Coppice swidden fallows in tropical deciduous forest: Biological, technological, and sociocultural determinants of secondary forest successions

Secondary succession in tropical deciduous forest is often characterized by vegetative reproduction, or coppicing. Coppicing is also observed in forest sites that are disturbed by farming activity. This observation raises questions about the role of established management practices in determining the succession of vegetation on farmsites once they are abandoned to fallow. To what extent is the coppicing succession the result of specific aspects of swidden farming technology and management? And what variations in coppice successions occur in swidden sites following deviations from the standard farming practice? In research on swidden farming among the Susu of Sierra Leone, I examined the successional pathway in an age series of forest fallow sites. I show that the standard pattern of minimal cultivation favors the coppicing of felled trees in the subsequent fallow periods. By contrast, deviation from this pattern results in stump deaths and favors the invasion of fallow sites by grasses and vegetatively reproducing pioneer trees from the savanna. Variations in the environmental outcome of disturbance to plant communities, then, are the result of interactions between processes of tropical tree reproduction and the agricultural practices of local farmers.