The distribution of the pattern can be totally different from region to 
  
region. All kind of systems are present such as: 
— individual families roaming in a large forest area 
— families living together but the agricultwral plots are individual or 
on a community basis 
— whole villages move to another area after a certain period, 
In many tropical countries the only means of transport is by river and 
therefore à tendency exists to have settlements along the rivers. This 
tendency can lead to a local overpopulation in the area of the natural 
levee or, given swampy conditions, in the dryland forest near the river 
resulting in overcutting of these foresteincluding secondary forest and 
untouched or hardly touched forest away from the river. 
A different pattern can occur when roads are build in the forest region. 
These roads can be public roads, logging roads or for other purposes. 
Forest regions, which in the first instance are considered unsuitable 
for shifting cultivetion because of difficult access, can become of 
interest for the settlement of landless agriculturists from other regions. 
Lanly (1965) found in the C8te d'Ivoire, comparing aerial photographs 
from 1956 and 1966, that of the 9,800,000 ha of original forest 2,800,000 
hectares of dense tropical forest had been cleared by shifting cultivation 
during this 10 year period. The remaining 7,000,000 ha of forest are 
disappearing at an annual rate of probably not much less than 500,000 ha, 
greatly stimulated by the development of public and forest exploration roads. 
The danger with shifting cultivetion along roads may be that the settlers 
have no knowledge of the required time to leave the soil under secondary 
forest before it regains its fertility. Clearcut fellings will be 
concentrated along the road and after a rather short period the settlers 
will start to cut secondary forest instead of transferring their dwellings 
further away from the road, as cutting young secondary forest is less 
labour demanding than cutting virgin forest (Wienk, 1977). 
The settler, however, will soon experience a reduction in crop yields. 
Because of better transport facilities which stimulate trade the settler 
can change the system of shifting cultivation to permanent agriculture of 
perennial crops under tree cover (coffee) or of palmspecies like oil and 
coconut palm. Also the change to extensive animal husbandery is possible. 
For this a larger area is needed than is normally covered by the shifting 
cultivation of one family. The result will be that a reduced number of 
settlers will stay and the others will move on to another area of virgin