Farming and Other Stakeholders in a Tropical Highland: Towards Less Environmentaly Damaging and More Sustainable Practices

Expansion of smallholder agriculture in many tropical highlands often results in serious environmental damage. The challenge is to reduce such damage and to achieve improved and more sustainable livelihoods. The Cameron Highlands and nearby uplands of Malaysia offer an opportunity to study how farmers adapt. Most have intensified production since the 1970s, some have expanded their holdings, and some have reduced their environmental impacts and have adopted more sustainable practices. Drawing on information collected from the Cameron Highlands between 2002 and 2008, this paper seeks to enhance understanding of those changes.