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?