The Transition Away From Swidden Agriculture and Trends in Biomass Accumulation in Fallow Forests: Case Studies in the Southern Chin Hills of Myanmar

Chan, Nyein; Takeda, Satoshi

doi:10.1659/mrd-journal-d-14-00083.1

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(38 reference statements)

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“…Only households in the mixed-land based cluster (C2) typically generated substantial income shares from three sources: Crops, forests and wage employment. The range of existing figures on remittance income of Myanmar households is wide [17], and the magnitude of payments received by households engaging in the remittance-oriented livelihood strategy (C4) in our study, was somewhat smaller than that reported for the southern Chin hills [25].…”

Section: Differentiated Livelihood Strategies and Income-povertycontrasting

confidence: 65%

“…The absence of livelihood strategy specific data and ambiguities about whether subsistence income streams have been accounted for [13,22,25,43], or if obtained income figures relate to individuals or households [13], hinder comparison of absolute income figures between this and previous studies. Our figures are substantially greater than those reported in recent case studies of forest income and livelihoods in Chin State [24,43].…”

Section: Differentiated Livelihood Strategies and Income-povertymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Current knowledge about contemporary livelihoods and land-use patterns in northern Chin State is largely based on Myanmar's 2014 population census [20], the work of international organisations that have sought to establish baselines for the conception and evaluation of aid interventions [21], and a number of reports that have been compiled by consultants and civil society organisations [19,22]. Academic contributions have explored livelihood-land relations in Chin State through political economy and land-governance lenses [12,16,23], assessed the contribution of forest income to rural livelihoods [24], and land-use transitions in southern Chin State [25]. Recently, Vicol, Pritchard and Htay [9] (p. 459) discussed contemporary livelihood change dynamics and the 'productive bricolage in southern Chin', arguing for the merits of conceptualising socio-economic transformations in this area broader than through a narrow 'agricultural lens'-acknowledging instead households' diverse local and international entanglements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Upland Livelihoods between Local Land and Global Labour Market Dependencies: Evidence from Northern Chin State, Myanmar

et al. 2018

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Livelihoods and agrarian change processes across upland South-East Asia have been explored for decades. Yet, knowledge gaps remain about contemporary livelihood strategies and land dependence in areas previously inaccessible to academic research, such as in upland Myanmar. Moreover, new strands of inquiry arise with continued globalisation, e.g., into the effects of remittances and labour migration on household incomes and livelihoods in distant upland areas. This study applied clustering techniques to income accounts of 94 households from northern Chin State, Myanmar to: (i) Identify households’ livelihood strategies; (ii) assess their dependence on access to land and natural resources; and (iii) compare absolute and relative incomes across strategies. We show that households engaged in six relatively distinct livelihood strategies: Relying primarily on own farming activities; making a living off the land with mixed income from agriculture and forest resources; engaging in wage employment; living from remittances; practicing non-forest tree husbandry; or engaging in self-employed business activities. We found significant income inequalities across clusters, with households engaging in remittance and wage-oriented livelihood strategies realizing higher incomes than those primarily involved in land-based activities. Our findings point to differentiated vulnerabilities associated with the identified livelihood strategies—to climate risks, shifting land-governance regimes and labour market forces.

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Section: Differentiated Livelihood Strategies and Income-povertycontrasting

confidence: 65%

Section: Differentiated Livelihood Strategies and Income-povertymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Upland Livelihoods between Local Land and Global Labour Market Dependencies: Evidence from Northern Chin State, Myanmar

et al. 2018

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“…The wealth variable is the first principal component vector of a range of household wealth indicators (such as household assets, livestock, food security, extracted from a principal component analysis (PCA) using the psych package and promax rotation (Revelle, 2018) (Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Figure 1). We hypothesised that subsidy would provide poorer participants with the much-needed short term resources to forego swidden agriculture (Nyein and Shinya, 2016;Dressler et al, 2017) and that higher educated participants would be more able to invest in off-farm activities and hence more likely to be responsive to financial incentives (by being less reliant on swidden agriculture and instead opting for more forest/fallow lands) (Van Vliet et al, 2013). We also expected that participants who have higher levels of trust toward other community members would be more likely to keep forest/fallow under communal ownership.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Payments and Property Rights on Forest User Decisions

Rakotonarivo

Dillon

Duthie

et al. 2021

Front. Conserv. Sci.

