The structure of Jhum (Traditional Shifting Cultivation System): prospect or threat to climate

• Autorzy: Bhagawati K. , Bhagawati G. , Das R. , Bhagawati R. , Ngachan S.V.
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

The knowledge behind the culture and beliefs of indigenous community needs to be harnessed and should be used to complement the modern technologies and policies for better and sustainable use of biological resources and increase resilience of the sector associated. The main objective of the current research was to study Jhum (Traditional Shifting Cultivation System) and the cycles and culture associated with it. The study was done in northeast Himalayan region of India and phenomenological approach was used. The research reveals that Jhum is the component of traditional agro-ecosystem encompassing diverse set of knowledge and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional life-styles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources for their livelihood. The cycle associated with the system reflects the synergy of practices with the natural phenomenon and indicators. Contrary to common modern belief, Jhum is carbon sink, maintain soil health, preserve biological diversity and sustain local climate. Forest clearing during Jhum is not deforestation but forest modification allowing forest regrowth during sufficiently long fallow. Fundamentally, Jhum as a system is an integrated approach to establish agro-ecosystem in the difficult terrains of tropical hill regions that involve forest, soil, biodiversity and livestock management through their culture, tradition and rituals that coevolved with associated ecosystem. Instead of being threat to climate or environment, the system can provide deeper insight into the many different aspects of sustainable and climate resilient development; and the interrelated role of local peoples and their cultures.

Słowa kluczowe

EN

India; Himalayan area; Jhum cultivation; shifting cultivation; traditional knowledge; biodiversity; carbon sequestration; climate change; anthropogenic change

• Wydawca: -
• Czasopismo: International Letters of Natural Sciences
• Rocznik: 2015
• Tom: 46
• Opis fizyczny: p.16-30,fig.,ref.

Twórcy

autor

Bhagawati K.

• ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Arunachal Pradesh Centre, Basar-791101, India

autor

Bhagawati G.

• KVK, Gossaingoan, Assam-783360

autor

Das R.

• Department of Plant Physiology, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat-785013

autor

Bhagawati R.

• ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Arunachal Pradesh Centre, Basar-791101, India

autor

Ngachan S.V.

• ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya-793103

Bibliografia

• [1] Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary. (2005). Oxford University Press, Great Claredon Street, Oxford, UK.
• [2] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/science
• [3] Mjøset, L. & Kasa, S. (1994). “Environmental problems and techno-economic paradigms, a contribution to the history of environmental problems”. In R. Delorme & K. Dopfler (eds.): The Political Economy of Diversity, Edward Elgar Publishers, London, pp. 167–199.
• [4] Singh, R.B. (2000). Environmental Consequences of Agricultural Development: a case study from the Green Revolution state of Haryana, India. Agriculture, Ecosystem and Environment, 82: 97-103.
• [5] IPCC, Summary for Policymakers, Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). (2007). New York, Cambridge University Press
• [6] Parry, M.L., Canziani, O.F., Palutikof, J.P., van der Linden, P.J. & Hanson C.E. (eds.) (2007). Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, UK and New York, Cambridge University Press.
• [7] UNFCCC, Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation: compilation of information. Note by the Secretariat. Available at < http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2011/sbsta/eng/inf08.pdf> (2011)
• [8] Galloway McLean, K. (2010). Advance Guard: Climate change impacts, adaptation, mitigation and indigenous peoples. A compendium of case studies. UNU-IAS.
• [9] Ohmagari, K. & Berkes, F. (1997). Transmission of indigenous knowledge and bush skills among the Western James Bay Cree women of subarctic Canada. Human Ecology 25: 197-222
• [10] Hunn, E. (1993). What is traditional ecological knowledge? In: Williams N. and Baines G. (Eds.). Traditional ecological knowledge: Wisdom for sustainable development. Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, ANU, Canberra, pp. 3-15.
• [11] Robinson, J. & Herbert, D. (2001). Integrating climate change and sustainable development. International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 1(2), 130-148.
• [12] Berkes, F. (1999). Sacred ecology. Traditional ecological knowledge and resource management. Taylor and Francis, Philadelphia and London, UK.
• [13] Lawerence, D. & Schlesinger. W.H. (2001). Changes in soil phosphorus during 200 years of shifting cultivation in Indonesia, Ecology 82:2769-2780.
• [14] Eastmond, A. & Faust, B. (2006). Farmers, fires, and forest: a green alternative to shifting cultivation for conservation of the Maya forest? Landsc Urban Plan 74:267-284.
• [15] Thomaz, E.L. (2009). The influence of traditional steep land agricultural practices on runoff and soil loss, Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 130:23-30.
• [16] Craswell, E.T., Sajjapongse, A., Howlett, D.J.B. & Dowling, A.J. (1997). Agroforestry in the management of sloping lands in Asia and the Pacific. Agrofor Syst. 38:121–137
• [17] FAO. (1957). Shifting Cultivation, Unasylva, 11:9-11.
• [18] Dove, Michael R. (1983). Theories of swidden agriculture, and the political economy of ignorance. Agroforestry Systems 1: 85-99.
• [19] IWGIA. (2007). Development-induced resettlement and social suffering in Laos. Indigenous Affairs 4/07. Copenhagen: IWGIA, p. 32, p. 26.
• [20] Forsyth, T. & Andrew W. (2008). Forest Guardians, Forest Destroyers. The Politics of Environmental Knowledge in Northern Thailand. Chiang Mai, Thailand Silkworm Books
• [21] Fox, J., Fujita, Y., Ngidang, D., Peluso, N., Potter, L., Sakuntaladewi, N., Sturgeon, J. & Thomas, D. (2009) Policies, Political-Economy and Swidden in Southeast Asia. Human Ecology, 37:305-322.
• [22] Nakashima, D. & Roué, M. (2002). Social and economic dimensions of global environmental change, In: Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change, P. Timmerman (Eds.), John Willey and Sons, pp- 314-324, Vol: 5.
• [23] Conklin, H.C. (1957). Hanunoo Agriculture: a report on an integral system o f shifting cultivation in the Philippines. Rome: FAO (Forestry Development Paper no. 12
• [24] Kerkhoff, E. & Sharma E. (2006). Debating Shifting Cultivation in the Eastern Himalayas:Farmers’ Innovations as Lessons for Policy, Kathmandu: ICIMOD.
• [25] Geist, H.J. & Lambin, E.F. (2001). What Drives Tropical Deforestation? A meta-analysis of proximate and underlying causes of deforestation based on subnational case study evidence. LUCC Report Series No. 4., 2001, Louvain-la-Neuve: CIACO.
• [26] Brady N.C. (1996). Alternatives to slash-and-burn: a global imperative. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 58: p. 3-11.
• [27] Rastogi, M., Singh, S. & Pathak, H. (2002). Emission of carbon dioxide from soil. CurrentScience, 82(5), 510-517.
