A WORKING CLASSIFICATION OF SLASH-AND-BURN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS

Slash-and-burn agricultural systems have received a great deal of atte ntion given their observed or hypothesized role in tropical deforestio n, biodiversity loss, and contribution to global warming. These agricu ltural systems are varied; and such diversity has led to confusion in making cross-site comparisons. One hundred and three publications desc ribing 136 cases were reviewed in order to develop a scheme to classif y slash-and-bum systems. Four variables - initial vegetative cover, ty pe of user, final, cover, and fallow length - were used to describe ea ch case. Nine groups representing the same or similar combinations of values were identified. Groups were keyed for placement of each case o n a global map indicating geographic distribution. The method provides a way to establish similarities or differences among slash-and-bum ca ses (or representativeness of cases) to the degree that available lite rature represents what exists in the field. Researchers are invited to provide descriptors of additional cases, respective references, and c ase locations in order to improve and test the utility of the method a nd to simultaneously expand the resulting database.