Slash-and-Burn Cultivation in Nineteenth-Century Finland and Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia

What is it about?

We claim that slash-and-burn agriculture can, under certain circumstances, be considered sustainable, although ecological sustainability is very difficult to prove, and questions concerning social and economic sustainability also must be taken into account. History, however, shows that slash-and-burn cultivation has for centuries provided a basis for some fairly sustainable societies. In addition, swidden agriculture ought to be evaluated in a regional context, because other agents and external factors also determine how environmentally sound slash-and-bum is. Hence slash-and-burn agriculture cannot a priori be condemned as a destructive and untenable method of cultivation.

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Photo by Luke Porter on Unsplash

Photo by Luke Porter on Unsplash