi:10.1016/S1462-9011(02)00093-X.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, T. S., and Mertz, O. (2006). Extinction or adaptation? Three decades of change in shifting cultivation in Sarawak, Malaysia. Land Degradation and Development 17: 135–148. doi:10.1002/ldr.720.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ickowitz, A. (2006). Shifting cultivation and deforestation in Tropical Africa: critical reflections. Development and Change 37: 599–626. doi:10.1111/j.0012-155X.2006.00492.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jakobsen, J., Rasmussen, K., Leisz, S., Folving, R., and Quang, N. V. (2007). The effects of land tenure policy on rural livelihoods and food sufficiency in the upland village of Que, North Central Vietnam. Agricultural Systems 94: 309–319. doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2006.09.007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kleinman, P. J. A., Bryant, R. B., and Pimentel, D. (1-3-1996). Assessing ecological sustainability of slash-and-burn agriculture through soil fertility indicators. Agron J 88: 122–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, D., Suma, V., and Mogea, J. P. (2005). Change in species composition with repeated shifting cultivation: limited role of soil nutrients. Ecological applications 15: 1952–1967. doi:10.1890/04-0841.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leisz, S., Rasmussen, K., Olesen, J. E., Vien, T. D., Elberling, B., and Christiansen, L. (22-12-2007). The impacts of local farming system development trajectories on greenhouse gas emissions in the northern mountains of Vietnam. Regional Environmental Change 7: 187–208. doi:10.1007/s10113-007-0037-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mertz, O. (2002). The relationship between fallow length and crop yields in shifting cultivation: a rethinking. Agroforestry Systems 55: 149–159. doi:10.1023/A:1020507631848.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mertz, O., Leisz, S., Heinimann, A., Rerkasem, K., Thiha, Dressler, W., Cu, P. V., Vu, K. C., Schmidt-Vogt, D., Colfer, C. J. P., Epprecht, M., Padoch, C., Potter, L. (2009). Who counts? the demography of swidden cultivators. Human Ecology. doi:10.1007/s10745-009-9249-y.

  • Messerli, P., Heinimann, A., Epprecht, M. (2009). Finding homogeneity in heterogeneity—a new approach to quantifying landscape mosaics developed for Lao PDR. Human Ecology. doi:10.1007/s10745-009-9238-1.

  • Myers, N. (1992). Tropical forests: the policy challenge. Environmentalist 12: 15–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen, U., Mertz, O., and Noweg, G. T. (2006). The rationality of shifting cultivation systems: labor productivity revisited. Human Ecology 34: 210–218. doi:10.1007/s10745-006-9014-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Padoch, C., Coffey, K., Mertz, O., Leisz, S., Fox, J., and Wadley, R. L. (2007). The demise of swidden in Southeast Asia? Local realities and regional ambiguities. Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography 107: 29–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelzer, K. J. (1945). Pioneer Settlement in the Asiatic Tropics. American Geographic Society, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramankutty, N., and Foley, J. A. (1999). Estimating historical changes in global land cover: croplands from 1700 to 1992. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 13: 997–1027. doi:10.1029/1999GB900046.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rambo, A. T. (1998). The composite swiddening agroecosystem of the Tay Ethnic Minority of the Northwestern Mountains of Vietnam. In Patanothai, A. (ed.), Land Degradation and Agricultural Sustainability: Case Studies from Southeast and East Asia, Regional Secretariat, The Southeast Asian Universities Agroecosystem Network (SUAN). Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, pp. 43–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rerkasem, K., Lawrence, D., Padoch, C., Schmidt-Vogt, D., Zeigler, A. D., Bruun, T. B. (2009). Consequences of swidden transitions for crop and fallow biodiversity in Southeast Asia. Human Ecology. doi:10.1007/s10745-009-9250-5.

  • Ruthenberg, H. (1980). Farming Systems in the Tropics. Clarendon, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt-Vogt, D., Leisz, S., Mertz, O., Heinimann, A., Thiha, Messerli, P., Epprecht, M., Cu, P. V., Vu, K. C., Hardiono, M., Truong, D. M. (2009). An assessment of trends in the extent of swidden in Southeast Asia. Human Ecology. doi:10.1007/s10745-009-9239-0.

  • Sommer, R., Denich, M., and Vlek, P. L. G. (2000). Carbon storage and root penetration in deep soils under small-farmer land-use systems in the Eastern Amazon Region, Brazil. Plant and Soil 219: 231–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spencer, J. E. (1966). Shifting Cultivation in Southeastern Asia. University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Szott, L. T., Palm, C. A., and Buresh, R. J. (1999). Ecosystem fertility and fallow function in the humid and subhumid tropics. Agroforestry Systems 47: 163–196. doi:10.1023/A:1006215430432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watters, R. F. (1971). Shifting Cultivation in Latin America. FAO, Rome.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ziegler, A. D., Bruun, T. B., Lawrence, D., Nguyen, T. L. (2009). Environmental consequences of the demise in swidden agriculture in Montane Mainland SE Asia: hydrology and geomorphology. Human Ecology this issue

Download references

Acknowledgements

This article and the special issue are dedicated to the memory of Dr. Reed Wadley, our friend and fellow scholar of Southeast Asian swidden systems who passed away on 28 June 2008 at the age of 45. We are very grateful to the Ford Foundation Vietnam and Indonesia for funding the workshop and conferences as well as for supporting the development of this special issue. We would also like to thank the University of Copenhagen for providing travel grants, Hanoi University of Agriculture for organizing the workshop and conference in Hanoi, and the World Agroforestry Centre for organizing the meeting in Jakarta. The time and effort put into this special issue by all authors are highly appreciated and we are especially grateful to Professor Emeritus Georges Condominas, who gave the keynote address at the conference in Hanoi, to the Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient in Hanoi who assisted Professor Condominas during his stay in Hanoi, and to Nicholas Menzies who translated the address from French.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Ole Mertz

  2. Institute of Economic Botany, New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY, 10458, USA

    Christine Padoch

  3. East-West Center, 1601 East West Road, Honolulu, HI, 96848-1601, USA

    Jefferson Fox

  4. School of Natural & Rural Systems Management, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    R. A. Cramb

  5. Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523-1787, USA

    Stephen J. Leisz

  6. Center for Agricultural Research and Ecological Studies (CARES), Hanoi University of Agriculture, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Nguyen Thanh Lam & Tran Duc Vien

Authors
  1. Ole Mertz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christine Padoch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jefferson Fox
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. R. A. Cramb
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Stephen J. Leisz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Nguyen Thanh Lam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Tran Duc Vien
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ole Mertz.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mertz, O., Padoch, C., Fox, J. et al. Swidden Change in Southeast Asia: Understanding Causes and Consequences. Hum Ecol 37, 259–264 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-009-9245-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-009-9245-2

Keywords

  • Carbon Storage
  • Upland Rice
  • Swidden Cultivation
  • Fallow Area
  • Swidden System