The demise of swidden-fallow agriculture in an Atlantic Rainforest region: Implications for farmers’ livelihood and conservation |
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| Institution: | 1. Departamento de Fitotecnia, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, CP 476, 88040-900 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil;2. Fundação Municipal do Meio Ambiente de Florianópolis, R. Felipe Schmidt 1320, 88010-002 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil;3. Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária e Extensão Rural de Santa Catarina Rod. Admar Gonzaga 1347, 88034-901 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil;1. College of Horticultural & Forestry Sciences/Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology (Ministry of Education), Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China;2. College of Information, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu 030800, China;1. Departament of Geography, Faculty of Arts, Universitat de Girona, Plaça Ferrater Mora 1, 17071 Girona, Spain;2. Department of Agrarian and Environmental Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milano, Italy;1. Flood Resilience Group, Dep. Water Science and Engineering, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Westvest 7, 2611 AX Delft, Netherlands;2. Hydraulic Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2628 CN Delft, Netherlands;3. Pennine Water Group, Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sir Frederick Mappin Building, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, United Kingdom;1. School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK;2. Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark;3. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Lima, Peru;4. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Denmark;1. College of Geographic Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, Fujian, China;2. Cultivation Base of State Key Laboratory of Humid Subtropical Mountain Ecology, Fuzhou, 350007, Fujian, China;3. Dorset Environmental Science Centre, Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, 1026 Bellwood Road, Dorset, P0A 1E0, Ontario, Canada;4. Department of Geography, Nipissing University, 100 College Drive, Box 5002, North Bay, Ontario, P1B 8L7, Canada |
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| Abstract: | The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is widely recognized for its high levels of biodiversity and endemism. Its vast region concentrates also a large number of small farmers, who historically have been practicing swidden-fallow cultivation. Globally, there is contradictory evidence of the current fate of this traditional, integrated agricultural system, and the new land uses may have a strong impact on farmers’ livelihoods and ecosystem conservation. In this study, we assessed the land cover and land use change in a watershed where slash-and-burn cultivation was prevalent, aiming at understanding the drivers of change and discussing past and possible future impacts, including the perception of farmers on the drivers of land use change. We combined information gathered from interviews with 15 key informant farmers and from the analysis of remote sensing images for the years 1957, 1978 and 2011. Swidden-fallow cultivation has declined steadily since the 1950s. Part of the land was abandoned and forest succession was allowed to occur, increasing the total forest area; an apparently positive outcome. However, conversion to pastures and Eucalyptus plantations not only used much of the open land but also converted successional forests through deforestation, based on remote sensing. The willingness of farmers to grow more Eucalyptus and raise more cattle further increases concerns about the prospect for conservation. Our approach, combining remote sensing-based land change quantification and interviews, revealed to be complementary, allowing a better understanding of the past and possible future scenarios for the land use dynamics. |
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| Keywords: | Atlantic Forest Secondary forest Slash-and-burn LUCC Land use Forest transition Improved fallow |
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