Amazonian Rain Forests

Amazonian Rain Forests PDF Author: Carl F. Jordan
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146124658X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
DEVELOPMENT AND DISTURBANCE IN AMAZON FORESTS Contrasting Impressions 6 2 The rain forests of the Amazon Basin cover approximately 5.8 x 10 km (Salati and Vose 1984). Flying over even just part of this basin, one gazes hour after hour upon this seemingly infinite blanket of green. The impression of immen sity is similar when viewed from the Amazon River itself, or from its tributar ies. From a hammock on the shaded deck of a riverboat, the immensity of the forest presents an incredible monotony as one view of the shoreline blends unnoticeably into another. From both perspectives, the overwhelming reaction to the sea of trees that stretches from horizon to horizon is a sense of the vastness of the rain forest. In September 1985, I got a different impression of the rain forest. Several students and I journeyed in a self-propelled car along the single-track railroad that stretches almost 1000 km from the Carajas iron ore mine in the rain forest of Para State, Brazil, all the way to Sao Luis on the coast (Fig. 1.1).

Amazonian Rain Forests

Amazonian Rain Forests PDF Author: Carl F. Jordan
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146124658X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
DEVELOPMENT AND DISTURBANCE IN AMAZON FORESTS Contrasting Impressions 6 2 The rain forests of the Amazon Basin cover approximately 5.8 x 10 km (Salati and Vose 1984). Flying over even just part of this basin, one gazes hour after hour upon this seemingly infinite blanket of green. The impression of immen sity is similar when viewed from the Amazon River itself, or from its tributar ies. From a hammock on the shaded deck of a riverboat, the immensity of the forest presents an incredible monotony as one view of the shoreline blends unnoticeably into another. From both perspectives, the overwhelming reaction to the sea of trees that stretches from horizon to horizon is a sense of the vastness of the rain forest. In September 1985, I got a different impression of the rain forest. Several students and I journeyed in a self-propelled car along the single-track railroad that stretches almost 1000 km from the Carajas iron ore mine in the rain forest of Para State, Brazil, all the way to Sao Luis on the coast (Fig. 1.1).

Shifting Cultivation Policies

Shifting Cultivation Policies PDF Author: Malcolm Cairns
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1786391791
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 1117

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Book Description
Shifting cultivation supports around 200 million people in the Asia-Pacific region alone. It is often regarded as a primitive and inefficient form of agriculture that destroys forests, causes soil erosion and robs lowland areas of water. These misconceptions and their policy implications need to be challenged. Swidden farming could support carbon sequestration and conservation of land, biodiversity and cultural heritage. This comprehensive analysis of past and present policy highlights successes and failures and emphasizes the importance of getting it right for the future. This book is enhanced with supplementary resources. The addendum chapters can be found at: www.cabi.org/openresources/91797

Shifting Cultivation and Secondary Succession in the Tropics

Shifting Cultivation and Secondary Succession in the Tropics PDF Author: Albert O. Aweto
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1780640439
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Shifting cultivation is the predominant system of arable farming in the humid and sub-humid tropics, where several hundred million people depend on this system of agriculture for their livelihood. This book documents and systematizes findings in shifting cultivation from over the last six decades, including characterizing secondary succession and relating the changes that fallow vegetation undergoes to the process of soil fertility restoration. This book is essential reading for researchers and students of tropical agriculture and related areas.

From Slash-and-burn to Replanting

From Slash-and-burn to Replanting PDF Author: François Ruf
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821352059
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
The most traditional and widely used farming systems in the humid upland tropics are based on fallowing and various forms of slash and burn agriculture. Their sustainability depends on the duration of the fallow. When fallow duration drops below the threshold of seven or eight years crop yield usually declines. A concept described as "forest rent". Given the plight of millions of farmers the development of upland agriculture has become increasingly important. This book reports the results of fieldwork conducted by the editors and other experts in some 40 regions of Indonesia from 1989 to 2001. It finds that some of the most successful improvements have been the result of innovations by the farmers themselves.

