Ecological Succession on Fallowed Shifting Cultivation Fields

Ecological Succession on Fallowed Shifting Cultivation Fields PDF

Author: Claudio O. Delang

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-20

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9400758219

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The book reviews the literature on the ecological succession of plants on fallowed swiddens in tropical forests. Patterns of ecological succession in tropical forests are insufficiently understood, partly because results are scattered through a large number of case studies reported in academic articles. So far, no publication has attempted to bring these different case studies together to identify common patters and trends. The goal of the book is to review the different case studies, and identify common patterns of ecological succession in fallowed swiddens, as well as to pinpoint the factors that cause ecological succession in some areas to differ from those in other areas. The book is organised in four different sections: forest structure, forest diversity, species composition, and the factors that contribute to differences in forest recovery rates (the number of times the field was burned, the length of fallow period, the type of soil, and the type of forest). This book is an important contribution to tropical forestry and shifting cultivation. Deforestation and forest degradation are the largest sources of CO2, and shifting cultivation is one of the main culprits. For this (and other economic and political) reason governments attempt to curtail shifting cultivation by shortening the years the fields can be left fallow, or outright outlawing the farming practice. Yet, there is insufficient understanding of the processes of ecological succession in fallows, which raises the questions as to whether the policy fulfils its objectives. ​

Shifting Cultivation and Secondary Succession in the Tropics

Shifting Cultivation and Secondary Succession in the Tropics PDF

Author: Albert O. Aweto

Publisher: CABI

Published: 2013-01-01

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1780640439

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Shifting cultivation is the predominant system of arable farming in the humid and sub-humid tropics, where several hundred million people depend on this system of agriculture for their livelihood. This book documents and systematizes findings in shifting cultivation from over the last six decades, including characterizing secondary succession and relating the changes that fallow vegetation undergoes to the process of soil fertility restoration. This book is essential reading for researchers and students of tropical agriculture and related areas.

Entangled Lives

Entangled Lives PDF

Author: Joy L. K. Pachuau

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-08-31

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1009276697

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This book considers three questions about understanding the past. How can we rethink human histories by including animals and plants? How can we overcome nationally territorialised narratives? And how can we balance academic history-writing and indigenous understandings of history? This is a tentative foray into the connections between these questions. Entangled Lives explore them for a large area that has seldom been explored in academic inquiry. The 'Eastern Himalayan Triangle' includes both uplands and lowlands. The region is the meeting point of three global biodiversity hotspots connecting India and China across Myanmar/Burma, Bangladesh and Bhutan. The 'Triangle' is treated as a multispecies site in which human histories have always been utterly intertwined with plant and animal histories. It foregrounds that history is co-created – it is always interspecies history – but that its contours are locally specific.

Sustainable Development: Asia-Pacific Perspectives

Sustainable Development: Asia-Pacific Perspectives PDF

Author: Pak Sum Low

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-01-13

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 1009040294

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The Asia-Pacific region has been experiencing rapid development in the past 30 years, and issues relating to sustainable development will become increasingly important in the coming decades. This comprehensive overview presents sustainable development from the perspectives of Asia and the Pacific, with contributions from more than 70 leading international experts. The first part focuses on the theories and practices of sustainable development, including national and regional perspectives, as well as international policies and law concerning climate change. The second part highlights the challenges and opportunities of sustainable development and poverty reduction amid the changing ecological, social, cultural, economic, and political environment in this region. These include issues such as the importance of science for sustainable development and related areas, including sustainable energy, stratospheric ozone depletion, climate change, land-use change, biodiversity, and disaster risk reduction. The volume is an invaluable reference for all researchers and policy makers with an interest in sustainable development.

Carbon Management for Promoting Local Livelihood in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) Region

Carbon Management for Promoting Local Livelihood in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) Region PDF

Author: Zhanhuan Shang

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-07-23

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 3030205916

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This book contributes to our understanding of linkages between carbon management and local livelihoods by taking stock of the existing evidence and drawing on field experiences in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, an area that provides fresh water to more than 2 billion people and supports the world’s largest population of pastoralists and millions of livestock. This edited volume addresses two main questions: 1. Does carbon management offer livelihood opportunities or present risks, and what are they? 2. Do the attributes of carbon financing alter the nature of livelihood opportunities and risks? Chapters analyze the most pressing deficiencies in understanding carbon storage in both soils and in above ground biomass, and the related social and economic challenges associated with carbon sequestration projects. Chapters deliver insights to both academics from diverse disciplines (natural sciences, social sciences and engineering) and to policy makers.

Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change

Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change PDF

Author: Malcolm F. Cairns

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-01-09

Total Pages: 1057

ISBN-13: 1317750195

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Shifting cultivation is one of the oldest forms of subsistence agriculture and is still practised by millions of poor people in the tropics. Typically it involves clearing land (often forest) for the growing of crops for a few years, and then moving on to new sites, leaving the earlier ground fallow to regain its soil fertility. This book brings together the best of science and farmer experimentation, vividly illustrating the enormous diversity of shifting cultivation systems as well as the power of human ingenuity. Some critics have tended to disparage shifting cultivation (sometimes called 'swidden cultivation' or 'slash-and-burn agriculture') as unsustainable due to its supposed role in deforestation and land degradation. However, the book shows that such indigenous practices, as they have evolved over time, can be highly adaptive to land and ecology. In contrast, 'scientific' agricultural solutions imposed from outside can be far more damaging to the environment and local communities. The book focuses on successful agricultural strategies of upland farmers, particularly in south and south-east Asia, and presents over 50 contributions by scholars from around the world and from various disciplines, including agricultural economics, ecology and anthropology. It is a sequel to the much praised "Voices from the Forest: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Upland Farming" (RFF Press, 2007), but all chapters are completely new and there is a greater emphasis on the contemporary challenges of climate change and biodiversity conservation.

