Swidden Transitions: In an era of climate-change debate

Swiddens were the starting point of agriculture and are, in modified form, still an important part of the ever-changing landscape (Cramb et al., 2009). Changes in land use reflect needs (dissatisfaction with the status quo), external rules that are actually ecforced, and perceived opportunities based on knowledge, experience and eagerness to try innovations (Joshi et al., 2003; van Noordwijk et al., 2012a). Landscape-level environmental issues and global climate change have added to the already complex discourse on when, where, how and why external rules and incentives can or should modify the local dynamic of swidden transitions (Mertz, 2009; van Noordwijk et al., 2012b)