Indigenous Affairs 1/09: Shifting the blame? Southeast Asia's Indigenous peoples and shifting cultivation in the age of climate change

In the name of forest conservation and development, colonial and post-colonial governments in Asia have for more than a century devised policies and laws seeking to eradicate shifting cultivation.1 Many of the arguments brought against this form of land use – that it is an economically inefficient and ecologically harmful practice – have been proven inaccurate or outright wrong.2 Notwithstanding all evidence, however, attitudes by decision makers and, consequently, state policies have hardly changed.