An economic analysis of shifting cultivation and Bush-Fallow in lowland Sumatra

Shifting cultivation is often associated with forest clearing, leading to a decline of forest area or deforestation. Negative consequences of deforestation are widely known. Deforestation is one of the major factors of land degradation, loss of biological diversity and endangered species, thereby contributing to global warming. In the literature, shifting cultivation has played a central role in the debate of deforestation. Most studies blame shifting cultivation practices as the main cause of deforestation, but overlook policy-induced incentives that might drive that behavior (Gillis, 1988, Dick, 1991). Even the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987) suggests that deforestation and other environmental destruction especially in developing countries is positively correlated with poverty and the presence of shifting cultivators. According to the report, those who are poor and hungry will often destroy their immediate environment in order to survive, they will cut down forests, they overuse marginal land, etc. This is clearly a case of "blaming the victim" since the smallholder seems to be the only immediate responsible party for environmental degradation. This argument is trapped in a simple-deterministic paradigm such as Neo-Malthusian or Neo-Marxian paradigm. The Neo-Malthusian paradigm suggests that population growth causes poverty inducing environmental degradation, while Neo-Marxian paradigm postulates that poverty causes population growth resulting in environmental destruction. If blame must be appointed, it is equally, if not more, appropriate to charge the rural land tenure system that allows rich landlords to monopolize the best resources in the region and often to use them wastefully (Arifin, 1993).

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