View source for Slash-and-burn

{{Short description|Agricultural practice}}
{{for2|the military strategy|Scorched earth|the Manic Street Preachers song|Slash 'n' Burn}}
[[File:An example of slash and burn agriculture practice Thailand.jpg|thumb|Slash-and-burn agriculture in [[Chiang Mai]], Thailand]]
{{Agriculture|land}}
'''Slash-and-burn agriculture''' is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a [[forest]] or [[woodland]] to create a [[Field (agriculture)|field]] called a '''swidden'''. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed [[vegetation]], or "slash", is then left to dry, usually right before the rainiest part of the year. Then, the [[Biomass (ecology)|biomass]] is burned, resulting in a nutrient-rich layer of ash which makes the [[Soil fertility|soil fertile]], as well as temporarily eliminating [[weed]] and [[pest species]]. After about three to five years, the plot's [[productivity]] decreases due to depletion of nutrients along with weed and pest invasion, causing the farmers to abandon the field and move to a new area. The time it takes for a swidden to recover depends on the location and can be as little as five years to more than twenty years, after which the plot can be slashed and burned again, repeating the cycle.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Slash-and-burn agriculture | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/slash-and-burn-agriculture | website=Encyclopaedia Britannica| date=22 May 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | author=EcoLogic Development Fund | title=Slash and Burn Agriculture | url=http://www.ecologic.org/actions-issues/challenges/slash-burn-agriculture/ | website=ecologic.org}}</ref> In [[Bangladesh]] and [[India]], the practice is known as '''[[jhum]]''' or '''jhoom'''.<ref>{{cite book  |author=Md Shahidul Islam|chapter=Jhum |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Jhum|title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |editor=Sirajul Islam and Ahmed A. Jamal |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]] |year=2012 |edition=Second}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine | first=Sanjoy | last=Choudhury | title=Jhum | url=https://www.geographyandyou.com/paid-articles/jhum/| magazine=Geography and You | volume=10 | issue=59 | date=March–April 2010 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20190304210513/https://www.geographyandyou.com/paid-articles/jhum/ | archive-date=4 March 2019 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | author=Disha Experts | title=1500+ MCQs with Explanatory Notes For Geography, Ecology & Environment | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U65TDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Jhum+or+Jhoom%22&pg=PA130 | page=130 | year=2018 | publisher=Disha Publications}}</ref>

Slash-and-burn is a type of [[shifting cultivation]], an [[Agriculture|agricultural]] system in which farmers routinely move from one cultivable area to another. A rough estimate is that 200–300 million people worldwide use slash-and-burn.<ref>{{Cite news | first=Martin | last=Skegg | title=TV highlights 27/09/2011 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/sep/26/mark-lawson-diana-rigg-highlights | newspaper=[[The Guardian]] | date=24 September 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170310083814/https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/sep/26/mark-lawson-diana-rigg-highlights | archive-date=10 March 2017 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hands |first1=Michael |title=The search for a sustainable alternative to slash-and-burn agriculture in the World's rain forests: the Guama Model and its implementation |journal=Royal Society Open Science |date=February 2021 |volume=8 |issue=2 |doi=10.1098/rsos.201204|pmid=33972850 |pmc=8074668 |bibcode=2021RSOS....801204H }}</ref> Slash-and-burn causes temporary [[deforestation]]. Ashes from the burnt trees help farmers by providing nutrients for the soil.<ref name="geography.about.com">{{cite web |url=http://geography.about.com/od/urbaneconomicgeography/a/slashburn.htm |title=Slash and Burn Agriculture – An Overview of Slash and Burn |publisher=Geography.about.com |access-date=2013-06-22 |archive-date=2013-12-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205055848/http://geography.about.com/od/urbaneconomicgeography/a/slashburn.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> In low density of human population this approach is very sustainable but the technique is not [[scalable]] for large human populations.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kukla|first1=Jaroslav|last2=Whitfeld|first2=Timothy|last3=Cajthaml|first3=Tomáš|last4=Baldrian|first4=Petr|last5=Veselá-Šimáčková|first5=Hana|last6=Novotný|first6=Vojtěch|last7=Frouz|first7=Jan|date=2019|title=The effect of traditional slash-and-burn agriculture on soil organic matter, nutrient content, and microbiota in tropical ecosystems of Papua New Guinea|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ldr.3203|journal=Land Degradation & Development|language=en|volume=30|issue=2|pages=166–177|doi=10.1002/ldr.3203|bibcode=2019LDeDe..30..166K |s2cid=133993874 |issn=1099-145X|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

