Abstract
Swidden agriculture is by far the dominant land use system in the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia (SEA). It provides various valuable subsistence products to local farmers, mostly the poor ethnic minority groups. Controversially, it is also closely connected with a number of environmental issues. With the strengthening regional economic cooperation in SEA, swidden agriculture has experienced drastic transformations into other diverse market-oriented land use types since the 1990s. However, there is very limited information on the basic geographical and demographic data of swidden agriculture and the socio-economic and biophysical effects of the transformations. International programs, such as the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), underscore the importance of monitoring and evaluating swidden agriculture and its transition to reduce carbon emission due to deforestation and forest degradation. In this context, along with the accessibility of Landsat historical imagery, remote sensing based techniques will offer an effective way to detect and monitor the locations and extent of swidden agriculture. Many approaches for investigating fire occurrence and burned area can be introduced for swidden agriculture mapping due to the common feature of fire relatedness. In this review paper, four broad approaches involving spectral signatures, phenological characteristics, statistical theory and landscape ecology were summarized for swidden agriculture delineation. Five research priorities about swidden agriculture involving remote sensing techniques, spatial pattern, change, drivers and impacts were proposed accordingly. To our knowledge, a synthesis review on the remote sensing and outlook on swidden agriculture has not been reported yet. This review paper aims to give a comprehensive overview of swidden agriculture studies in the domains of debated definition, trends, remote sensing methods and outlook research in SEA undertaken in the past two decades.
Highlights
Swidden agriculture, known as shifting cultivation or slash-and-burn farming, is an age-old and prevailing subsistence farming practice in the tropical regions [1,2,3,4]
In another special issue (Volume 41, Issue 1) on swidden agriculture published by the Human Ecology journal in 2013, a relatively broad working definition of swidden cultivation in Southeast Asia (SEA) and other parts of the world as well was provided as follows: ―Swidden cultivation is a land use system that employs a natural or improved fallow phase, which is longer that the cultivation phase of annual crops, sufficiently long to be dominated by woody vegetation, and cleared by means of fire‖ [55,62]
Van Vliet et al insisted that swiddening system will continue to exist and thrive in many areas of the Earth based on a global meta-analysis, in spite of a visible decrement of swidden cultivation in global tropical forest-agriculture frontiers [9]. van Vliet et al acknowledged the decline and transformation of swidden farming practice in the special issue (Volume 41, Issue 1, 2013) of Human Ecology on swidden agriculture, he emphasized that swidden agriculture is likely to persist for some time into the 21st century and it is hard to predict a time frame for swidden demise based on the analysis provided in this special issue [60]
Summary
Known as shifting cultivation or slash-and-burn farming, is an age-old and prevailing subsistence farming practice in the tropical regions [1,2,3,4]. In the background of climate change, deforestation and forest degradation triggered by slash-and-burn farming practice have greatly impacted the carbon sink globally, and attracted much concern from international communities [10,45]. We searched the Google Scholar with the following key words: swidden, swidden agriculture, swidden farming, swidden cultivation, swidden system, swidden practice, shifting cultivation and slash and burn.
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