TY - JOUR T1 - A spatiotemporal model of shifting cultivation and forest cover dynamics JF - Environment and Development Economics 13: Y1 - 2008 A1 - Douglas R Brown AB -

Sustainable use of humid forest resources as a source of fertile land for cultivation requires long periods of fallow and the ability to move the zone of active cultivation from one location to another over time. At the individual field level, shifting cultivation is essentially a resource extraction problem akin to a pulse fishery – a short period of intensive use of the stock of soil fertility followed by a long idle period permitting regeneration. This paper describes a spatiotemporal model of resource extraction adapted to the use of forest resources by shifting cultivators. Theoretically grounded in the spatial and household modelling literature, it is a structural simulation model of household decision-making, and includes a demonstration of the conceptwith a limited data set from southern Cameroon. Use of a stated preference approach to modelling decision-making identifies individual preferences and spatial path-dependency as important sources of shortened fallows and resource degradation.

VL - 13 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Personal preferences and intensification of land use: their impact on southern Cameroonian slash-and-burn agroforestry systems JF - Agroforestry Systems Y1 - 2006 A1 - Douglas R Brown KW - Household modelling KW - Intensification KW - Preferences KW - Shifting cultivation KW - Spatiotemporal modelling KW - Sustainable forest use AB -

Where long forest-fallows are no longer practiced, productivity declines in the absence of input substitution, as does the ability of subsistence farmers to earn an adequate livelihood from shifting cultivation. Land availability, population density and productivity-related factors such as soil fertility and labour requirements are not the only factors that affect fallow length and land use intensification in shifting cultivation agroforestry systems. Households surveyed indicated that various other decision criteria (e.g., proximity to other fields and the protection of land use rights) are important in land use decisions. Even though one quarter of households reported insufficient land resources to maintain soil fertility, few actually indicated that their choices were constrained by land availability. In fact, many cleared much younger fallows than strictly necessary based on the age of fallows available in their land holdings – even those with fallows of sufficient age to maintain long-term productivity. This paper outlines an approach to quantify information about the household preferences that influence land use decisions, discusses the implications of these decision criteria for land use intensification and uses them to model household decision-making in a way that effectively simulates the spatial and dynamic mosaic of land use characteristic of shifting cultivation. Not only are non-productivity related decision criteria important in land use decisions in general; they also have a significant impact on land use intensification. In fact, the research described here demonstrates that both household-specific preferences and household-specific initial conditions can lead to intensification of land use apart from that arising due to increasing population density.

PB - Springer VL - 68 ER -