The impact of swidden decline on livelihoods and ecosystem services in Southeast Asia: A review of the evidence from 1990 to 2015

Dressler, Wolfram; Wilson, David; Clendenning, Jessica; Cramb, Rob; Keenan, Rodney J.; Mahanty, Sango; Bruun, Thilde Bech; Mertz, Ole; Lasco, Rodel D.

doi:10.1007/s13280-016-0836-z

Cited by 119 publications

(98 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…This is represented by L3; increased policy support for key commodities make farmers reliant on traders to supply agrochemical inputs and on commodity prices to secure incomes, which limits their capacity to come out of poverty (Davidson, 2016;Reyes et al, 2012). Increasing commodity prices will continue to act as signals for policies to transition from diverse commodity production systems to intense monocropped agricultural systems, often at the cost of local ecosystems (Cramb et al, 2009;Dressler et al, 2016). Philippine ecosystems provide biodiversity and services that continue to decline in abundance and heterogeneity as commodity production expands (L5) (Posa et al, 2008;Wagner et al, 2015).…”

Section: Link Number Process Represented By the Linksmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The economic benefits likely to be generated from expanding cash commodity trades are unlikely to filter down to smallholder farmers as their landscapes continue to degrade, as shown in L7 (Borras, 2006;Borras, 2007). The experience of land conversion in the Philippines is similar to other Southeast Asian rural economies, in which cash commodities have degraded local knowledge and agrobiodiversity (Carpenter, 2003;Cramb et al, 2009;Dressler et al, 2016;Stone & Glover, 2016). The dominant system is "trapped" in maladaptive behavior.…”

Section: Link Number Process Represented By the Linksmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Human Ecology and Food Systems: Insights from the Philippines

Davila¹

2018

HER

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Feeding the world sustainably requires balancing social, economic, and environmental concerns. The food systems concept guides the study of social and environmental processes that influence food and nutrition security. Human ecology conceptually offers insights into the social components of a system and its interaction with environmental change. This paper demonstrates how human ecology helps identify the dominant discourses that influence dominant social drivers in food systems. This is done through documenting the historical legacies of agricultural commodity production systems in the Philippines since Spanish colonization, and the human and ecological implications of this history. The analysis shows the presence of a maladaptive system influenced by market-oriented food security as a dominant discourse. Alternative discourses focused on sovereignty and participation exist in the Philippines, however these are often marginalised from dominant policy and research programs. The paper discusses how weak feedback processes provide possible intervention points in policy or farmer-led activities to explore alternative pathways to food and nutrition security. The paper concludes with highlighting how human ecology offers useful framework for advancing food systems analysis into social, political, and policy dimensions of food activities. Such analysis can help develop new research and policies that require managing the competing discourses of how to achieve sustainable food and nutrition security.

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Section: Link Number Process Represented By the Linksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Link Number Process Represented By the Linksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Ecology and Food Systems: Insights from the Philippines

Davila¹

2018

HER

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“…Global economic and infrastructural trends are facilitating transitions from subsistence shifting cultivation to more profitable permanent crops or plantations as community isolation reduces, enabling wider market access (van Vliet et al , Dressler et al 2017, but driving carbon losses (Borah et al 2018). Where the practice remains, food insecurity and population growth are driving shorter cycle lengths (5 years or less) as smallholders demand more output from a limited land area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economically viable forest restoration in shifting cultivation landscapes

Morton

Borah

Edwards

2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Shifting cultivation is a predominant land use across the tropics, feeding hundreds of millions of marginalised people, causing significant deforestation, and encompassing a combined area of land ten-fold greater than that used for oil palm and rubber. A key question is whether carbon-based payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes can cost-effectively bring novel restoration and carbon-sensitive management practices to shifting agriculture. Using economic models that uniquely consider the substantial area of fallow land needed to support a single cultivated plot, we calculated the break-even carbon prices required for PES to match the opportunity cost of intervention in shifting agriculture. We do so in the North-east Indian biodiversity hotspot, where 35.4% of land is managed under shifting agriculture. We found net revenues of US$829.53-2581.95 per 30 ha when fallow area is included, which are an order of magnitude lower than previous estimates. Abandoning shifting agriculture entirely is highly feasible with break-even prices as low as US$1.33 t −1 CO 2 , but may conflict with food security. The oldest fallow plots could be fully restored for US$0.89 t −1 CO 2 and the expansion of shifting agriculture into primary forest halted for US$0.51 t −1 CO 2 , whereas abandoning short-fallow systems would cost US$12.60 t −1 CO 2 . A precautionary reanalysis accounting for extreme economic uncertainty and leakage costs suggests that all interventions, excluding abandoning short-fallow systems, remain economically viable with prices less than US$4.00 t −1 CO 2 . Even with poorly formed voluntary carbon markets, shifting agriculture represents a critical opportunity for low-cost forest restoration whilst diversifying income streams of marginalised communities across a vast area.

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“…Shifting cultivation has been the dominant land-use system in the tropics for centuries [1]. However, over the last few decades, a gradual transformation away from shifting cultivation to permanent agriculture has been taking place in the uplands of Southeast Asia as a result of increasing population pressure, government policies and an expanding market infrastructure [2,3]. Laos is one of the countries experiencing such a transformation, with fodder maize (Zea mays L.) being one of the commodity crops grown in permanent agricultural systems or intensive shifting cultivation rotations [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers to Agro-Ecological Intensification of Smallholder Upland Farming Systems in Lao PDR

Yap

Xaphokhame²,

Neergaard

et al. 2019

Agronomy

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Intercropping of legumes can be a strategy to improve soil fertility and enhance overall productivity while reducing dependency on external inputs in intensified cropping systems. Integration of legumes in maize-based cropping systems is promoted as an agro-ecological intensification option for input-constrained smallholders in uplands of Southeast Asia, but adoption rates in the region remain low. The overall aim of this study was to assess the suitability and trade-offs of integrating ricebean in maize-based smallholder cropping systems in upland areas of Northern Laos. We conducted a researcher-managed field trial to investigate the agronomic performance of ricebean/maize intercropping, and farmer-managed trials combined with surveys (N = 97), and focus group discussions in 10 villages to understand factors influencing farmers' decision making concerning ricebean adoption. Drought, rat infestation and crop damage by grazing livestock were identified as important constraints to the production of ricebeans. Factors facilitating adoption included improvement of soil fertility, the potentially high selling price of ricebeans and the presence of extension agents, while barriers included labour shortage, concerns about competition with maize and lack of a market outlet for the ricebean produce. We conclude that the investigated maize/ricebean intercropping system is poorly suited to the current conditions in the study area, and call for farm-based studies focusing on developing locally adapted legume intercropping systems able to perform under variable rainfall conditions. Initiatives addressing challenges related to free grazing livestock and efforts to link legume producers in remote areas to emerging markets are also needed.

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The impact of swidden decline on livelihoods and ecosystem services in Southeast Asia: A review of the evidence from 1990 to 2015

Cited by 119 publications

References 62 publications

Human Ecology and Food Systems: Insights from the Philippines

Human Ecology and Food Systems: Insights from the Philippines

Economically viable forest restoration in shifting cultivation landscapes

Barriers to Agro-Ecological Intensification of Smallholder Upland Farming Systems in Lao PDR

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