Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn 349Diverse institutions
In 2001 the ASB consortium was composed of seven national agricultural research
systems, four other national agencies, seven international agricultural research cen-
tres, 20 universities and advanced research institutions, and five local and national
NGOs. The ASB researchers have organized themselves in an evolving collection
of multidisciplinary thematic working groups, including site characterization, bio-
diversity (above- and below-ground), climate change, agronomic sustainability,
sustainable land-use mosaics, farmer concerns, policy and institutional issues, syn-
thesis and linkages, and training and capacity building. A Global Steering Group
provides governance to the consortium. It meets yearly and sets overall policy,
funding strategy and reporting. A global coordinator with a small global team of
two to three staff facilitates operations (Swift and Bandy, 1995).
Benchmark sites
A network of benchmark sites was identified to represent large, active areas of
deforestation caused by slash-and-burn practices. The sites that were selected pro-
vide a range of biophysical and socioeconomic conditions under which slash-and-
burn occurs and include a land-use intensity gradient from traditional shifting
cultivation to intensive continuous cropping and degraded lands. Benchmark sites
were also selected based on sufficient infrastructure to conduct the research and
development activities. Each benchmark site covers a large area and has a national
research station as its physical base, but the bulk of the work is done locally with
researchers, NGOs, extension services, farmers and policy makers.
Latin America
Two areas were selected in the Amazon Basin; they represent areas that have
experi enced rapid deforestation as a result of government colonization pro-
grammes (western Amazon Brazilian benchmark site) and other areas of lower
population density and poor infrastructure where population densities are increas-
ing through spontaneous migration from the overcrowded urban and Andean
areas (Peruvian benchmark site). The site in the western Brazilian Amazon encom-
passes two colonization projects, Pedro Peixoto, Acre and Theobroma, Rondônia,
and areas along the BR-362 highway. Settlements are all under government spon-
sorship, with migrants assigned 50- to 100-ha plots, and currently undergoing
rapid development. The site headquarters is the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa
Agropecuária (Embrapa)–Acre research centre, near Rio Branco. The Peruvian
benchmark area focuses on Pucallpa and Yurimaguas in the Ucayali and Loreto
regions of the Selva Baja. The site is managed from the Center for Forestry
Research (CENFOR) of the Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agraria (INIA),
working in close cooperation with Consorcio para el Desarrollo Sostenible de
Ucayali (CODESU), a group of NGOs, the Ucayali Regional Government, the
Instituto de Investigación de la Amazonía Peruana (IIAP), and INIA’s Yurimaguas
Experiment Station.