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How did slash-and-burn farming work in the South American tropical forest?

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Map of South America and the Caribbean showing the distribution of Aboriginal cultural groups, with regions color-coded by cultural type including Andean, Central American, tropical forest, and various nomadic cultures such as aquatic nomads, forest hunters and gatherers, and shellfish gatherers. Major group names are labeled across the continent and surrounding islands. — South American forest Indian Distribution of aboriginal South American and circum-Caribbean cultural groups.

In the South American tropical forest, slash-and-burn agriculture—often referred to as swidden agriculture—was a traditional, sustainable method of cultivation used by indigenous peoples for thousands of years.12

The process functioned through the following steps:

Clearing and Burning: Indigenous farmers cleared small patches of forest by cutting down vegetation, leaving behind stumps and larger trees. The remaining organic matter was burned, and the resulting ash served as a natural fertilizer to enrich the soil.13
Cultivation: Planting was typically performed using simple tools like hoes or digging sticks rather than plows. This system was well-suited to the tropical lowlands, as it mimicked the ecological diversity of the forest and required little labor-intensive technology.32
Fallowing: Because soil fertility in these regions naturally declines after a few years of cultivation, farmers would abandon the plot once yields dropped or weeds became difficult to manage. The land was then left fallow to revert to secondary forest, allowing it to regenerate its nutrients over approximately a decade before the site could be reused.13

This practice helped maintain local soil fertility and supported a long history of tropical agriculture, including crops such as manioc, corn, and sweet potatoes.2