Book Review | Voices from the Forests: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Upland Farming edited by Malcolm Cairns

Voices from the Forest provides a robust defense against the largely undeserved bad reputation associated with shifting cultivation that has persisted for almost a century. Bringing together the best of science and farmer experimentation, the book illustrates the enormous diversity and dynamism of this highly resilient long-established agricultural system. It provides a striking testimony of human ingenuity, chronicling how an ancient agricultural technology remains adaptable until the present despite intense pressures from the burgeoning population, state interventions, and an increasingly globalized market economy.