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Clearing forests for swidden agriculture, despite providing food to millions of farmers in the tropics, can be a major driver of deforestation. Payments for ecosystem services schemes can help stop swidden agriculture-induced forest loss by rewarding forest users for maintaining forests. Clear and secure property rights are a key prerequisite for the success of these payment schemes. In this study, we use a novel iterative and dynamic game in Madagascar and Kenya to examine farmer responses to individual and communal rights to forestlands, with and without financial incentives, in the context of swidden agricultural landscapes. We find that farmer pro conservation behaviour, defined by the propensity to keep forests or fallows on their lands, as well as the effects of land tenure and conservation incentive treatments on such behaviour, differ across the two contexts. The average percentages of land left forest/fallow in the game are 65 and 35% in Kenya and Madagascar, respectively. Individual ownership significantly improves decisions to preserve forests or leave land fallow in Madagascar but has no significant effect in Kenya. Also, the effect of the individual tenure treatment varies across education and wealth levels in Madagascar. Subsidy increases farmers' willingness to support conservation interests in both countries, but its effect is four times greater in Kenya. We find no interaction effects of the two treatments in either country. We conclude that the effectiveness of financial incentives for conservation and tenure reform in preserving forestland vary significantly across contexts. We show how interactive games can help develop a more targeted and practical approach to environmental policy.

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“…In sum, global environmental conservation and political economic pressures clash with the practice of smallholder agriculture in Indonesia, whose government has responded to both interests. Concerns over climate change and the global REDD agenda (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) have, over the last three decades, targeted the practice of shifting cultivation (Chan and Takeda 2016;Li and Feng 2016;Li et al 2014;Setyowati 2020;Terauchi et al 2014). Shifting cultivation is considered one of the precursors to carbon emissions, and a contributor to them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The strategy of shifting cultivators in West Kalimantan in adapting to the market economy: empirical evidence behind gaps in interdisciplinary communication

Maring

2020

Journal of Political Ecology

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Issues of climate change and expansion of large-scale land acquisition for industrial plantations continue to ravage the shifting cultivation system that 300–500 million subsistence farmer households depend on. In Indonesia, particularly in Kalimantan and Sumatera, village communities continue to practice shifting cultivation amidst the conversion of lands into industrial plantations. The rampant conversion of farmer's land by large scale companies based in the market economy has resulted in the decline of the shifting cultivation system, and compelled them to enter commercial production. I employed qualitative methods, conducting in-depth interviews and observations in West Kalimantan in 2018. Shifting cultivation today is not just for subsistence, but it is also a strategy to maintain claims to land that has been handed over to companies. Concurrently, people have been developing community plantations using industrial commodities such as rubber and oil palm, which still incorporate subsistence features. The changes occurring in villages have led to conflict since land availability has reduced, while the alternative of working for forestry and plantation companies is hampered by their lack of skills and knowledge. Theoretically, this study indicates the need for communication and synergy between the perspectives of political ecology and cultural ecology in order to understand the socio-politico-economic complexities haunting the village community's alterations in subsistence strategies. The practical implications are that land-based village development should open up communication among stakeholders and position village communities as the key beneficiary in the long run.Keywords: Shifting cultivation, land conversion, adaptation strategy, market economy, political ecology, Kalimantan, Indonesia

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The Transition Away From Swidden Agriculture and Trends in Biomass Accumulation in Fallow Forests: Case Studies in the Southern Chin Hills of Myanmar

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 14 publications

References 26 publications

Upland Livelihoods between Local Land and Global Labour Market Dependencies: Evidence from Northern Chin State, Myanmar

Upland Livelihoods between Local Land and Global Labour Market Dependencies: Evidence from Northern Chin State, Myanmar

Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Payments and Property Rights on Forest User Decisions

The strategy of shifting cultivators in West Kalimantan in adapting to the market economy: empirical evidence behind gaps in interdisciplinary communication

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