A similar term is [[assarting]], which is the clearing of forests, usually (but not always) for the purpose of agriculture. Assarting does not include burning.<ref>{{Citation|title=Assarting|url=https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Assarting|work=The Free Dictionary|access-date=2020-10-12}}</ref>

==History==
Historically, slash-and-burn cultivation has been practiced throughout much of the world. Fire was already used by hunter-gatherers before the invention of agriculture, and still is in present times. Clearings created by the fire were made for many reasons, such as to provide new growth for game animals and to promote certain kinds of edible plants.

During the [[Neolithic Revolution]], groups of [[hunter-gatherers]] domesticated various plants and animals, permitting them to settle down and practice agriculture, which provided more nutrition per hectare than hunting and gathering. Some groups could easily plant their crops in open fields along river valleys, but others had forests covering their land. Thus, since Neolithic times, slash-and-burn agriculture has been widely used to clear land to make it suitable for crops and livestock.<ref>Jaime Awe, ''Maya Cities and Sacred Caves'', Cu bola Books (2006)</ref>

Large groups wandering in the woodlands was once a common form of society in European [[prehistory]]. The extended family burned and cultivated their swidden plots, sowed one or more crops, and then proceeded on to the next plot.<ref>Clark J.G.D., 1952, Farming: Clearance and Cultivation II Prehistoric Europe: The Economic Basis, pg.s 91–107, Cambridge.</ref>

==Technique==
[[File:Svedjebruk.jpg|thumb|Slash-and-burn agriculture in [[Maaninka]], Finland, in the 1920s]]
Slash-and-burn fields are typically used and owned by a family until the soil is exhausted. At this point the ownership rights are abandoned, the family clears a new field, and trees and shrubs are permitted to grow on the former field. After a few decades, another family or clan may then use the land and claim [[Usufruct|usufructuary rights]]. In such a system there is typically no market in farmland, so land is not bought or sold on the open market and land rights are traditional.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

In slash-and-burn agriculture, forests are typically cut months before a dry season. The "slash" is permitted to dry and then burned in the following dry season. The resulting ash fertilizes the soil<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://athenaeum.libs.uga.edu/bitstream/handle/10724/12128/B1142.pdf?sequence=1|title=Best Management Practices for Wood Ash as Agricultural Soil Amendment|website=athenaeum.libs.uga.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ecologic.org/actions-issues/challenges/slash-burn-agriculture/|title=Slash and Burn Agriculture {{!}} EcoLogic Development Fund|website=www.ecologic.org|language=en|access-date=2018-01-10}}</ref> and the burned field is then planted at the beginning of the next rainy season with crops such as rice, maize, cassava, or other staples. This work was once done using simple tools such as [[machete]]s, [[axe]]s, [[Hoe (tool)|hoe]]s and [[shovel]]s.

==Benefits and drawbacks==
{{unsourced section|date=January 2023}}
This system of agriculture provides millions of people with food and income. It has been ecologically sustainable for thousands of years. Because the leached soil in many tropical regions, such as the Amazon, are nutritionally extremely poor, slash-and-burn is one of the only types of agriculture which can be practiced in these areas. Slash-and-burn farmers typically plant a variety of crops, instead of a monoculture, and contribute to a higher biodiversity due to creating mosaic habitats. The general ecosystem is not harmed in traditional slash-and-burn, aside from a small temporary patch.

