Effects of Landscape Segregation on Livelihood Vulnerability: Moving From Extensive Shifting Cultivation to Rotational Agriculture and Natural Forests in Northern Laos

Castella, Jean-Christophe; Lestrelin, Guillaume; Hett, Cornelia; Bourgoin, Jérémy; Fitriana, Yulia Rahma; Heinimann, Andreas; Pfund, Jean-Laurent

doi:10.1007/s10745-012-9538-8

Cited by 129 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In fact, as Li observes, "smallholder farming has its own problems, not least the new inequalities that arise through the "everyday" processes of accumulation and dispossession among smallholders that roll on relentlessly, despite efforts to prevent them" ( [41]; p. 285). The belief that the adoption of commercial tree crops can lift whole rural populations out of poverty ignores both the initial diversity within these communities and the disequalising processes involved in such a transition [1,42,43]. The early investment in teak woodlots in the study area has accelerated processes of capital accumulation and agrarian differentiation within and between villages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Transitions and Rural Livelihoods: Multiple Pathways of Smallholder Teak Expansion in Northern Laos

Newby

Cramb

Sakanphet³

2014

Land

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Smallholder teak (Tectona grandis) plantations have been identified as a potentially valuable component of upland farming systems in northern Laos that can contribute to a "livelihood transition" from subsistence-oriented swidden agriculture to a more commercially-oriented farming system, thereby bringing about a "forest transition" at the landscape scale. In recent years, teak smallholdings have become increasingly prominent in the province of Luang Prabang, especially in villages close to Luang Prabang City. In this paper, we draw on a household survey conducted in five teak-growing villages and case studies of different household types to explore the role that small-scale forestry has played in both livelihood and land-use transitions. Drawing on a classification of forest transitions, we identify three transition pathways that apply in the study villages-the "economic development" pathway, the "smallholder, tree-based, land-use intensification" pathway, and the "state forest policy" pathway. The ability of households to integrate teak into their farming system, manage the woodlots effectively, and maintain ownership until the plantation reaches maturity varies significantly between these pathways. Households with adequate land resources but scarce labor due to the effects of local economic development are better able to establish and hold onto teak woodlots, but less able to adopt beneficial management techniques. Households that are land-constrained are motivated to follow a path of land-used intensification, but need more productive agroforestry systems to sustain incomes over time. Households that are induced to plant teak mainly by land-use OPEN ACCESSLand 2014, 3 483 policies that threaten to deprive them of their land, struggle to efficiently manage or hold on to their woodlots in the long term. Thus, even when it is smallholders driving the process of forest transition via piecemeal land-use changes, there is potential for resource-poor households to be excluded from the potential livelihood benefits or to be further impoverished by the transition. We argue that interventions to increase smallholder involvement in the forestry sector need to take explicit account of the initial variation in livelihood platforms and in alternative transition pathways at the household scale in order to pursue more inclusive "forest-and-livelihood" transitions in rural areas.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Transitions and Rural Livelihoods: Multiple Pathways of Smallholder Teak Expansion in Northern Laos

Newby

Cramb

Sakanphet³

2014

Land

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“…Burnt plots gained more intensively from low-height vegetation than from forest (Table 6), especially during the second time interval. This exchange between the two classes reflects the rotational character that is typical of the shifting cultivation system along the north-east coast as opposed to a pioneering shifting cultivation system, where new rice fields are established in forest [50].…”

Section: Detailed Lc Change Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing Regional Deforestation Dynamics in North-Eastern Madagascar—Insights from Multi-Temporal Land Cover Change Analysis

Zaehringer

Eckert

Messerli

2015

Land

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Abstract:The north-eastern escarpment of Madagascar harbours the island's last remaining large-scale humid forest massifs surrounded by a small-scale agricultural mosaic. There is high deforestation, commonly thought to be caused by shifting cultivation practiced by local land users to produce upland rice. However, little is known about the dynamics between forest and shifting cultivation systems at a regional level. Our study presents a first attempt to quantify changes in the extent of forest and different agricultural land cover classes, and to identify the main dynamics of land cover change for two intervals, 1995-2005 and 2005-2011. Over the 16-year study period, the speed of forest loss increased, the total area of upland rice production remained almost stable, and the area of irrigated rice fields slightly increased. While our findings seem to confirm a general trend of land use intensification, deforestation through shifting cultivation is still on the rise. Deforestation mostly affects the small forest fragments interspersed in the agricultural mosaic and is slowly leading to a homogenization of the landscape. These findings have important implications for future interventions to slow forest loss in the region, as the processes of agricultural expansion through shifting cultivation versus intensified land use cannot per se be considered mutually exclusive.

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“…Other incentives like governmental agro-forestry policies also lead to the transition of swidden as they are always mandatory. In Northern Laos, swidden agricultural transformation increased the vulnerability of local livelihoods due to national forest conservation and intensive and commercial farming [147]. In the future, more analysis should be done to evaluate the impacts of this land use change due to the increasing economic globalization and regional integration in ASEAN.…”

Section: Quantifying the Impacts Of Swidden Agriculture Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Swidden Agriculture in Southeast Asia

et al. 2014

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Swidden agriculture is by far the dominant land use system in the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia (SEA). It provides various valuable subsistence products to local farmers, mostly the poor ethnic minority groups. Controversially, it is also closely connected with a number of environmental issues. With the strengthening regional economic cooperation in SEA, swidden agriculture has experienced drastic transformations into other diverse market-oriented land use types since the 1990s. However, there is very limited information on the basic geographical and demographic data of swidden agriculture and the socio-economic and biophysical effects of the transformations. International programs, such as the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), underscore the importance of monitoring and evaluating swidden agriculture and its transition to reduce carbon emission due to deforestation and forest degradation. In this context, along with the accessibility of Landsat historical imagery, remote sensing based techniques will offer an effective way to detect and monitor the locations and extent of swidden agriculture. Many approaches for investigating fire occurrence and burned area can be introduced for swidden agriculture mapping due to the common feature of fire relatedness. In this review paper, four broad approaches involving spectral signatures, phenological characteristics, statistical theory and landscape ecology were summarized for swidden agriculture delineation. Five research priorities about swidden agriculture involving remote sensing techniques, spatial pattern, change, drivers and impacts were proposed accordingly. To our knowledge, a synthesis review on the remote sensing and outlook on swidden agriculture has not been reported yet. This review paper aims to give a comprehensive overview of swidden agriculture studies in the domains of debated definition, trends, remote sensing methods and OPEN ACCESSRemote Sens. 2014, 6 1655 outlook research in SEA undertaken in the past two decades.

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Effects of Landscape Segregation on Livelihood Vulnerability: Moving From Extensive Shifting Cultivation to Rotational Agriculture and Natural Forests in Northern Laos

Cited by 129 publications

References 32 publications

Forest Transitions and Rural Livelihoods: Multiple Pathways of Smallholder Teak Expansion in Northern Laos

Forest Transitions and Rural Livelihoods: Multiple Pathways of Smallholder Teak Expansion in Northern Laos

Revealing Regional Deforestation Dynamics in North-Eastern Madagascar—Insights from Multi-Temporal Land Cover Change Analysis

A Review of Swidden Agriculture in Southeast Asia

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