Dr. Sean Downey was featured in the Ohio State News, the piece is entitled Slash-and-burn agriculture can increase forest biodiversity
The slash-and-burn agriculture practiced by many Indigenous societies across the world can actually have a positive impact on forests, according to a new study done in Belize. Sean Downey, lead author of the study and associate professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University said that in areas of the rainforest in which Indigenous farmers using slash-and-burn techniques created intermediate-sized farm patches – neither too small nor too large – there were increases in forest plant diversity.