This technique is most unsuitable for the production of [[cash crop]]s. A huge amount of land, or a low density of people, is required for slash-and-burn. When slash-and-burn is practiced in the same area too often, because the human population density has increased to an unsustainable level, the forest will eventually be destroyed.

==Regionally==
===Asia===
Tribal groups in the [[Northeast India|northeastern Indian states]] of [[Tripura]], [[Arunachal Pradesh]], [[Meghalaya]], [[Mizoram]] and [[Nagaland]] and the [[Bangladesh]]i districts of [[Rangamati]], [[Khagrachari]], [[Bandarban]] and [[Sylhet]] refer to slash-and-burn agriculture as [[podu (agriculture)|podu]], ''jhum'' or ''jhoom'' cultivation. The system involves clearing land, by fire or clear-felling, for economically important crops such as [[upland rice]], vegetables or fruits. After a few cycles, the land's fertility declines and a new area is chosen. ''Jhum'' cultivation is most often practiced on the slopes of thickly-forested hills. Cultivators cut the treetops to allow sunlight to reach the land, burning the trees and grasses for fresh soil. Although it is believed that this helps fertilize the land, it can leave it vulnerable to [[erosion]]. Holes are made for the seeds of crops<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Jhum|title=Jhum|work=banglapedia.org}}</ref> such as [[Glutinous rice|sticky rice]], maize, eggplant and cucumber. After considering ''jhum''{{'}}s effects, the government of [[Mizoram]] has introduced a policy to end the method in the state.<ref>{{cite web|author=TI Trade |url=http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=jan1711/oth05 |title=The Assam Tribune Online |publisher=Assamtribune.com |date=2011-01-17 |access-date=2013-06-22}}</ref>

[[Vietnam]] is home to a diverse range of ethnic groups. Some of these groups form primarily rural communities that reside far from the larger cities of the country, living on swidden fields where slash-and-burn agriculture is still in regular use as a part of everyday life.<ref>{{cite book|author=Nguyêñ Văn Huy|date=2001|title=The Cultural Mosaic Of Ethnic Groups In Vietnam|location=Hà Nội|publisher=Education Publishing House|oclc=51320108}}</ref>

===Americas===
{{expand section|date=August 2021}}
Some American civilizations, like the Maya, have used slash-and-burn cultivation since ancient times. [[American Indians (U.S.)|American Indians]] [[Native Americans in the United States|in the United States]] also used [[Native American use of fire in ecosystems|fire in agriculture and hunting]].<ref name="auto">Pyne, 1997:470</ref> In the Amazon, many peoples such as the [[Yanomami|Yanomami Indians]] also live off the slash and burn method due to the Amazon's poor [[soil quality]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Owl |first=M. Y. |date=1976 |title=Yanomamo ecology, population control, and their relationship to slash and burn agriculture |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12334855/ |journal=California Anthropologist |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=6–20 |issn=0272-5452 |pmid=12334855}}</ref>

=== {{anchor|Preserving the Northern European Heritage}}Northern Europe ===
[[File:Kaskialue Kaavin Telkkämäessä (2013).JPG|thumbnail|alt=Recently burned area|A recently burned area at the [[Telkkämäki Nature Reserve|Telkkämäki Heritage Farm]] in Finland, demonstrating the technique.]]

