The Indigenous peoples, who have been utilizing slash and burn methods of agriculture for centuries, properly burn and farm small plots of land, while letting soils regenerate plots which have recently been farmed. The peasant population of Indonesia, on the other hand, has turned to swidden agriculture by default, and utilizes the land only for short-term gain. The result is the depletion of the soil to an extent where it may never be utilized again. In conclusion, this paper will examine what can be done to prolong the quality and life of Indonesian soils in order to aid in the overall preservation of the world' s soil so that the growing world population can provide for itself. In the soils of these Outer Indonesian rain-forests, it is not so much the deforestation itself which damages the soil, but the methods whereby the deforestation occurs.
Most nutrients are in the vegetation rather than the soil itself.
Thus, when vegetation is cut and burned, the residual nutrients from the burning processes are retained by the soil. When burning becomes a hurried and careless endeavor, however, the nutrients which the soil might retain are lost. A lack of agrarian reform in Indonesia has left peasants landless, and with no other available resource besides the rain-forests. In comparison, the ability of Indigenous peoples to farm tropical soils successfully, and put nutrients back into the soil, is contingent upon several factors. Finally, the Indigenous people of Indonesia are mobile, and never put continuous strain on one plot of land.