TY - JOUR

T1 - Trends, drivers and impacts of changes in swidden cultivation in tropical forest-agriculture frontiers

T2 - a global assessment

AU - van Vliet, Nathalie

AU - Mertz, Ole

AU - Heinimann, Andreas

AU - Langanke, Tobias

AU - Pascual, Unai

AU - Schmook, Birgit

AU - Adams, Christina

AU - Schmidt-Vogt, Dietrich

AU - Messerli, Peter

AU - Leisz, Stephen

AU - Castella, Jean-Christophe

AU - Jørgensen, Lars

AU - Birch-Thomsen, Torben

AU - Hett, Cornelia

AU - Bruun, Thilde Bech

AU - Ickowitz, Amy

AU - Chi Vu, Kim

AU - Yasuyuki, Kono

AU - Fox, Jefferson

AU - Padoch, Christine

AU - Dressler, Wolfram Dressler

AU - Ziegler, Alan D.

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - This meta-analysis of land-cover transformations of the past 10–15 years in tropical forest-agriculture frontiers world-wide shows that swidden agriculture decreases in landscapes with access to local, national and international markets that encourage cattle production and cash cropping, including biofuels. Conservation policies and practices also accelerate changes in swidden by restricting forest clearing and encouraging commercial agriculture. However, swidden remains important in many frontier areas where farmers have unequal or insecure access to investment and market opportunities, or where ultifunctionalityof land uses has been preserved as a strategy to adapt to current ecological, economic and political circumstances. In some areas swidden remains important simply because intensification is not a viable choice, for example when population densities and/or food market demands are low. The transformation of swidden landscapes into more intensive land uses has generally increased household incomes, but has also led to negative effects on the social and human capital of local communities to varying degrees.From an environmentalperspective, the transition from swidden to other land uses oftencontributes to permanent deforestation, loss of biodiversity, increased weed pressure, declines in soil fertility, and accelerated soil erosion. Our prognosis is that, despite the global trend towards land use intensification, in many areas swidden will remain part of rural landscapes as the safety component of diversified systems, particularly in response to risks and uncertainties associated with more intensive land use systems. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

AB - This meta-analysis of land-cover transformations of the past 10–15 years in tropical forest-agriculture frontiers world-wide shows that swidden agriculture decreases in landscapes with access to local, national and international markets that encourage cattle production and cash cropping, including biofuels. Conservation policies and practices also accelerate changes in swidden by restricting forest clearing and encouraging commercial agriculture. However, swidden remains important in many frontier areas where farmers have unequal or insecure access to investment and market opportunities, or where ultifunctionalityof land uses has been preserved as a strategy to adapt to current ecological, economic and political circumstances. In some areas swidden remains important simply because intensification is not a viable choice, for example when population densities and/or food market demands are low. The transformation of swidden landscapes into more intensive land uses has generally increased household incomes, but has also led to negative effects on the social and human capital of local communities to varying degrees.From an environmentalperspective, the transition from swidden to other land uses oftencontributes to permanent deforestation, loss of biodiversity, increased weed pressure, declines in soil fertility, and accelerated soil erosion. Our prognosis is that, despite the global trend towards land use intensification, in many areas swidden will remain part of rural landscapes as the safety component of diversified systems, particularly in response to risks and uncertainties associated with more intensive land use systems. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Land use change

KW - Swidden cultivation

KW - Drivers

KW - Impacts

KW - Forest-agriculture frontiers

KW - Metaanalysis

U2 - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.10.009

DO - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.10.009

M3 - Journal article

VL - 22

SP - 418

EP - 429

JO - Global Environmental Change

JF - Global Environmental Change

SN - 0959-3780

IS - 2

ER -