Slash-and-burn techniques were used in northeastern Sweden in agricultural systems. In Sweden, the practice is known as {{lang|sv|svedjebruk}}.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sviðna, Svedjebruk and Slash & Burn cultivation {{!}} Northern Bush|url=https://northernbush.com/swidden-svedjebruk-and-slash-burn-cultivation/|access-date=2020-10-12|language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:NMA.0043006 Skogsbruk, svedjebruk. Svedje tillhörande Anesgården i Slätafly, Torsås socken, Småland.jpg|thumb|alt=Photo of deforested land|Slash-and-burn in [[Småland]], Sweden (1904)]]

[[Telkkämäki Nature Reserve]] in [[Kaavi]], Finland, is an [[open-air museum]] where slash-and-burn agriculture is demonstrated. Farm visitors can see how people farmed when slash-and-burn was the norm in the [[Northern Savonia]]n region of eastern Finland beginning in the 15th century. Areas of the reserve are burnt each year.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.outdoors.fi/destinations/otherprotectedareas/telkkamaki/Pages/Default.aspx |title=Telkkämäki Nature Reserve |publisher=Outdoors.fi |date=2013-05-14 |access-date=2013-06-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130717034103/http://www.outdoors.fi/destinations/otherprotectedareas/telkkamaki/Pages/Default.aspx |archive-date=2013-07-17 }}</ref>

===={{lang|sv|Svedjebruk}}====
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2021}}
{{lang|sv|Svedjebruk}} is a [[Swedish language|Swedish]] and [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] term for [[Slash and burn|slash-and-burn agriculture]] derived from the [[Old Norse]] word {{lang|non|sviða}}, which means "to burn". This practice originated in Russia in the region of [[Novgorod]] and was widespread in Finland and Eastern Sweden during the Medieval period. It spread to western Sweden in the 16th century when Finnish settlers were encouraged to migrate there by King [[Gustav Vasa]] to help clear the dense forests. Later, when the Finns were persecuted by the local Swedes, {{lang|sv|svedjebruk}} farming was spread by refugees to eastern [[Norway]], more specifically in the eastern part of [[Solør]], in the area bordering Sweden known as [[Finnskogen]] ("the Finnish woods").

The practice also spread to [[New Sweden]] in North America. Reinforced by the use of fire in agriculture and hunting by [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indians]], it became an important part of pioneering in America.<ref name="auto"/>
[[File:Slash and Burn Agriculture, Morondava, Madagascar.jpg|thumb|[[Lemur]]s in [[Madagascar dry deciduous forests|dry deciduous forests]] of [[Madagascar]] are threatened by [[Deforestation in Madagascar|deforestation]] for the creation of farmland and pasture.]]

====Description of process====
{{unsourced section|date=February 2021}}
{{lang|sv|Svedjebruk}} involved stripping a ring of bark completely around the trunk of [[Pinophyta|coniferous trees]] like [[pine]] or [[spruce]] or felling them, allowing them to dry, setting fire to the dried forest and growing crops on the fertile ash-covered soil. The resulting ash was highly fertile, but only for a short period. The clearing was initially planted to [[rye]] as soon as the ash had fully settled and sufficiently cooled. When the rain came, it packed the ash around the rye. The rye germinated and grew prolifically, with anywhere from 25 to 100 stalks (or straws), each with multiple grains.

Only two tools were required, the axe and the sickle. The axe cut the trees to start the cycle. When the rye had ripened, it was harvested with a [[sickle]], which could reach among the rocks and stumps where a [[scythe]] would have been ineffective.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S7LTbJ-ErQ Video] on the procedure. In: YouTube</ref>

In the second and third year the field would be sown with [[turnip]]s or [[cabbage]]s. It then might be grazed for several years before being allowed to return to woodland.

===={{lang|sv|Svedjebruk}} culture====
{{unsourced section|date=February 2021}}
{{lang|sv|Svedjebruk}} required felling new forest and burning a new area every year. It was necessary to allow the former fields to regrow with forest for 10–30 years before repeating the cycle. As a result, the dwellings were often many kilometers from the fields. Furthermore, since the process was man-power intensive, extended families tended to work together and live in compact communities.

