Slash-and-burn agriculture can increase forest biodiversity

The slash-and-burn agriculture practiced by many Indigenous societies across the world can actually have a positive impact on forests, according to a new study done in Belize.

Researchers found that in areas of the rainforest in which Indigenous farmers using slash-and-burn techniques created intermediate-sized farm patches—neither too small nor too large—there were increases in forest plant diversity.

This contradicts what had long been the standard view in the past, promoted by the United Nations and others, identifying slash-and-burn as a significant cause of deforestation around the world, said Sean Downey, lead author of the study and associate professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University.