II-BEEology: ╫KAINGIN ->by: KIMBERT FERNANDEZ

Before I go on with my topic, let me give you a brief explanation about "KAINGIN".

KAINGIN is a practice of cutting and burning the forests or woodlands to create fields for agriculture or pasture.

Kaingin is a specific functional element of certain farming practices. In some cases such as parts of Madagascar, Kaingin may have no cyclical aspects. In fact some kaingin activities can render soils incapable of further yields for generations. Kaingin may be practiced on its own as a single cycle farming activity with no follow on cropping cycle. (Kaingin may or may not be followed by cropping.)

Various forms of kaingin have been used in nearly every forested environment. Much of the temperate forest cutting was followed by sustainable grazing or crop rotation practices. An almost total conversion of forests to farmland and pasture has occurred in many temperate regions, such as England. In many tropical forests, sustainable forms of kaingin have been practiced for millennia, but population growth and large-scale industrial logging, among other factors, have made traditional kaingin practices less sustainable and more likely to result in catastrophic wildfires.

Kaingin is usually labeled as ecologically destructive, but it may be workable when practiced by small populations in large forests, where fields have sufficient time to recover before again being slashed, burned, and cultivated. Given the present worldwide high population densities, it is not common to find such conditions.

A number of countries have established Biodiversity Action Plans that address the effect of human activities on the environment, and biodiversity in particular. Some, such as that of Australia, proscribe slash and burn practices.

THE HISTORY…

Historically, the practice of kaingin has been widely done throughout most of the world, in grasslands as well as woodlands.

Due to the decrease of food from hunting, some groups started to turn to agriculture. Some groups could easily plant their seeds in open fields, but others had forests blocking their farming land. Since Neolithic times, kaingin techniques have been widely used for converting forests into crop fields and pasture. Fire was used before the Neolithic as well, and by hunter-gatherers up to present times. Clearings created by fire were made for many reasons, such as to promote certain kinds of edible plants such as berries and mushrooms.

THE PROCESS …

An area of primary or secondary forest is selected, and the vegetation is cut and allowed to dry. Large trees are often girdled and allowed to die standing. Some trees are often left standing, especially those viewed as useful, such as food producing trees like chestnuts or economically valuable trees like teak. Portions of the cut timber or saplings are often gathered to use for firewood or to make charcoal. After some period of time the residual dry vegetation is burned. Plots are cultivated for a few seasons and then abandoned as fertility declines and weeds invade. Such abandoned plots often become used as pasture for livestock. If the forest is allowed to recover, a pasture becomes rough pasture for a while. Recovering woodlands are sometimes treated as "fallow" land, to be subjected to another round of kaingin in the future.

THE EFFECT…

Burning removes the vegetation and may release a pulse of nutrients to fertilize the soil. Ash also increases the pH of the soil, a process which makes certain nutrients (especially phosphorus) more available in the short term. Burning also drives off, temporarily, soil microorganisms, pests, and established plants long enough for crops to be planted in the ashes. Before artificial fertilizers were available, fire was one of the most widespread methods of fertilization. Kaingin requires a relatively low human population density or a continuing supply of new "frontier" lands, since the recovery of forests may require many decades or even human generations.

Although a dilemma for overpopulated tropical countries where subsistence farming may be the easiest method of sustaining many families, the consequences of kaingin techniques to ecosystems are almost always deleterious when practiced on a large scale. The principal vulnerability is the nutrient-poor soil, pervasive in most tropical forests. When biomass is extracted even for one harvest of wood or charcoal, the residual soil value is heavily diminished for further growth of any type of vegetation. Sometimes there are several cycles of kaingin within a few years time span. The first wave might be cutting of all trees for wood use. A few years later, saplings are harvested to make charcoal, and within the next year the plot is burned to create a quick flush of nutrients for grass to feed a family. If adjacent plots are treated in a similar fashion, large scale erosion will usually ensue, since there are no roots or temporary water storage in nearby canopies to arrest the surface runoff. Thus, any small remaining amounts of nutrients are washed away. The area is an example of desertification, and no further growth of any type may arise for generations.

The ecological ramifications of the above scenario are further magnified, because tropical forests are habitats for extremely biologically diverse ecosystems, typically containing large numbers of endemic and endangered species. Therefore, the role of kaingin is significant in the current Holocene extinction event occurring on the planet Earth.