Shifting cultivation
Globally one of the largest contributors to erosive soil loss in the year 2006 is the slash and burn treatment of tropical forests. In several regions of the earth, entire sectors of a country have been rendered unproductive. For example, on the Madagascar high central plateau, comprising approximately ten percent of that country's land area, virtually the entire landscape is sterile of vegetation, with gully erosive furrows typically in excess of deep and wide. Shifting cultivation is a farming system that sometimes incorporates the slash and burn method in some regions of the world. This degrades the soil and causes the soil to become less and less fertile.