From Chip Rowe, ICRAF
Nairobi, Kenya
In addition to developing a sustainable land-use strategy, fire management
policy and high-quality, policy-orientated, scientific research, it is vital to
include a strategy for agricultural development. We in the International Centre
for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) are helping the Indonesian government to
achieve this aim.
In 1994, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research chose
the “alternatives to slash-and-burn” (ASB) programme as one of its first global
initiatives. The aim of the ASB programme is to improve farmers’ welfare and
protect the environment by developing land-use practices and policies that offer
farmers sustainable and profitable alternatives to the slash-and-burn form of
shifting cultivation. Agroforests and community forests are two good examples of
viable alternatives.
The ASB programme is conducted in three regions—Southeast Asia, Latin
America and West Africa.
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