The {{lang|sv|svedjebruk}} farming approach required a large area. When forest was plentiful, the Finns were very prosperous. As population grew and restrictions were placed on the forest which could be burned, it became increasingly difficult. By 1710, during the conflict with Sweden, because of their suspect loyalties Norwegian authorities considered expelling them{{clarify|date=March 2025}} from the border area, but did not do so because it was judged they were too poor to survive if evicted.
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>> >> >>  The following content was added by [[User:Svedjebruk]] (who seems to be an expert on the matter) and soon after removed by a bot, apparently because of Youtube references. Svedjebruk might be a Swedish citizen and his wording seems awkward to me. I add the statements again, invisible to the reader, hoping someone with more of an insight comes along and translates the meaning of these passages into digestible English.  >> >> >> Note: all swedish-language terms not found in the english Merriam-Webster dictionary - excluding placenames and the names of people - should be placed inside a language tag: <nowiki>{{lang|sv|[term]}}</nowiki>. >> >> >>

The heads of swidden family groups or clans (noite) had to have, at all times, an overview of their own clan's activities in order to put together these three parameters to a kind of "rubik-cube", according to their own experiences and conscious thought.

The time frame covers the first three cues of removal of the existing vegetation, which is controlled by man. The next three deal with the new vegetation, crops, and regrowth of new forests.

The time between harvest and regrowth varies from direct transition to regrowth through a number of years with a second use of swidden (vuoma) to never regrow, i.e. direct transition from the crop (pühä) to a permanent farm place / settlement (Piha).

Natural influences noite need only register and take into account in assessment: climate with rain, wind, temperature, drainage conditions, soil type, topography, flora and fauna, but he mastered his seeds brought for planting.

Noite coordinate so that all valves within the clans function: technology with adequate treatment of the area at the right time, cutting, burning, and social order. Runic poetry was a faithful helper in the exploitation of past experience and knowledge, and poems thankfully have the ability to survive generations.

Swidden cultivation requires a large number of people in the group to survive as an operational unit. It is a complex cycle of synchronized processes performed by individuals and / or groups in binding cooperation.

Such production union is often called a clan, extended family, kind, thiod, ätt, or tribe; in Russian plemja, rod; in Persian tauma, and Sanskrit jana, kula-. The village name in today's Finno-Ugric languages is küla. The word küllä is a reinforced yes: those that say yes and agree. Each man in swidden society had significance as a participant in the community, not as a person.

Individualism was an unknown phenomenon in this society. Complex cultivation cycles consist of a variety of carefully synchronized tasks, performed by individuals in an intimate partnership. This interaction should be so well established that the individual is synonymous with the community. These sophisticated procedures are perceived badly by outsiders, and in older literature, are often characterized as religious rituals without being given any practical significance. Only rarely have outsiders been able to understand the functional correlation. Swidden cultivation was dependent on that the various procedures were correctly and synchronously executed. Incorrect procedure was disastrous and could not be accepted. So ruled a cult excluding, polytheistic religion. Religion set the bar of worldly knowledge, as well as a communication process where the knowledge was kept alive through constant practical use, and new knowledge was developed and displaced useless routines with new rituals. The code was ruled by the forest, air, and water spiritual beings. Skogsråa / wood nymphs, giants and dwarfs lived in the underworld (allima), and they were given three functions: to help those people who respected and appreciated the forest spirits, to punish those who broke the rules of the forest, and to remind people that in the forest, man is not the boss, and cannot act arbitrarily. Similarly, the air (taevas) and water spirits, (jumal) were both helpers and punishers.

== ... ==

Svedjebruk or Slash and burn - shifting cultivation, here means the cultivation of hominids and crops for human consumption on freshly burned vegetation area or forest within a fewer number of years than the time that area is left to natural regeneration (Conklin 1961 27).

