Associate Professor of Anthropology Sean Downey, an affiliate of TDAI and Core Faculty in the OSU Sustainability Institute, led the paper, "Adaptive Self-Organization of Global Swidden Forests," which was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It draws on more than a decade of his interdisciplinary research supported by an NSF CAREER Award. And sheds light on how culture, cooperation, and local knowledge can help communities sustainably manage forests. The study combines ethnographic fieldwork, remote sensing, mathematical modeling, and social theory to examine swidden agriculture, a farming practice often referred to as “slash-and-burn” across tropical and subtropical regions.

Using data from more than 18,000 forest patches, the researchers found that swidden systems are often governed by local social norms and labor-sharing practices that help balance agricultural production with long-term forest regeneration. Rather than reflecting purely destructive land use, the study shows how Indigenous and small-scale farming communities can create resilient social-ecological systems through decentralized decision-making and ecological feedback. The findings advance understanding of how human and natural systems interact.

The full paper is available online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Adaptive self-organization of global swidden forests | PNAS