Slash and burn agriculture, Effects of

Slash and Burn agriculture is widely used in tropical Africa, Asia and South America. The technique is closely related to the oldest forms of land clearing and crop production and has sustained crop yields over millennia. Today slash and burn is used at considerably higher frequencies than in the past and on larger areas, causing concern that biodiversity is negatively affected. Slashed and burned areas are experiencing strong negative impact on biodiversity specifically on immobile, small species. However, these effects can be balanced if there is sufficient unaffected area from where re-colonization can re-establish species destroyed in the clearing and cropping phase.