This is the oldest form of food production as proto humans have developed it over millions of years. During this long span of time, shifting cultivation developed into a complex process, requiring the coordinated interaction of larger groups of people. This way of life can be traced back to Africa and / or China, where the forerunners of Homo erectus (the erect man) had a nascent rise more than five million years ago. Later they spread out across the world, including northern Europe, less than one million years ago. But it is much less than one million years ago that Homo sapiens (the man who knows and can) came from Africa to Eurasia. They were knowledgeable and experienced people already. Shifting cultivation is highly community-forming. The smallest unit was the clan – the cultivation team – and often several clans would cooperate with one another. The manager, or Kuningas, had many functions. It was not only practical, but also political and religious. Cultivation was mobile; the clan moved to new forests to burn and grow food crops. They had no monumental construction. It is therefore difficult to trace them archaeologically, even from the study of Terra Preta (charcoal-rich soil). The swidden ranged from single ones onsite to periodic settlements, punctuated by moderately long abandonment. This rest period was required for necessary forest regrowth. Surveys of mountain caves and other natural settlements have revealed many cultural layers upon one another with natural forest regrowth in between. This stratigraphy indicates cultural development. Here in random order I will mention a few such places: Catalhöyük in Turkey, Altamira in northern Spain, Jericho in Israel, Kostenki Voronezh in Russia, Skara Brea on Orkeney, and the cave Vistehola at Jæren in Norway.

Nowadays we are accustomed to excess in stationary conditions. We are trained and raised in the European tradition, which considered shifting cultivation as a simple, primitive form of life without significant cultural organization. This attitude is probably the reason why researchers have thoroughly investigated shifting cultivation. There are many characterizing features of shifting cultivation that are widely considered "primitive" and "self-taught".

They were nomads who want to have a few things to carry, for their skill and knowledge was not a heavy load. Shifting cultivation is the foundation of today's society: our values, customs, ideas, and conventions. Arable farming is too young to have influenced the development of mankind's history to any significant degree, yet we still feel its effects in our daily lives. The declining tropical rainforest is the site of most of today's shifting cultivation practices.

"The oldest of all farming methods is shifting cultivation. It has been in Sweden since old times and it seems to permeate every subject the further back in time we go. It is the oldest of all cultivation systems, at least in forested areas" (1923 Arenander 99). "Kauran Karjalan ahoille, Rukeheni Ruotsin maalle, -Vehnät viskoan Virohon - Kylvän ohrat Suomen maalle - Hernehet Hämehen maalle - Jost Vilja virtoavi - Vilja vierahan kätehen" (Kaukonen 1984 II, 252); Oats in Karelia svedjer - Rye on Swedish land - Hveat returns Estonia – Barley grows on Suomi fields - peas on Hämä fields, - Here the grain flows, -The grain is always next.
-->

==Research==
This type of agriculture is discouraged by many developmental or environmentalist organisations, with the main alternatives being promoted as switching to more [[intensive agriculture|intensive]], permanent farming methods, or promoting a shift from farming to working in different, higher-paying industries altogether. Other organisations promote helping farmers achieve higher productivity by introducing new techniques.{{cn|date=July 2023}}

Not allowing the slashed vegetation to burn completely and ploughing the resultant charcoal into the soil ([[slash-and-char]]) has been proposed as a way to boost yields.<ref>{{Cite journal | first=L. A. | last=Biederman | date=31 December 2012 | title=Biochar and its effects on plant productivity and nutrient cycling: a meta-analysis | journal=GCB Bioenergy | language=en | volume=5 | issue=2 | pages=202–214 | doi=10.1111/gcbb.12037| s2cid=86216355 }}</ref>

Promoters of a project from the early 2000s claimed that slash-and-burn cultivation could be reduced if farmers grew black pepper crops, turmeric, beans, corn, cacao, rambutan, and citrus between ''[[Inga]]'' trees, which they termed '[[Inga alley cropping]]'.<ref>{{Cite news | first=Daniel | last=Elkan | title=Fired with ambition | url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/apr/21/environment.environment | newspaper=[[The Guardian]] | date=21 April 2004 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304153915/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/apr/21/environment.environment | archive-date=4 March 2019 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Inga Alley Cropping |url=https://www.echocommunity.org/en/resources/6ddc498b-d59e-4bc3-a499-1c2d57061162 |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=ECHOcommunity |language=en}}</ref>

