What is slash and burn farming?

Slash and burn farming is a form of shifting agriculture where the natural vegetation is cut down and burned in order to clearing the land for cultivation, and then, when the plot becomes infertile, the farmer moves to a new fresh plot and does the same again. This process is repeated over and over. In the tropical rainforest/cleared rainforest lands the plot becomes infertile in as little as a year or two. When the population density was less this worked reasonably well, though the farmers generally stayed poor. The infertile plot was left to recover twenty years and or more before being cleared for agriculture again.

But now the population density is such that each plot must be available for re-use much sooner. Over-use of un-rested land leads to eventual destruction of the soil so that it can no longer be cultivated. Moreover, it causes substantial erosion -- which silts up rivers. On the Northern coast of Honduras where FunaVid is situated the sediment ends up on the coral reef and damages it. This in turn is bad for eco-tourism and for fishing, as the fish need the reef to spawn.

denuded mountain

Denuded hillsides as a result of slash and burn farming