352 Agricultural Revolutions and Change
Characterizing sites
The first phase of ASB research involved characterizing the benchmark sites. The
purpose of the characterization was to describe the biophysical, socioeconomic and
policy settings of the sites, define the extent and process of slash-and-burn agricul-
ture in forming land-use patterns, investigate the driving forces for slash-and-burn,
develop typologies of slash-and-burn land-use systems that exist across the ASB
sites, establish a baseline of information for future impact assessments, and provide
regional and global extrapolation domains for research results. The results were
used to identify research priorities and develop research protocols for the subse-
quent steps.
Guidelines were developed for characterizing the rates of forest conversion;
dominant land-use systems; and the biophysical, socioeconomic and policy envi-
ronments in which they are found at the regional, benchmark, community and
farm and household scales (Palm et al, 1995). Within each benchmark site there
are numerous communities that represent a range of demographic conditions and
land-use histories that result in different local land-use patterns. The characteriza-
tion process also included detailed interviews to establish the problems, opportu-
nities, constraints and resources at the community and farm or household scales,
the responses to which were important for identifying factors that affect decision
making and driving forces of land use and for establishing research agendas for
finding sustainable alternatives to slash-and-burn. Remote sensing and geographic
information system (GIS) techniques were used to assess rates of deforestation and
land-use patterns at the sites.
Site characterization results for the first three benchmark sites are documented
by Ávila (1994) for Brazil, Ambassa-Kiki and Tiki Manga (1997) for Cameroon,
and Gintings et al (1995) and van Noordwijk et al (1995) for Indonesia. Informa-
tion is also presented in benchmark site reports (Tomich et al, 1998a; Kotto-Same
et al, 2000; Lewis et al, 2002). A comparison of some of the key biophysical and
socioeconomic conditions shows the broad range encompassed by benchmark sites
(Table 15.1). Comparable activities and approaches for Mexico and the Philip-
pines are presented in Haggar et al (2001) and Mercado et al (2001), respectively.
Meta–land-use systems
A set of meta–land-use systems was identified from the site characterization proc-
ess that aggregates the broad range of specific land-use systems found in the diverse
benchmark sites (ASB, 1996). Such systems were initially identified as ‘best-bet’
and ‘worst-bet’ alternative systems for specific benchmark sites (Tomich et al,
1998b). Meta–land-use systems include forests, complex agroforests, simple agro-
forests, crop–fallow rotations, continuous food crops, and pastures and grasslands
(Table 15.2). This array of land uses covers a gradient often used by biophysical
scientists to describe varying levels of disturbance of forest for agriculture (Ruthen-
berg, 1980; NRC, 1993). General descriptions of these meta–land-use systems and
some specific examples are given here.