Farmers in the Forest

Farmers in the Forest PDF Author: Peter R. Kunstadter
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824881974
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 599

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Book Description
Farmers in the Forest, while using examples chiefly from northern Thailand, is concerned with complex problems found in all tropical countries. In these areas rapid population growth, increasing demands for food, and burgeoning international markets for forest products and other raw materials are associated with active competition for land and natural resources in upland areas. This book brings together studies by administrators, agronomists, anthropologists, forest ecologists, geographers and jurists, who describe a variety of swidden systems and their effect on soil, forest, society, and economy. They point to conflicts between traditional farming systems and modern legal and administrative constraints now being imposed, and they describe special and technological conditions that contribute to a marginal, stagnant upland economy, increasing socio-economic disparities with the lowlands, and the serious ecological consequences of these conditions. Several possible solutions are suggested to solve these problems.

Properties and Management of Soils in the Tropics

Properties and Management of Soils in the Tropics PDF Author: Pedro A. Sanchez
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107176050
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 685

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Book Description
Long-awaited second edition of classic textbook, brought completely up to date, for courses on tropical soils, and reference for scientists and professionals.

Economic and Ecological Implications of Shifting Cultivation in Mizoram, India

Economic and Ecological Implications of Shifting Cultivation in Mizoram, India PDF Author: Vishwambhar Prasad Sati
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030366022
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
This book presents the first empirically tested, comprehensive study on shifting cultivation in Mizoram. Shifting cultivation is a unique and centuries-old practice carried out by the people of Mizoram in Northeast India. Today, it is a non-economic activity as it does not produce sufficient crops, and as a result, the area under shifting cultivation is decreasing. Such cultivation leads to the burning and degradation of vast areas of forestland and therefore has adverse impacts on the floral and faunal resources. This book is a valuable resource for government workers, policymakers, academics, farmers and those who are directly or indirectly associated with practical farming, or with framing and implementing policies. It is equally important to master’s and Ph.D. students of geography, resource management, development, and environmental studies who are involved in research and development.

Voices from the Forest

Voices from the Forest PDF Author: Malcolm Cairns
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 113652228X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 853

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Book Description
This handbook of locally based agricultural practices brings together the best of science and farmer experimentation, vividly illustrating the enormous diversity of shifting cultivation systems as well as the power of human ingenuity. Environmentalists have tended to disparage shifting cultivation (sometimes called 'swidden cultivation' or 'slash-and-burn agriculture') as unsustainable due to its supposed role in deforestation and land degradation. However, a growing body of evidence indicates that such indigenous practices, as they have evolved over time, can be highly adaptive to land and ecology. In contrast, 'scientific' agricultural solutions imposed from outside can be far more damaging to the environment. Moreover, these external solutions often fail to recognize the extent to which an agricultural system supports a way of life along with a society's food needs. They do not recognize the degree to which the sustainability of a culture is intimately associated with the sustainability and continuity of its agricultural system. Unprecedented in ambition and scope, Voices from the Forest focuses on successful agricultural strategies of upland farmers. More than 100 scholars from 19 countries--including agricultural economists, ecologists, and anthropologists--collaborated in the analysis of different fallow management typologies, working in conjunction with hundreds of indigenous farmers of different cultures and a broad range of climates, crops, and soil conditions. By sharing this knowledge--and combining it with new scientific and technical advances--the authors hope to make indigenous practices and experience more widely accessible and better understood, not only by researchers and development practitioners, but by other communities of farmers around the world.

Improved Production Systems as an Alternative to Shifting Cultivation

Improved Production Systems as an Alternative to Shifting Cultivation PDF Author:
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9789251021217
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Eight papers from an informal meeting, dealing with examples from Asia, Africa and Latin-America

Shifting Cultivation Systems

Shifting Cultivation Systems PDF Author: Shri Kant Tripathi
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303170388X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description