BOX 2.
ALTERNATIVES TO SLASH-AND-BURN AGRICULTURE (ASB)


The problems of slash-and-burn agriculture and rural poverty in the tropics are enormous and complex. They threaten not just farmers and forests in the tropics; ultimately they affect every person on the planet. Approximately 15 million hectares of the world's primary rain forests are destroyed each year and about 60 per cent of this destruction is caused by slash-and-burn agriculture. This practice is the greatest threat to the biodiversity of our planet. The challenge, then, is to develop a viable alternative to this form of agriculture.

UNDP has been a major facilitator, helping to establish the ASB project with encouragement and funds from GEF. This project could serve as a model flagship programme in the area of sustainable agriculture and environmentally sound technologies, with particular emphasis on jobs and income-generation for the poor. ASB, the first of many system-wide initiatives being launched by the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), is currently being looked upon as a model for their development.

The project is operational in three regions of the world. In Africa, the site in Cameroon, represent the equatorial Congo Basin rain forest, a zone of rapid demographic, social and environmental change. In Latin America, the site is in the Amazon rain forest region of Brazil, which is subject to rapid development through government-sponsored resettlement schemes. In Asia, the site selected in Sumatra, Indonesia, exemplifies various types and stages of deforestation and degraded lands.

The ASB project is working to reduce deforestation caused by unsustainable slash-and-burn agriculture by providing technology alternatives and policy options that eliminate the need to clear additional land and that encourage the reclamation of degraded and abandoned lands. It is evident that the option to link environmentally oriented strategies with economic ones provides a practical, realistic approach. The long-term aims are to contribute to the reduction of global warming and the conservation of biodiversity and help to alleviate human poverty by promoting the development of lasting alternatives that are ecologically sound, economically feasible and culturally acceptable.

What contributes to the success of this project?

  • Multidisciplinary perspective. The ASB project addresses both policy and technology dimensions in a multidisciplinary manner by linking environmental and socio-economic policies that will encourage the adoption of technologies that discourage deforestation and by developing guidelines for policies that address macroeconomic issues such as subsidies, agricultural marketing strategies, import tariffs and credit.
  • Building on lessons learned. The project recognizes that small-scale farmers who practice shifting cultivation are the victims of complex socio-economic and political factors such as inappropriate policies governing land use and tenure (with gender focus), migration schemes and access to markets. Consequently, policies that try to contain deforestation by establishing forest reserves without taking into account the human dimension are unsustainable in the long term.
  • Consultation and involvement. During the design of the project, there have been sufficient consultations with potential partners and stakeholders (farmer-producer organizations, national research centres, NGOs) and every attempt has been made to mesh project goals with national and/or institutional objectives. This has infused a sense of ownership on the part of partner institutions and governments.
  • Emphasis on global/local institutional collaboration. The project explicitly recognizes that progress concerning the global environment depends on collaboration of international, regional, national and local organizations as partners in the governance, financing and implementation of project goals. Therefore, a key feature of the project is synergism among global, regional and national perspectives.
  • Needs-oriented and locally driven. This is very much a bottom-up project; research is driven by the farmers' needs. By making the most of indigenous knowledge, the project applies modern technologies to domesticate wild plants for food, fodder, fuel wood, timber, poles, medicines and fibre.
  • Capacity development and information-sharing. These are accomplished by developing training and information programmes that ensure that technologies are transferred to those who need them most and by providing equipment, vehicles and other support services to the national research systems and facilitating national scientists' participation at international seminars.
  • Highly participatory governance structure. The ASB project is designed to ensure full participation of partners in the planning and implementation of the project, with a clear definition of roles and responsibilities. It involves a total of 15 national programmes, international research centres (CGIAR) and NGOs. These form the ASB Consortium and members are represented on the Global Steering Group (GSG) that meets annually to set general policy guidelines. Regional steering groups, led by CGIAR research centres, ensure regional coordination and set priorities and institutional responsibilities. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) coordinates work in South-East Asia, the Central Internacional de Agricultura Tropica (CIAT) in Latin America and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in West Africa. ICRAF is the ASB project coordinating institution. National steering groups chaired by the heads of national research institutions (NARS) for each country maintain government support and the active participation of government research and extension institutions, indigenous NGOs and universities. The local steering groups, chaired by the NARS-ASB project representatives, are concerned with collaboration among farmer-producer organizations, NGOs, community leaders and governments. They are responsible for the implementation of project goals at the local level.