Includes bibliographical references and index.

The View of Swidden Agriculture by the Early Naturalists, Linnaeus and Wallace / Michael R. Dove -- Shifting Cultivators and the Landscape : An Essay through Time / Harold Brookfield -- Swiddens and Fallows : Reflections on the Global and Local Values of "Slash and Burn" / Carol J. Pierce Colfer, Janis B. Alcorn and Diane Russell -- Agroforestry Pathways Revisited : Voices from the Past / John Raintree and Katherine Warner -- Shifting Agriculture and its Changes in Yunnan Province, China / Shaoting Yin -- Swiddeners at the End of the Frontier : 50 years of Globalization in Northern Thailand, 1963-2013 / Peter Kunstadter -- Looking towards the Future --The Future of Swidden Cultivation / Joseph A. Weinstock -- Shifting Agriculture and Fallow Management Options : Where do we Stand? / P.S. Ramakrishnan -- Chena Cultivation in Sri Lanka : Prospects for Agroforestry Interventions / Herath P.M. Gunasena and D.K.N.G. Pushpakumara -- Learning from Migratory Agriculture around the World to Improve both Swidden and Modern Agriculture in Southeast Asia / Roland Bunch -- Learning to Cope : Evergreen Agriculture Transformations and Insights Exchanged between Africa and Asia / Dennis P. Garrity -- Swidden Transitions in an Era of Climate Change Debate / Meine van Noordwijk, Peter A Minang and Kurniatun Hairiah -- Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Transformations of Shifting Cultivation Landscapes : Are we Throwing out the Baby with the Bathwater? / Kamal Aryal and Dhrupad Choudhury -- Best REDD Scenario : Reducing Climate Change in Alliance with Swidden Communities and Indigenous Peoples in Southeast Asia / Janis B. Alcorn and Antoinette G. Royo -- Earning Carbon Credits through Fallow Management on lands Affected by Shifting Cultivation in Northeast India / Imtienla Ao -- Formal and Indigenous Forest-Management Systems in Central Vietnam : Implications and Challenges for REDD+ / Mucahid Mustafa Bayrak, Tran Nam Tu and Paul Burgers -- Changing Strategies of Shifting Cultivators to Match a Changing Climate / Prasert Trakansuphakon -- Fallows and Flooding : A Case Study on the Potential Contribution of Fallows to Flood Mitigation / Peter D. Suson, Rex Victor O. Cruz, Ruth P. Serquiña, Nathaniel C. Bantayan, Daisy Lou L. Polestico and Jerson N. Orejudos -- Dynamics of an Island Ecosystem : Where to Now? Marjorie V. Cushing Falanruw and Francis Ruegorong -- Second thoughts on secondary forests : Can swidden cultivation be compatible with conservation? / Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt -- Biodiversity and Swidden Agroecosystems : An Analysis and some Implications / Percy E. Sajise -- Shifting Cultivators, Curators of Forests and Conservators of Biodiversity : The Dayak of East Kalimantan, Indonesia / Herwasono Soedjito -- Fallow Management Practices among the Tangkhuls of Manipur : Safeguarding Provisioning and Regulatory Services from Shifting Cultivation Fallows / L. Jitendro Singh and Dhrupad Choudhury -- Some Lesser Known Facts about jhum in Nagaland, Northeast India / Temjen Toy and POU (Project Operations Unit) Members -- Plant Genetic Diversity in Farming Systems and Poverty Alleviation in Vietnam's Northern Mountain Region / Tran Duc Vien, Vu Van Liet and Nguyen Thanh Lam -- Experimenting with Change : Shifting Beliefs and Rice Varieties in Swidden Communities in Northern Laos / Karen McAllister --

