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Conversion of Tropical Moist Forests: A Report Prepared by Norman Myers for the Committee on Research Priorities in Tropical Biology of the National
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This is an OCR edition with typos.
Excerpt from
3 Role of Forest Farmers in Conversion of Tropical Moist Forests By far the most important factor in conversion of tropical moist forests (tmf) appears to be the forest farmer. Of the various forms of forestland agriculture, the main ones are shifting cultivation of traditional style, smallholder agriculture of more recent style, and sundry types of squatter colonization. Shifting cultivation can likewise be categorized into variations in accord with local environmental factors in each of the three main Tmf regions. A characteristic common to all forms of forest farming is that the farmer clears a patch of forest of virtually all its trees, and then usually burns the wood (locally the larger logs may be sold). Hence a generic term for forest farming could be slash-and-burn cultivation a term that is frequently though erroneously used in the limited sense of shifting cultivation. Forest farming has been an established practice in Tmf for millennia, almost entirely in the form of shifting cultivation as popularly understood. Indeed, shifting cultivation can be characterized as one of the major agricultural systems of the world. Widespread though it has been, shifting cultivation has not generally resulted in long-term elimination of forests. For example, Southeast Asia has featured shifting cultivation for at least 2,000 years, which indicates that the system is an essentially sound mode of utilizing forest environments within traditional patterns. Farmers would follow a locally migratoryway of life by virtue of rotational felling and burning a patch of forest, raising crops for 2 or 3 years until the soil lost itsfertility or until weeds encroached, then moving on to repeat the process in another patch of forest, eventually returning to the original locat...
This is an OCR edition with typos.
Excerpt from
3 Role of Forest Farmers in Conversion of Tropical Moist Forests By far the most important factor in conversion of tropical moist forests (tmf) appears to be the forest farmer. Of the various forms of forestland agriculture, the main ones are shifting cultivation of traditional style, smallholder agriculture of more recent style, and sundry types of squatter colonization. Shifting cultivation can likewise be categorized into variations in accord with local environmental factors in each of the three main Tmf regions. A characteristic common to all forms of forest farming is that the farmer clears a patch of forest of virtually all its trees, and then usually burns the wood (locally the larger logs may be sold). Hence a generic term for forest farming could be slash-and-burn cultivation a term that is frequently though erroneously used in the limited sense of shifting cultivation. Forest farming has been an established practice in Tmf for millennia, almost entirely in the form of shifting cultivation as popularly understood. Indeed, shifting cultivation can be characterized as one of the major agricultural systems of the world. Widespread though it has been, shifting cultivation has not generally resulted in long-term elimination of forests. For example, Southeast Asia has featured shifting cultivation for at least 2,000 years, which indicates that the system is an essentially sound mode of utilizing forest environments within traditional patterns. Farmers would follow a locally migratoryway of life by virtue of rotational felling and burning a patch of forest, raising crops for 2 or 3 years until the soil lost itsfertility or until weeds encroached, then moving on to repeat the process in another patch of forest, eventually returning to the original locat...
205 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1980
2 people want to read
About the author
Norman Myers
46 books2 followersNorman Myers (born 24 August 1934 – 20 October 2019) was a British environmentalist specialising in biodiversity and also noted for his work on environmental refugees. He lived in Kenya for over 30 years and later settled in Headington, Oxford, England. Myers's work has ranged over diverse critical global issues and includes 18 books and over 250 scientific papers [bio sketch copied & shortened from en.wikipedia.org]
https://www.iucn.org/news/species/201...
https://www.iucn.org/news/species/201...
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