• [28] Warner, K. (1991). Shifting Cultivators, Local technical knowledge and natural resource management in humid tropics. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.
• [29] Cairns, M. & Garrity, D.P. (1999). Improving shifting cultivation in Southeast Asia by building on indigenous fallow management strategies. Agrofor. Syst. 47:37-48.
• [30] Brunn, T.B., de Neergaard, A., Lawrence, D. & Ziegler, A.D. (2009). Environmental consequences of the demise in swidden cultivation in Southeast Asia: carbon storage and soil quality. Humn. Ecol. 37:375-388.
• [31] Ziegler, A.D., Bruun, T.B., Guardiola-Claramonte, M., Giambelluca, T.W., Lawrence, D., Lam, N.T. (2009). Environmental consequences of the demise in Swidden cultivation in montane mainland Southeast Asia: hydrology and geomorphology, Humn. Ecol. 37:361-373.
• [32] Sobrevila, C. (2008). Role of Indigenous People in Biodiversity Conservation. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / THE WORLD BANK, 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A
• [33] Ramakrishnan, P.S. (1992). Shifting Agriculture and Sustainable Development: an interdisciplinary study from north-eastern India. MAB Series, Volume 10, UNESCO, Paris.
• [34] Mugati, T. & Maposa, R.S. (2012). Indigenous weather forecasting: A phenomenological study engaging the shone of Zimbabwe. The Journal of Pan African Studies, 4(9), 102-111.
• [35] Cox, J.L. (1992). An Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion, Gweru: Mambo Press.
• [36] Gupta, V. (2004). Community forest management – A case study of East Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh, India, Consultancy report, CFMWG-NEI, NEHU, Shillong, India and Community Forestry International Inc., Santa Barbara, USA.
• [37] Jini, D., Bhagawati, K., Singh, R., Bhagawati, R., Alone, R.A. & Ngachan, S.V. (2015). Lura – Indigenous Approach to Biodiversity Conservation by Temporary Community Confinement of Mithuns (Bos frontalis) during Growing Season. International Letters of Natural Sciences, 44:45-53. doi:10.18052/ www.scipress.com/ILNS.44.45.
• [38] Terborgh, J. (1999). Requiem for nature. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
• [39] Tanaka, S., Wasli, M.E., Seman, L., Jee, A., Kendawang, J.J. & Sakurai, K. (2007). Ecological study on site selection for shifting cultivation by the Iban of Sarawak, Malaysia. A case study in Mujong River area. Tropics, 16:357-372
• [40] Nimachow, G. (2003). Akas and their forest: A study on traditional management of forest resources, Arunachal University Research Journal 6(2): 82.
• [41] Swanson, T. (2013) Global Action for Biodiversity Conservation: An International Framework for Implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity, Earth Scan, London.
• [42] Fairhead, J., and Leach, M. (1996). Misreading the African landscape: society and ecology in a forestsavannah mosaic. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
• [43] Iltis, H (1988). ‘Serendipity in the Exploration of Biodiversity’, in Wilson, E.O. (ed) Biodiversity, National Academy Press: Washington, DC.
• [44] Eltringham, S.K. (1984).Wildlife Resources and Economic Development, John Wiley: New York
• [45] Mao, A.A., Hynniewta, T.M. & Sanjappa, M. (2009). Plant wealth of Northeast India in reference to ethnobotany. Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, 8(1):96-103.
• [46] Lane, A. & Jarvis, A. (2007). Changes in climate will modify the geography of crop suitability: Agricultural biodiversity can help with adaptation. Paper presented at ICRISAT/CGIAR 35th Anniversary Symposium, “Climate-Proofing Innovation for Poverty Reduction and Food Security”, 22–24 November 2007, ICRISAT, Patancheru, India. Available at: http://www. icrisat.org/ Journal/ SpecialProject/ sp2.pdf.
• [47] Clark, C.(1973) ‘Profit Maximisation and the Extinction of Animal Species’, Journal of Political Economy, 81(4):950-61
• [48] Warren, D.M. (1995). Comments on articles by Arun Agrawal. Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor 4(1):13
• [49] Sporrong, U. (1998). Dalecarlia in Central Sweden before 1800: a society of social and ecological resilience. Pages 67-94 in F Berkes and C. Folke, editors. Linking social and ecological systems: management practices and social mechanisms for building resilience. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
• [50] Padoch, C., Coffey, K., Mertz, O., Leisz, S.J., Fox, J. & R.L. Wadley. (2007).The Demise of Swidden in Southeast Asia? Local Realities and Regional Ambiguities. Danish Journal of Geography 107(1): 29-41.
• [51] Jackson, W.J. & Moore, P.F. (1998). The role of indigenous use of fire in forest management and conservation. International Seminar on Cultivating Forests: Alternative Forest Management Practices and Techniques for Community Forestry, Regional Community Forestry Training Center, Bangkok, Thailand.
