What fate for swidden agriculture under land constraint in tropical forests? Lessons from a long-term study in an Amazonian peasant community

•Rainforest peasants are highly resilient in the face of land scarcity.•Forests play a critical role in agricultural intensification.•The modal forest farmer does not exist; heterogeneous behavior matters.•Early land endowment drives land use and poverty dynamics.•Forests created through swidden-fallow agriculture are social landscapes.

What happens when swidden cultivation systems in tropical forests become land-constrained? In this paper we report the findings of a long-term, interdisciplinary project on swidden farming, swidden farming households, and the forest landscape in a Peruvian Amazonian peasant community that has faced growing land scarcity over the past 35 years. Data were gathered at the household and plot level in 1994/95 and 2007 on land use, land cover, demographics, income and assets. By employing 'retrospective field history assessment', we reconstructed the historical land portfolios and demographic profiles of households since inception, enabling us to track changes in cropping and fallowing as well as land cover change and household composition through time. These data were combined with aerial photograph and satellite imagery interpretation to independently assess change in forest cover and type. We find that farmers confronted growing land scarcity through outmigration, diversification of land holdings, increased use of fallow products and of orchards as both an income source and as fallows, and agricultural innovation through the use of biochar on charcoal kiln sites and home gardens. The forest surrounding the community has become younger over time and more heterogeneous in age but more homogeneous in biodiversity. The paper concludes with five general lessons: (1) forest peasants are highly resilient to land scarcity; (2) forests play an overlooked role in agricultural intensification; (3) the 'modal' forest farmer does not exist; (4) early land endowment is key to understanding farmer land use and poverty dynamics; and, (5) swidden forests are social landscapes.