Papers are invited for a new book  documenting and analysing farmer innovations and best practices within shifting cultivation systems in the Asia-Pacific region.

Accepted papers will be published as the third volume of a trilogy of books about shifting cultivation. The first volume, Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change: Indigenous People, Agriculture and Forest Conservation  (Earthscan), examined the environmental implications of shifting cultivation in Asia-Pacific. The second volume, titled “Shifting Cultivation Policies: Balancing Environmental and Social Sustainability”, was off-press in late-2017 by CABI Publishing (https://www.cabi.org/bookshop/book/9781786391797 ). This trilogy of books has been designed as a sequel to the highly-acclaimed “Voices from the Forest” volume, which brought scientific attention to indigenous innovations in improved fallow management.

^{Across N.E. India, swidden farmers often lay poles across slope contours to reduce the down-slope movement of soil.}

The thematic focus of each of these volumes in the trilogy follow a logical sequence. Volume I began by presenting evidence that shifting cultivation is not the dire environmental threat that many may have believed. Volume II built on this more favourable assessment by asking what it should mean to policy reform. Acknowledging that shifting cultivation supports hundreds of millions of vulnerable peoples across Asia-Pacific, this third volume will look intently at the often ingenious innovations that farmers have developed to improve shifting cultivation. Taken together, the three volumes will guide the reader through an odyssey of learning about shifting cultivation in the Asia-Pacific region that attempts to correct a century of misunderstanding that began in  the colonial era.

The Editor is looking for high-quality papers of around 6000 words. They will need to include a professionally-drawn map of the research area in Asia-Pacific and may also include several photos to illustrate the paper’s topic.  For more details, please see the ‘Book Announcement and Call for Papers’ that is available here as a downloadable file.

^{On Cebu Island of the Philippines, the Naalad system of planting contour rows of soil-building Leucaena leucocephala across swidden fields is a prime example of a farmer innovation in shifting cultivation.}

Papers for the policy volume should be submitted by 1 July, 2019.

Besides the papers, the Editor would also welcome contributions of high-quality coloured photos of shifting cultivation and its practitioners in the Asia Pacific region, for inclusion in a coloured plates section in this third volume.

If you are interested in participating in this volume, please contact the Editor, Malcolm Cairns, at mfcairns@gmail.com. Download: