Traditional knowledge on shifting cultivation of local communities in Bago Mountains, Myanmar

ABSTRACT

Shifting cultivation is a kind of traditional practice which is characterized by a cultivation phase, involving slash and burn of primary or secondary forest, and crop cultivation for one year, followed by a fallow phase. In Myanmar, forest dependent communities, particularly Karen and Chin ethnic groups, have practiced shifting cultivation for a long time and it was observed that their cultivation methods are based on the traditional knowledge transferred from their ancestors. This paper discusses the traditional knowledge involved in the processes of how local communities have practiced shifting cultivation in S Village, Bago Mountains, Myanmar. In exploring local communities’ traditional knowledge on shifting cultivation, qualitative research tools, including participatory focus group discussions, key informant interviews and field observation were employed. It was found that traditional communities avoid the choice of water resource areas and very steep slope areas as shifting cultivation plots. Moreover, after harvesting their crops, they abandon shifting cultivation plots, as fallow land, for over 15 years, which local people said to recover the forest vegetation for cultivation again. In the traditional shifting cultivation system, it was noticed that villagers select shifting cultivation sites according to sites’ potential for high yield of paddy and other associated crops with low environmental impact/damage following their traditional knowledge and practices. However, further research about whether traditional shifting cultivation system causes forest degradation and deforestation is still necessary.

KEYWORDS:

• Traditional knowledge
• shifting cultivation
• local communities
• forest
• Myanmar

Acknowledgments

We greatly thank Kyoto University, Japan and MEXT scholarship for agreeing on and supporting this study. We are grateful to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, Myanmar for permitting and supporting this study. We express our special thanks to the local people in this study area for helping and participating in this research. We sincerely thank Dr. Andrea Flores Urushima for giving scientific comments and polishing the manuscript up. We also appreciate editors and anonymous reviewers who helped us to improve this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.