CIFOR–ICRAF publishes over 750 publications every year on agroforestry, forests and climate change, landscape restoration, rights, forest policy and much more – in multiple languages.

CIFOR–ICRAF addresses local challenges and opportunities while providing solutions to global problems for forests, landscapes, people and the planet.

We deliver actionable evidence and solutions to transform how land is used and how food is produced: conserving and restoring ecosystems, responding to the global climate, malnutrition, biodiversity and desertification crises. In short, improving people’s lives.

Mitigating climate change and transforming lives in forest margins: lessons from swiddens in Indonesia

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Slash-and-burn clearance of forests leads to large emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses. Often the blame is on shifting cultivators, although migrants to the forest margin and companies clearing land for plantations have used the same method for land clearing. In promoting livelihoods that help maintain high carbon stocks in the landscape, many lessons can be learned from the way shifting cultivation or swidden systems evolved in Southeast Asia.

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