Is the "Bogeyman" Real? : Shifting Cultivation and the Forests, Papua New Guinea / Bryant Allen and Colin Filer -- The End of swidden in Bhutan : Implications for Forest Cover and Biodiversity / Steve Siebert, Jill M. Belsky, Sangay Wangchuk and James Riddering -- Valuation and Management of Forest Ecosystem Services : A Skill Well Exercised by the Forest People of Upper Nam Theun, Lao P.D.R / Laurent Chazee -- Benuaron : The Fruit Gardens of the Orang Rimba / Bambang Hariyadi and Dedi Harmoko -- Ancestral Domain and National Park Potection : Mutually Supportive Paradigms? : A Case Study of the Mt.Kitanglad Range Nature Park, Bukidnon, Philippines / Malcolm Cairns -- Shifting Cultivation and Wildlife Sanctuaries in Ancestral Domains : Friend or Foe to Biodiversity Conservation? / Butch Dagondon and Easterluna Canoy -- Missing Link of Forest Regeneration : Dwindling Shifting Cultivation from North Western Ghats / Archana Godbole, VJayant Sarnaik and Yogita Gokhale -- Fallows and Forest Restoration / Kuswata Kartawinata and Rochadi Abdulhadi -- Characteristics and Roles of Fallow and Riparian Forests in a Mountainous Region of Northern Laos / Isao Hirota -- A Plant Resources Survey and Festival : A Community-based Approach to Biodiversity Education and Conservation / Venacio A. Acebedo, Lorna F. Acebedo and David M. Bates -- Developing Information Systems on Indigenous Plant Resources in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines / Damasa B. Magcale-Macandog, Edwin R. Abucay, Lorenza G. Lirio, Lito O. Ayyokad, Joyce N. Paing, Jovita E. Saguibo, Enesto T. Miguel and Marlyn Tombali -- Oil Palm as a Productive Fallow? Swidden Change and new Opportunities in Smallholder Land Management / Ole Mertz -- Where are the Swidden Fallows Now? : An Overview of Oil Palm and Dayak Agriculture across Kalimantan, with Case Studies from Sanggau, in West Kalimantan / Lesley Potter -- Busy People, Idle Land : The Changing Roles of swidden Fallows in Sarawak / Rob Cramb -- Socially Constructed Rubber Plantations in the Swidden Landscape of Southwest China / Jianchu Xu and Zhuangfang Yi -- Rubber Plantation, Swidden Agriculture and Indigenous Knowledge : A Case Study of a Bulang Village in Xishuangbanna, China / Lun-Yin, Dayuan Xue and Jing Wang -- Impacts of Smallholder Rubber on Shifting Cultivation and Rural Livelihoods in Northern Laos / Vongpaphane Manivong and Rob Cramb -- From Subsistence Swidden Fallows to Market-oriented Monoculture Production : Drivers of Land Use Change in the Lao PDR in the Context of Market Globalization / Paulo Pasicolan and Thatheva Saphangthong -- Transformation of a Landscape : Shifting Cultivation, Biodiversity, and Tea / Janet C. Sturgeon -- Tree Crops, Fallow Management and Agricultural Settlement in the Cuyonon System of Shifting Cultivation / James Eder -- Governmental Pressures on Swidden Landscapes in Palawan Island, the Philippines Wolfram Dressler -- Rice-related Knowledge, Farming Strategies and the Transformation of Swiddens Amongst the Batak of Palawan island, the Philippines / Dario Novellino -- Gender Analysis: Shifting Cultivation and Indigenous People / Carol J. Pierce Colfer, Rebakah Daro Minarchek, Malcolm Cairns, Anungla Aier, Amity Doolittle, Valerie Mashman, Helen Hambly Odame, Michelle Roberts, Kathryn Robinson and Penny Van Esterik -- The Bidayuh of Sarawak: Gender, Spirituality and Swiddens / Valerie Mashman and Patricia Nayoi -- Cartoons about Shifting Cultivation: Using Humour to Emphasize some Important Points / Malcolm Cairns -- Afterword / A. Terry Rambo.

"Shifting cultivation is one of the oldest forms of subsistence agriculture and is still practised by millions of poor people in the tropics. Typically it involves clearing land (often forest) for the growing of crops for a few years, and then moving on to new sites, leaving the earlier ground fallow to regain its soil fertility. This book brings together the best of science and farmer experimentation, vividly illustrating the enormous diversity of shifting cultivation systems as well as the power of human ingenuity. Some critics have tended to disparage shifting cultivation (sometimes called 'swidden cultivation' or 'slash-and-burn agriculture') as unsustainable due to its supposed role in deforestation and land degradation. However, the book shows that such indigenous practices, as they have evolved over time, can be highly adaptive to land and ecology. In contrast, 'scientific' agricultural solutions imposed from outside can be far more damaging to the environment and local communities. The book focuses on successful agricultural strategies of upland farmers, particularly in south and south-east Asia, and presents over 100 contributions by scholars from around the world and from various disciplines, including agricultural economics, ecology and anthropology. It is a sequel to the much praised "Voices from the Forest: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Upland Farming" (RFF Press, 2007), but all chapters are completely new and there is a greater emphasis on the contemporary challenges of climate change and biodiversity conservation"--

"Shifting cultivation is one of the oldest forms of subsistence agriculture and is still practised by millions of poor people in the tropics. Typically it involves clearing land (often forest) for the growing of crops for a few years, and then moving on to new sites, leaving the earlier ground fallow to regain its soil fertility. This book brings together the best of science and farmer experimentation, vividly illustrating the enormous diversity of shifting cultivation systems as well as the power of human ingenuity"--