Question

Can agroforestry work like a shifting cultivation? If so, could you give some examples?

Answer 1

Yes, as an example, many indigenous farming practices could be considered agroforestry systems with shifting cultivation. In the Americas, indigenous tribes in both north and south used various forms of shifting land cultivation under tree canopies, as a form of landscape scale food forests.

Answer 2

Yes, it can. Another example is slash and burn cultivation to clear small forest patches and make them suitable for agriculture. This practice has been practiced in northern Fennoscandia for thousands of years, and it is still practiced in for example Koli National Park in eastern Finland as a measure to create a more open forest landscape and show traditional agricultural practices to the public. In ancient times, small forest patches were cleared and the large logs were used to construct houses. The smaller logs and branches were burned to improve soil fertility. These burned areas stayed fertile for one or several decades and were used for cereal (oats, barley, rye, buckwheat) and turnip cultivation. When the soil fertility decreased the areas were used for grazing and this is how the Fennoscandian wood pastures originated. When the sites were abandoned, the forest returns and the cycle could repeat itself. Slash and burn cultivation stopped in the early 1900's when commercial forestry became more common. More info about slash and burn cultivation in Koli National Park: (16) (PDF) Dynamics of nutrients in slash and burn agroforestry in Koli National Park (researchgate.net)