How does slash-and-burn agriculture contribute to tropical deforestation?

Slash-and-burn agriculture contributes to tropical deforestation by clearing forest land for planting, often through the burning of vegetation to provide temporary soil fertilization. While traditionally practiced as a sustainable form of shifting cultivation—where small plots are abandoned to allow for forest regeneration—modern applications frequently lead to permanent deforestation.123

The process drives deforestation and ecological degradation in several ways:

• Loss of Carbon Sequestration: Burning releases stored carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, while simultaneously removing the trees necessary to sequester future carbon.14
• Soil Exhaustion: Tropical soils are often nutrient-poor; once the initial nutrients from ash are depleted or washed away by heavy rains, the land becomes unproductive, forcing farmers to clear new forest areas.43
• Habitat Fragmentation: When cleared areas are maintained permanently rather than allowed to fallow, they create fragmented landscapes that isolate plant and animal populations, leading to biodiversity loss and increasing the risk of species extinction.14
• Increased Flammability: Clearing and burning can convert closed, moist forests into drier, more open environments, making the remaining forest more vulnerable to accidental wildfires and further degradation.4