Alternatives to Slash and Burn – Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins

Founded in 1994, the Alternatives to Slash and Burn (ASB) Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins brings together local knowledge, policy perspectives and science to understand the trade-offs associated with different land uses and the roles of markets, regulation, property rights and rewards.

The goal of the partnership is to develop innovative policies and practices that increase productivity and income for rural households without worsening deforestation or undermining essential environmental services.

ASB has 12 benchmark sites in six tropical forest countries: in the Amazon, the Congo Basin, the islands of Sumatra and Mindanao, and the highlands of northern Thailand.

At present, the primary focus of ASB’s work relates to climate change mitigation and the potential to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases through avoided deforestation and promoting land uses which store carbon while also providing income to farmers.

By building on its substantial research base and global network, the ASB partnership is in a unique position to analyze the opportunities for achieving avoided deforestation with sustainable benefits. The results are directly relevant to ongoing debates on reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in developing countries within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

ASB aims to make a significant contribution to evaluating mechanisms that translate international agreements into instruments that will help change the behaviour of the people at the ‘coal face’, while making the most of the potential to improve their livelihoods and the local resource base upon which they depend.

While ASB is coordinated by the World Agroforestry Centre, it is a global partnership of international and national-level research institutes, non-governmental organizations, universities, community organizations, farmers' groups, and other local, national, and international organizations.

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