Would teaching this to slash and burn farmers near rain forests help end the destruction of those forests?

Question

"In Central America, Maya horticulture involved augmentation of the forest with useful trees such as papaya, avocado, cacao, ceiba and sapodilla."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horticulturist

Answer 1

A common misconception about slash and burn agriculture is that the problems do not arise with logging companies or anything else for the consumer world. The slash and burn techniques are the only methods available to provide a source of income and food for most third-world farmers. Third-world countries have the highest rate of population growth in the world, and therefore, demand food. The farmers aren't waking up in the morning and heading out all excited for a day full of destroying the environment... they don't have malicious intent behind what they're doing. In fact, I'm pretty sure they would prefer not to have to keep moving their families around through the rainforest cutting down trees to obtain food/income. However, slash and burn agricultural practices are the only way the farmers know how to deal with the nutrient-poor soil of the rainforest. We should work to educate these farmers, and offer them other job opportunities and food sources.