Shifting cultivation and forest landscapes in the Amazon

Lars Løvold

Rainforest Foundation Norway

Shifting cultivation

• A widely misunderstood agricultural system: “Primitive, inefficient, environmentally destructive, major cause of GHG emissions” – “Slash and burn”!

• Reality: Highly productive per labor unit, high product diversity, provides food security, well-tested, maintains biodiversity, may enrich forests

• Centuries of shifting cultivation = the Amazon rainforest

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Examples

Yanomami:

• 16 types of banana

• 9 types of manioc

Xingu – Kaiabi field:

• 27 crops,149 varieties

• 22 types of ground nuts

Baniwa, Upper Rio Negro:

• 75 types of chili

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Some characteristics:

• Not a static system. Adapted to

circumstances, modified over time

• Integrated with hunting and gathering

– with living in and of the forest

• Extreme diversity of foodstuffs

through the year: Flexibility is key

• Cautious selection of locations for

cultivation

• Plots from shifting cultivation

regenerate faster than other clearings

• Abandoned gardens enrich the forest

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Some characteristics (2):

• Collective management of territory,

individual management of plots

• Sometimes long-term ties to

abandoned plots, but no individual

ownership

• Long fallow periods, shifting plots and

village relocations (after decades)

The only agricultural system with

proven long-term compatibility with

tropical forests and biodiversity

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Challenges – external:

• Privatization of land (fallows

expropriated as “not in use”)

• Expansion of permanent cultivation

• Misconceptions and negative myths

• Government policies – stimulating

agricultural commodities, not

forest/food production systems

• Misguided environment and climate

defenders (key drivers elsewhere)

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Challenges – internal:

1) Limited territories, increasing

population

o Why? Expropriations recognition

2) From subsistence to market focus

o But combinations possible!

3) Sedentarization

o Schools, health, infrastructure..

4) Changing lifestyles and

expectations

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To meet challenges:

• Integrate with agroforestry for sustained production (RFN example)

– nitrogen fixation, rotation of annual crops, green manure …

• Meet monetary needs through sale of honey, vegetable oils, spices, …

• Develop rewards / benefits for maintaining ecosystem services

– “Payment” for ecosystem services must be part of the system

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Recommendations

• Stop demonizing the shifting

cultivators

• Acknowledge the rationality and

benefits of the system – for forest

landscapes, culture, food security

• Work with local communities to

develop alternatives, when the

traditional system is no longer viable

• Respect communities’ customary,

collective land rights and their right

to free, prior and informed consent

– Collective rights protect forests

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THANK YOU !