Journal article

Trends, drivers and impacts of changes in swidden cultivation in tropical forest-agriculture frontiers: A global assessment

Nathalie van Vliet, Ole Mertz, Andreas Heinimann, Tobias Langanke, Unai Pascual, Birgit Schmook, Cristina Adams, Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt, Peter Messerli, Stephen Leisz, Jean-Christophe Castella, Lars Jorgensen, Torben Birch-Thomsen, Cornelia Hett, Thilde Bech Bruun, Amy Ickowitz, Chi Vu Kim, Kono Yasuyuki, Jefferson Fox, Christine Padoch Show all

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE-HUMAN AND POLICY DIMENSIONS | ELSEVIER SCI LTD | Published : 2012

Abstract

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 multi-functionality of land uses has been preserved as a strategy to adapt to current ecological..

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Grants

Awarded by Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci


Funding Acknowledgements

Work for this paper was supported by a grant from the Danish Social Science Research Council, the Global Land Project (GLP) and the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South. The authors are grateful for contributions by Daniel Muller and Patrick Meyfroidt.