How Blaming ‘Slash and Burn’ Farmers is Deforesting Mainland Southeast Asia

Summary: "For decades, international lenders, agencies, and foundations
as well as national and local governments have spent millions of dollars trying
to “modernize” the traditional practices of farmers in many mountainous
areas of Southeast Asia—an agenda driven by the belief that their age-old
shifting cultivation practices (known pejoratively as “slash and burn”) are
deforesting Asia. But a new look at how forests fare under shifting cultivation
(as opposed to under permanent agriculture) clearly demonstrates that efforts
to eliminate the ancient practice have actually contributed to deforestation,
loss of biodiversity, and reduction in carbon storage.1 In fact, shifting cultivation,
rather than being the hobgoblin of tropical forest conservation, may be
ecologically appropriate, culturally suitable, and under certain circumstances
the best means for preserving biodiversity in the region. The real threat to
these tropical forests is posed by the steady advance of large-scale permanent
and commercial agriculture.