Slash and Burn

Slash and burn is a name for a type of forestry clearance used commonly in the jungle.

The jungle looks to the ordinary person like a rich fertile environment, ideal for a spot of agriculture. But the problem is that all the nutrients and goodness is in what you can see, not under your feet.

A leaf drops from a tree, it decomposes at a rapid rate and then the nutrients are sucked back up into the forest by all the competing species of plants and trees. The soil, to put it simply, is just a place for all this to happen.

When the forest is cut down the trees and vegetation are burnt and the ashes then fertilize the soil. The locals plant crops and what goodness there is in the soil is quickly sucked out. Then, when the soils is useless, more jungle is cleared.

The rainforest, if left undisturbed, can slowly creep forward into the open areas. Turning barren areas back into good quality jungle, but it has to be left alone and an element of luck is need. Whilst the forest had been stripped of it’s vegetation and the trees killed, all the root systems that were helping to hold the soil together have also perished. This now makes the area more prone to soil erosion.

Remembering the knock on effect of messing with such a complex ecosystem, the soil erosion now chokes the rivers, causes landslides and flash floods (the rainforest acted as a natural flood gate by releasing water gradually).

During my time in the Amazon I saw successful farmers using their environment carefully. They had small areas cleared for crops and animals. These areas were then allowed to re-grow after some time whilst the farmer used a different area. Maybe not in his life time, but in his son’s, the rotation would eventually come round to the first clearing I saw and by then the forest will have recovered to an acceptable level.