The Demise of Swidden in Southeast Asia? Local Realities and Regional Ambiguities

• Published in: Geografisk tidsskrift 2007-01, Vol.107 (1), p.29-41
• Main Authors: Padoch, Christine, Coffey, Kevin, Mertz, Ole, Leisz, Stephen J., Fox, Jefferson, Wadley, Reed L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Asia; Bgi / Prodig; Land use change; land use classification; land use policy; shifting cultivation; Southeast Asia; upland farming
• ISSN: 0016-7223; 1903-2471
• DOI: 10.1080/00167223.2007.10801373

Swidden farmers throughout Southeast Asia are rapidly abandoning traditional land use practices. While these changes have been quantified in numerous local areas, no reliable region-wide data have been produced. In this article we discuss three linked issues that account for at least some of this knowledge gap. First, swidden is a diverse, complex, and dynamic land use that data gatherers find difficult to see, define and measure, and therefore often relegate to a "residual category" of land use. Second, swidden is a smallholder category, and government authorities find it difficult to quantify what is happening in many dynamic and varied smallholdings. Third, national policies in all countries of Southeast Asia have tried to outlaw swidden farming and to encourage swiddeners to adopt permanent agriculture land use practices. Drawing on specific, local examples from throughout the region to illustrate these points, we argue that an accurate assessment of the scale and pace of changes in swidden farming on a regional level is critically important for identifying the processes that account for these shifts, as well as evaluating their consequences, locally and regionally.