swidden

In Asia, the Karen villagers of Hin Lad Nai in northern Thailand, in partnership with researchers, have demonstrated that that their millennia-old traditions of swidden agriculture are an invaluable resource for sustaining biodiversity and carbon stocks.

In the Amazon, the turn to swidden was unfortunate.

More important, the very existence of so much healthy forest after twelve thousand years of use by large populations suggests that whatever Indians did before swidden must have been ecologically more sustainable.

Although swidden does permit the forest to regrow, it is wildly inefficient and environmentally unsound.

The only form of agriculture they can practice for a long time is "slash-and-burn,” or "swidden,” as it is sometimes known.