Forest-swidden-plantation in the tropics . (A ) Tropical
uplands (green parts) between 200 and 2000 m above sea level are defined
here as potential distribution regions of swidden agriculture (Part a).
Swiddens and fallows are reclaimed from natural and secondary forests in
the uplands of Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA, B-E ) and are being
converted to industrial plantations including rubber, cassava, sugarcane
and Acacia mangium in Xishuangbanna, China and MSEA countries
(F-I ).
Global ongoing initiatives, such as the United Nations Collaborative
Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD Programme)(Hurtley, 2010),
the Bonn Challenge(Brancalion et al., 2019) and the 2030 Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) etc., have repeatedly emphasized the
significance of forest preservation, reforestation and afforestation on
one hand, and re-pushed swidden agriculture, the traditional tropical
farming practice, to the forefront of a long-standing debate of climate
changes on the other(Hurtley, 2010; Ziegler, Fox, & Xu, 2009). In the
past decades, the alternative development of swidden agriculture is
often considered as the “only way out” due to the threat to
forests(Ziegler et al., 2009). This is usually the case of pioneer
swiddening(Fox et al., 2000), but not for swidden agriculture as a
whole(Dressler, Smith, Kull, Carmenta, & Pulhin, 2020). So far, less
attention is given to its significance to local livelihoods and cultural
identity of millions of marginalized shifting cultivators(Cramb et al.,
2009). As swidden farming evolves or being transformed, then, how did
swidden agriculture itself and the length of fallow period (or
intensity) change in the past decades? What are the roles in and
contribution to the gain and/or loss of natural and secondary forests by
the combination of swidden-fallow? And how are swiddens (including
fallows) transformed into other land use types, especially the various
industrial plantations (e.g. rubber)? Last but not least, how and in
what degree do global initiatives (e.g. the UN-REDD Programme) impact
the tropical forest-swidden-plantation (FSP) nexus?