• [52] Lewis, H.T. (1989). Ecological and Technological Knowledge of Fire: Aborigines Versus Park Rangers in Northern Australia. American Anthropologist 91(4).
• [53] Giardina, C.P., Sanford Jr, R.L,. Døckersmith, I.C. & Jaramillo, V.J. (2000).The effects of slash burning on ecosystem nutrients during the land preparation phase of shifting cultivation. Plant and Soil, 220: 247-260.
• [54] Tanaka, S., Kendawang, J.J., Ishihara, J., Shibata, K., Kou, A., Jee, A., Ninomiya, I. & Sakurai, K. (2004). The effects of shifting cultivation on soil ecosystems in Sarawak, Malaysia. II. Changes in soil chemical properties and runoff water at Balai Ringin and Sabal Experimental sites. Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 50: 689-699.
• [55] Tanaka, S., Kendawang, J.J., Yoshida, N., Shibata, K., Jee, A., Tanaka, K., Ninomiya, I. & Sakurai, K. (2005). Effects of shifting cultivation on soil ecosystems in Sarawak, Malaysia. IV. Chemical properties of the soils and runoff water at Niah and Bakam experimental sites. Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 51: 525-533.
• [56] Kleinman, P. J. A., Pimentel D. & Bryant, R.B. (1995).The ecological sustainability of slashand-burn agriculture. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 52(2-3): 235-249.
• [57] Myers, N. (1992). The Primary Source: Tropical Forests and Our Future, W. W. Norton, New York.
• [58] Giri, T. (2007). Strengthening Monitoring, Assessment and Reporting on Sustainable Forest Management in Asia (GCP/INT/988/JPN). Forest Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation, Rome.
• [59] Erni, C. (2009). Shifting the blame? Southeast Asia’s indigenous peoples and shifting cultivation in the age of climate change. Paper presented at the seminar on “Adivasi/ST Communities in India: Development and Change”, Delhi, August 27-29, 2009, p. 6
• [60] Van Noordwijk M., Mulyoutami, E., Sakuntaladewi, N., & Agus, F. (2008). Swiddens in transition: shifted perceptions on shifting cultivators in Indonesia. Occasional Paper no.9. Bogor, Indonesia: World Agroforestry Centre.
• [61] Fearnside, P.M. (2000). Global warming and tropical land‐use change: Greenhouse gas emissions from biomass burning, decomposition and soils in forest conversion, shifting cultivation and secondary vegetation, Clim. Change, 46:115–158, doi:10.1023/A:1005569915357.
• [62] Lehsten, V., Tansey, K., Balzter, H., Thonicke, K., Spessa, A., Weber, U., Smith, B. & Arneth. A. (2009). Estimating carbon emissions from African wildfires, Biogeosciences, 6: 349–360, doi:10.5194/bg-6-349-2009.
• [63] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2006). Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry. IPCC, http://www.grida.no/publications/other/ipcc_sr/?src=/climate/ ipcc/land_use/008.htm#s6-1
• [64] Ruthenberg, H. (1971). Farming Systems in the Tropics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• [65] La Scala, N., Bolonhezi, D. & Pereira, G.T. (2006). Short-term soil CO2 emission after conventional and reduced tillage of a no-till sugar cane area in southern Brazil. Soil Till. Res. 9:244-248.
• [66] Noel, D.U. & Herby, B. (2000). Global climate change and the effect of conservation practices in US agriculture. Global Environmental Change 10:197-209.
• [67] Wan, Y.F. & Lin, E.D. (2004). The influence of tillage on CH4 and CO2 emission flux in winter fallow cropland. Chinese Journal of Agrometeorology 3:8-10
• [68] Gafur, A. (2001). Effects of shifting cultivation on soil properties, erosion, nutrient depletion and hydrological responses in small watershed of Chittagong Hill Tracts, unpublished PhD dissertation, Chemistry Department, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• [69] Gafur, A. Borggaard, O.K., Jensen, J.R. & Peterson, L. (2003) Run off and loses of soil and nutrients from watershed under shifting cultivation (Jhum) in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. J. Hydrol., 279:293-309.
• [70] Aryal, K.P. & Kerkhoff, E. (2008). The right to practice shifting cultivation as a traditional occupation in Nepal. A case study to apply ILO Conventions No. 111 (Employment and Occupation) and 169 (Indigenous and Tribal peoples) Kathmandu, International Labour Office.
• [71] Solow, R. (1974). ‘The Economics of Resources or the Resources of Economics’, American Economic Review, 64:1-12.
• [72] Gliessman, S.R. (1985). Economic and ecological factors in designing and managing sustainable agroecosystems. In Edens, T. C., Fridgen, C. and Battenfield, S. L. (eds.) Sustainable agriculture and integrated farming systems. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, pp. 56 - 63.

Identyfikatory

DOI

10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILNS.46.16