"...Decades of research on virtually every aspect of shifting cultivation have generated sufficient evidence to prove that its sweeping condemnation by government bureaucrats, politicians or professionals is based on insufficient and erroneous information, or quite simply myth (see Pinkaew Laungaramsri?s article). As the articles in this issue show, in spite of all the evidence produced over the decades, little has changed. Deep-rooted prejudices continue to prevail and, with them, the discriminatory policies and programs that have enormously negative consequences for indigenous peoples. Sometimes the policies are subtle, such as the promotion of "modern" farming methods. Their impact can nevertheless be profound, as Kyrham Nongkynrih?s article shows. In the Northeast-Indian state of Meghalaya, government-sponsored cash cropping is leading to increasing privatization of communal land and concomitant changes in social relations within communities. In other cases, state policies are much less subtle and do not shy away from committing even severe human rights violations in pursuit of the goals of "modernization" and "national integration". The eradication of shifting cultivation is often seen as part of this process. As the article by Mi Dze on Laos shows, the eradication of shifting cultivation is given as one of the reasons for relocating over 200,000 people from their mountain villages to the lowlands. This happens despite studies that have clearly demonstrated that forced relocations have in this country led to increased poverty, malnutrition, a general deterioration in health and a higher mortality rate among the villagers affected..."