BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: The “slash-and-burn” solution to climate change

BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars
“The “slash-and-burn” solution to climate change.“

Jacob Phelps

National University of Singapore

Abstract

Swidden agricultural systems, also known as “slash-and-burn” farming, have been long been targeted (vilified, criminalised) as leading causes of tropical deforestation. Indeed, they are important drivers of deforestation and conspicuous points of carbon emissions. This is well reflected in contemporary policies to reduce emissions from the forest sector; policy makers across the tropics have proposed that carbon finance could provide incentives for forest frontier communities to transition away from swidden agriculture to other systems that potentially reduce emissions and/or increase carbon sequestration. Plans for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) in a number of countries currently feature interventions to replace swidden agriculture, though outcomes are uncertain. This talk will consider the scenarios under which eliminating swidden agriculture might produce positive, long-term carbon benefits, by posing two questions:
1) Will replacing swidden with other agricultural systems provide direct carbon benefits?
2) Will replacing swidden with other agricultural systems result in land sparing for conservation?
Reviewing the relationships between “slash and burn” agriculture and incipient REDD+ policies, this talk will discuss the need for a more data-based and long-term approach to managing forest carbon stocks.

Lecturer

CV Jacob Phelps
Jacob Phelps is a Ph.D. candidate and President’s Graduate Fellow at the National University of Singapore. A member of the Applied Plant Ecology Lab, his research focuses on REDD+ policies, environmental governance, and the commercial trade of protected plant species in Southeast Asia. Originally from Costa Rica, Jacob completed his M.Phil. in Geography at the University of Cambridge and his B.S. in Environmental Science and Management at Michigan State University, where he was a US Congressional Truman Scholar and two-time Udall Scholar