Encyclopedia of Soil Science

Encyclopedia of Soil Science PDF

Author: Rattan Lal

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2017-01-11

Total Pages: 2795

ISBN-13: 1498738931

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New and Improved Global Edition: Three-Volume Set A ready reference addressing a multitude of soil and soil management concerns, the highly anticipated and widely expanded third edition of Encyclopedia of Soil Science now spans three volumes and covers ground on a global scale. A definitive guide designed for both coursework and self-study, this latest version describes every branch of soil science and delves into trans-disciplinary issues that focus on inter-connectivity or the nexus approach. For Soil Scientists, Crop Scientists, Plant Scientists and More A host of contributors from around the world weigh in on underlying themes relevant to natural and agricultural ecosystems. Factoring in a rapidly changing climate and a vastly growing population, they sound off on topics that include soil degradation, climate change, soil carbon sequestration, food and nutritional security, hidden hunger, water quality, non-point source pollution, micronutrients, and elemental transformations. New in the Third Edition: Contains over 600 entries Offers global geographical and thematic coverage Entries peer reviewed by subject experts Addresses current issues of global significance Encyclopedia of Soil Science, Third Edition: Three Volume Set expertly explains the science of soil and describes the material in terms that are easily accessible to researchers, students, academicians, policy makers, and laymen alike. Also Available Online This Taylor & Francis encyclopedia is also available through online subscription, offering a variety of extra benefits for researchers, students, and librarians, including: Citation tracking and alerts Active reference linking Saved searches and marked lists HTML and PDF format options Contact Taylor and Francis for more information or to inquire about subscription options and print/online combination packages. US: (Tel) 1.888.318.2367; (E-mail) [email protected] International: (Tel) +44 (0) 20 7017 6062; (E-mail) [email protected]

Human Ecology

Human Ecology PDF

Author: Gerald G Marten

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-09-23

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1136535020

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'The scope and clarity of this book make it accessible and informative to a wide readership. Its messages should be an essential component of the education for all students from secondary school to university... [It] provides a clear and comprehensible account of concepts that can be applied in our individual and collective lives to pursue the promising and secure future to which we all aspire' From the Foreword by Maurice Strong, Chairman of the Earth Council and former Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) The most important questions of the future will turn on the relationship between human societies and the natural ecosystems on which we all, in the end, depend. The interactions and interdependencies of the social and natural worlds are the focus of growing attention from a wide range of environmental, social and life sciences. Understanding them is critical to achieving the balance involved in sustainable development. Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development presents an extremely clear and accessible account of this complex range of issues and of the concepts and tools required to understand and tackle them. Extensively supported by graphics and detailed examples, this book makes an excellent introduction for students at all levels, and for general readers wanting to know why and how to respond to the dilemmas we face.

Farmers in the Forest

Farmers in the Forest PDF

Author: Peter R. Kunstadter

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2019-03-31

Total Pages: 599

ISBN-13: 0824881974

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Farmers in the Forest, while using examples chiefly from northern Thailand, is concerned with complex problems found in all tropical countries. In these areas rapid population growth, increasing demands for food, and burgeoning international markets for forest products and other raw materials are associated with active competition for land and natural resources in upland areas. This book brings together studies by administrators, agronomists, anthropologists, forest ecologists, geographers and jurists, who describe a variety of swidden systems and their effect on soil, forest, society, and economy. They point to conflicts between traditional farming systems and modern legal and administrative constraints now being imposed, and they describe special and technological conditions that contribute to a marginal, stagnant upland economy, increasing socio-economic disparities with the lowlands, and the serious ecological consequences of these conditions. Several possible solutions are suggested to solve these problems.

The Agricultural Dilemma

The Agricultural Dilemma PDF

Author: Glenn Davis Stone

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-06-30

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 100060974X

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The Agricultural Dilemma questions everything we think we know about the current state of agriculture and how to, or perhaps more importantly how not to, feed a world with a growing population. This book is about the three fundamental forms of agriculture: Malthusian (expansion), industrialization (external-input-dependent), and intensification (labor-based). The best way to understand the three agricultures, and how we tend to get it wrong, is to consider what drives their growth. The book provides a thoughtful, critical analysis that upends entrenched misconceptions such as that we are running out of land for food production and that our only hope is the development of new agricultural technologies. The book contains engaging and enlightening vignettes and short histories, with case studies drawn from across the globe to bring to life this important debate and dilemma. The book concludes by arguing there is a viable alternative to industrial agriculture which will allow us to meet the world's needs and it ponders why such alternatives have been downplayed, obscured, or hidden from view. This important book is essential reading for all studying and researching food production and agriculture, and more broadly for all interested in ensuring we are able to feed our growing population.