. The Conservation Atlas of Tropical Forests: Asia and the Pacific. Clearing, planting, cultivating and harvesting are the cycle of tasks fo swidden farmer in northern Laos. P. Anspach the. Lao Theung The Lao Theung include a number of ethnic groups living in the hills. Fields are cropped for one or two years followed by a fallow period of five to fifteen years. During land clearing, tree stumps and some trees are left to promote regeneration after cropping, and care is taken with burning and weeding. Rice is the main crop although others such as maize, chillies and cassava are grown. This sys
. The Conservation Atlas of Tropical Forests: Asia and the Pacific. Clearing, planting, cultivating and harvesting are the cycle of tasks fo swidden farmer in northern Laos. P. Anspach the. Lao Theung The Lao Theung include a number of ethnic groups living in the hills. Fields are cropped for one or two years followed by a fallow period of five to fifteen years. During land clearing, tree stumps and some trees are left to promote regeneration after cropping, and care is taken with burning and weeding. Rice is the main crop although others such as maize, chillies and cassava are grown. This system of cyclical reoccupation of agricultural land is basically ecologically stable, although in some areas it has started to break down as a result of increasing demand for land. LaoSoung On high slopes above about 1000 m in northern Laos, the Lao Soung people cultivate opium poppy as a cash crop, and rice, maize, tobacco and vegetables for subsistence. Primary forest sites are preferred for poppy cultivation. No trees are left standing, and the plots are used continuously for five to ten years, after which they are abandoned. As a result of soil impoverish- ment and weed invasion these plots regenerate to infertile grass savannas rather than forest. This system, which is accompanied by uncontrolled fires during the burning season, is the major cause of deforestation in upland areas. 5ourc(?.-IUCN (1988a) The Impact of Deforestation on Rural People Loss of forest cover has a particularly severe impact on rural residents, of whom there are some 3,000,000 in Laos. For these people the forest is a source of building materials, fuelwood, food, medicinal plants and other products both for family use and for sale. A recent study of eight villages and two forest enterprises in east-central Laos found that 141 different types of forest products were hunted or gathered, including 37 food items, 68 medicinal products and 18 types of animals. One village was critically affected by state e
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