In all tropical countries shifting cultivators (swiddeners, slash-and-burn farmers) are being encouraged ? or forced ? to stop swiddening. However, shifting cultivators obtain from the forest most of the plants that they need to survive. Once shifting cultivation has been curtailed, fallow areas gradually age, and there is an ecological transformation in the forests that surround the villages of the swiddeners. The impact of this ecological transformation on the availability of usable plants is not well understood, as there is little research on the habitats of origin of the plants that shifting cultivators gather from fallow areas. This article presents the results of a survey of the plant taxa used in a Kammu village in northern Lao P.D.R, and found in an 11-year long fallow cycle. The Kammu identified a total of 141 usable plant taxa. The Kammu and Lao names were recorded along with their use, the part of the plant used, and the age of the fallow(s) in which they were found. The results indicate that very few plants are available throughout the entire 11-year fallow cycle, and that the Kammu would experience considerable losses in resource diversity if shifting cultivation was outlawed or the fallow period shortened.
