Smallholder options for reclaiming and using imperata cylindrica L. (Alang-Alang) grasslands in Indonesia

The Alternatives to Slash and Burn (asb) program in Indonesia aims to identify options for slowing down deforestation and promoting the rehabilitation of degraded (formerly forested) areas (van noordwijk et al. 1997). Many previously forested areas have seen a trajectory of forest degradation similar to that shown in figure 1.1a, with a phase of low-use degraded land and a rehabilitation process. This macro process of degradation and rehabilitation may resemble the plot-level decline and restoration of productivity in a shifting cultivation cycle but is driven by more complex processes of migrating farmers, changing tenure and resource access of farmers, broader-scale landscape- or village-level control over free-ranging fires (Wibowo et al.1997), and market-driven economic incentives. This chapter addresses technical issues associated with smallholder rehabilitation of grasslands derived from forest degradation at the asb benchmark site in Pakuan Ratu (in the northern part of Lampung province) in Sumatra, Indonesia (see figure 13.1 later in this volume), which was chosen as representative of the vast area under Imperata cylindrica and related coarse grasses in Asia (approximately 35 million ha) and Indonesia (8.5 million ha) (Garrity et al. 1997). Although increasing the rate of rehabilitation of these grasslands does not necessarily slow down the rate of deforestation at the frontier, rehabilitated areas can offer an alternative attraction point for migrants.

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