Chapter 1
From Challenges to Sustainable Solutions
for Upland Agriculture in Southeast Asia
Pepijn Schreinemachers, Holger L. Fro ¨hlich, Gerhard Clemens,
and Karl Stahr
1.1 Introduction
The mountainous areas of Southeast Asia are undergoing rapid change. For
centuries these areas were characterized by forests, isolation, and the presence of
ethnic minority people who subsisted on rotational swidden agriculture. Although
such conditions can still be found in certain places today, they are no longer
representative of the situation across many of these areas. Forest areas have
reduced, road networks have expanded into the mountains, and the younger
generations of the ethnic minorities have increasingly moved to urban areas. In
addition, traditional swidden agriculture has been replaced with intensified
swiddening systems that use shorter fallow periods and also permanent fields, and
farmers are increasingly using irrigation and agrochemicals—finding themselves a
part of modern supply chains delivering raw materials and food to urban areas. This
book provides an interdisciplinary account of the drivers and consequences, both
positive and negative, of land use change in these mountainous areas, and of the
technical and social innovations and policy strategies used to promote the positive
effects of these changes, while at the same time trying to limit the adverse effects.
For such innovations and strategies to be sustainable, they need to find a suitable
balance between the use and conservation of often fragile natural resources in
mountainous areas. The great diversity of soils, climates, ecologies, ethnicities
and human infrastructures that is typical of mountainous Southeast Asia
P. Schreinemachers (*)
Department of Land Use Economics in the Tropics and Subtropics (490d),
University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
e-mail: P.Schreinemachers@gmail.com
H.L. Fro ¨hlich
The Uplands Program (SFB 564), University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
G. Clemens • K. Stahr
Department of Soil Science and Petrography (310a), University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
H.L. Fro ¨hlich et al. (eds.), Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Southeast
Asia: Innovations and Policies for Mountainous Areas, Springer Environmental
Science and Engineering, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-33377-4_1,
# The Author(s) 2013
3
From Challenges to Sustainable Solutions
for Upland Agriculture in Southeast Asia
Pepijn Schreinemachers, Holger L. Fro ¨hlich, Gerhard Clemens,
and Karl Stahr
1.1 Introduction
The mountainous areas of Southeast Asia are undergoing rapid change. For
centuries these areas were characterized by forests, isolation, and the presence of
ethnic minority people who subsisted on rotational swidden agriculture. Although
such conditions can still be found in certain places today, they are no longer
representative of the situation across many of these areas. Forest areas have
reduced, road networks have expanded into the mountains, and the younger
generations of the ethnic minorities have increasingly moved to urban areas. In
addition, traditional swidden agriculture has been replaced with intensified
swiddening systems that use shorter fallow periods and also permanent fields, and
farmers are increasingly using irrigation and agrochemicals—finding themselves a
part of modern supply chains delivering raw materials and food to urban areas. This
book provides an interdisciplinary account of the drivers and consequences, both
positive and negative, of land use change in these mountainous areas, and of the
technical and social innovations and policy strategies used to promote the positive
effects of these changes, while at the same time trying to limit the adverse effects.
For such innovations and strategies to be sustainable, they need to find a suitable
balance between the use and conservation of often fragile natural resources in
mountainous areas. The great diversity of soils, climates, ecologies, ethnicities
and human infrastructures that is typical of mountainous Southeast Asia
P. Schreinemachers (*)
Department of Land Use Economics in the Tropics and Subtropics (490d),
University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
e-mail: P.Schreinemachers@gmail.com
H.L. Fro ¨hlich
The Uplands Program (SFB 564), University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
G. Clemens • K. Stahr
Department of Soil Science and Petrography (310a), University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
H.L. Fro ¨hlich et al. (eds.), Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Southeast
Asia: Innovations and Policies for Mountainous Areas, Springer Environmental
Science and Engineering, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-33377-4_1,
# The Author(s) 2013
3