The shifting ground of swidden agriculture on Palawan Island, the Philippines

Abstract

Recent literature describing the process and pathways of the agrarian transition in Southeast Asia suggests that the rise of agricultural intensification and the growth of commodity markets will lead to the demise of swidden agriculture. This paper offers a longitudinal overview of the conditions that drive the agrarian transition amongst indigenous swidden cultivators and migrant paddy farmers in central Palawan Island, the Philippines. In line with regional agrarian change, we describe how a history of conservation policies has criminalized and pressured swidden farmers to adopt more intensive ''modern'' agricultural practices. We examine how indigenous swidden cultivators adjust their practice in response to recent changes in policies, security of harvests, and socio-cultural values vis-à-vis intensification. Rather than suggest that this transition will lead to the demise of swidden, results reveal that farmers instead negotiate a shifting ground in which they lean on and value swidden as a means of negotiating agrarian change.

Trends, drivers and impacts of changes in swidden cultivation in tropical forest-agriculture frontiers: A global assessment

“…Throughout the region, swiddeners have been marginalized by laws that criminalize their practices, land laws that restrict the use of land to permanent agriculture or forestry, and the expansion of forest departments and conservation organizations, which sometimes evict swiddeners from lands under their control through resettlement (Dressler and Puhlin, 2010). However, the knowledge of the scale of swidden area change and number of people dependant on this system is still largely anecdotal (Schmidt-Vogt et al, 2009), perhaps with the exception of Lao PDR (Messerli et al, 2009).…”

“…However, the positive impacts on household income of various transitions, particularly those involving tree crops and permanent commercial agriculture, have often been offset by exacerbated inequities and increased conflicts over land (Dressler and Puhlin, 2010;Rist et al, 2010) (Fig. 7).…”

A Review of Swidden Agriculture in Southeast Asia

“…It is widely considered that this practice will be replaced by other intensive farming systems. However, scientists contend that it is inopportune to claim that swidden cultivation comes to an end [85]. Conversely, it still persists in many parts [30,54].…”

“…van Vliet et al acknowledged the decline and transformation of swidden farming practice in the special issue (Volume 41, Issue 1, 2013) of Human Ecology on swidden agriculture, however, he also emphasized that swidden agriculture is likely to persist for some time into the 21st century and it is hard to predict a time frame for swidden demise based on the analysis provided in this special issue [60]. For example, in Palawan Island of the Philippines, although driven by the state's laws, policies, and practices to curb swidden cultivation, local farmers argue that swidden is still a de facto vital and integral practice [85]. What is more, the implementation of government agrarian policies to substitute swidden agriculture sometimes causes negative effects on the livelihoods of local residents [83] and brings unsustainable development [87].…”

“…The factors comprise labeling swiddeners as ethnic minorities, under-realizing swidden as an agroforestry system, encroachments on swidden by forests development, resettlement, land privatization and commoditization and, expansion of market infrastructure and commercial agriculture [98]. Evidences from swidden agriculture in Palawan Island of Philippines suggest that government policies and laws reinforce its decline, yet local farmers still lean on it because of the livelihood risk [85,143]. Additionally, Robichaud et al claimed that change of swidden agriculture in Nakai-Nam Theun National Protected Area (NNT NPA) of central Laos has a close connection with biodiversity conservation (e.g., suppressing local wildlife trade) and villagers' livelihoods [144].…”