A method of improving the yields in a type of traditional assarting cultivation used to grow common beans in Central America called 'slash-and-cover' has been proposed by additionally planting [[leguminous]] shrubs to act as a fallow crop after the soil is exhausted and one is ready to clear a new patch of forest.<ref>{{Cite journal | first=. S. | last=Kettler | title=Fallow enrichment of a traditional slash/mulch system in southern Costa Rica: comparisons of biomass production and crop yield | date=1996-08-01 | journal=Agroforestry Systems | language=en | volume=35 | issue=2 | pages=165–176 | doi=10.1007/BF00122777 | bibcode=1996AgrSy..35..165K | s2cid=40357446 | issn=0167-4366}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">Bolivia slash & burn lo (4386225275).jpg | [[Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia)|Santa Cruz]], [[Bolivia]]
Jhum fire.jpg | [[Arunachal Pradesh]], India
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[2006 Southeast Asian haze]]
* [[2013 Southeast Asian haze]]
* [[2015 Southeast Asian haze]]
* [[2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires]]
* [[History of the forest in Central Europe]]
* [[Agricultural waste]]

== General literature ==
* {{Cite journal |last=Conklin |first=H. C. |date=February 1961 |title=The Study of Shifting Cultivation |url=http://anthro.du.ac.in/e-resources2020/kennedy/Shifting%20cultivation_Anthropological%20Perspectives.pdf |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=27–61 |doi=10.1086/200160 |jstor=2739597|s2cid=132297474 }}
* Nesholen, Birger (1994). "Svedjebrukerne",  ''Østlandske Skogsområder'', [[Norwegian Mountain Touring Association|Den Norske Turistforening]].
* [[Stephen J. Pyne|Pyne, Stephen J.]] (1997). ''Vestal Fire: An Environmental History, Told Through Fire, of Europe and Europe's Encounter with the World''. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. {{ISBN|0-295-97596-2}}.
* {{Cite book |last1=Sawyer |first1=Birgit |last2=Sawyer |first2=Peter H. |author2-link=Peter Hayes Sawyer |title=Medieval Scandinavia: from Conversion to Reformation, Circa 800–1500 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=1993 |author-link=Birgit Sawyer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jGJrXOjYvQgC |isbn=0-8166-1739-2}}
* Stagg, Frank Noel (1956). ''East Norway and Its Frontier''. Allen & Unwin.

== Citations ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|swidden}}
{{Wikisource|Slash and burn}}
* {{Cite tech report | first=Sameer | last=Karki | title=Community Involvement in and Management of Forest Fires in South East Asia |url=http://www.fao.org/forestry/17649-086b69f51b9bdb4ae39e32be08d52c1f5.pdf | year=2002 | publisher=Project FireFight South East Asia | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022153221/http://www.fao.org/forestry/17649-086b69f51b9bdb4ae39e32be08d52c1f5.pdf | archive-date=22 October 2018 | url-status=live}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwV0nWfZJ1M Video of slash-and-burn] at the [[Telkkämäki Nature Reserve]], Finland, in 2012
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S7LTbJ-ErQ Video of slash-and-burn] in Sweden around 1930–32 (from the YouTube channel of the [[Nordic Museum]])

{{Forestry}}
{{Deforestation and desertification}}
{{Fire}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slash-and-burn}}
[[Category:Agriculture by type]]
[[Category:Environmental issues with forests]]
[[Category:Fire in culture]]
[[Category:Tropical agriculture]]
[[Category:Forest management]]
[[Category:Agriculture in Sweden]]
[[Category:Agriculture in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Forestry in Finland]]
[[Category:Forestry in Norway]]
[[Category:Forestry in Russia]]
[[Category:Forestry in Sweden]]
[[Category:Forestry in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Agriculture in Russia]]
[[Category:Agriculture in Finland]]