Will the Exodus of Young People Bring an End to Swidden Farming as a Major Forest Use in SE Asia?

Shintia Arwida (), Ratih Dewayanti, Wanggi Jaung, Agni Klintuni Boedhihartono and Jeffrey Sayer ()
Additional contact information
Shintia Arwida: Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
Ratih Dewayanti: AKATIGA, Bandung 40134, Indonesia
Wanggi Jaung: Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Republic of Korea
Agni Klintuni Boedhihartono: Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
Jeffrey Sayer: Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 13, 1-14

Abstract: Swidden agriculture has been practiced historically by communities in SE Asia, but as the population grows and other land uses expand, the areas available to swidden farmers are decreasing. Government environmental policies discriminate against swidden farming. Opportunities for off-farm employment are increasing, and this is attracting young people to abandon swidden farming. We explored the link between access to land and migration in three forest landscapes in Indonesia, Lao, and Vietnam. We analyzed the impacts of the push factors within the swidden systems and the pull factors from non-agricultural activities on young people’s decisions to migrate or continue in swidden agriculture. We found that stable cash incomes from non-farm jobs were a major driver of young people’s out-migration. Other factors included the desire to have broader experience, better education, as well as peer influences. We also found that land was becoming less accessible to young swidden farmers, but this was not a major reason to migrate as suggested by many studies. Government and private sector investments in plantations, mining, or infrastructure are reducing land availability. Government restrictions on land clearing also reduce areas available for swidden farming.

Keywords: swidden agriculture; indigenous people; landscape trajectories; youth out-migration; rural exodus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/13/5302/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/13/5302/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:13:p:5302-:d:1419868

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().