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 !