The indigenous people live in small groups or tribes, building their homes from trees and palm leaves. They also lead a relatively simple lifestyle compared to those living in the urbanized cities, spending most of their time finding sources of food. Most indigenous people hunt small animals living in the rainforests that are of the most abundance, bringing their catch back home to share with the entire tribe.

F ishing and gathering wild fruits and nuts are also a source of food for them. They usually plant small gardens for other sources of food, through a sustainable farming method called shifting cultivation.

First, the indigenous people clear a plot of land and burn it to increase the fertility of the soil. Next, they plant the selected crops to be used for food and medicines. As one knows, due to the wet and hot climate of the rainforests, the soil loses its fertility faster and becomes unsuitable for growing crops in just a few years. At this point of time, the indigenous people abandon the plot of land, allowing it to rest and regain its fertility, while finding another new plot of suitable land. The soil is usually allowed to rest for 10-50 years before it is farmed again.

"Copyright University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture, Agripedia
(http://frost.ca.uky.edu/agripedia/)"

The shifting cultivation is still practised widely even today, although their excess to land has been greatly limited due to the increasing deforestation going on around the world and it has constantly created major environmental problems for people. This is partly because of the great amount of land needed in shifting cultivation since farmers must move their crops to new fields every few years. Shifting cultivation is that it is only an ecologically harmonious method of cultivation only when the population density (the number of people living in an area) is low.

When the population density is too high, when too many people trying to farm the land, the system of crop rotation, and allowing the land to have ample rest cannot be maintained. More and more land is cleared and more and more destroyed. In many parts of the Amazon, the population of an area has grown so much that, shifting cultivation also known as milpa, swidden, is now very destructive to the rain forest. This is why governments are trying to change the farming methods of the farmers, including the indigenous people and in a way, the governments are destroying the cultures and existence of the indigenous people. But if one would research further, one would find that the indigenous people are the victims not the culprits of the destruction that may result from shifting cultivation. There are just too few tribes of indigenous people practising shifting cultivation left to be a negative force (most of the people who practise shifting cultivation are not indigenous people), and many of the forest fires in South America said to be the result of the shifting cultivation are actually the work of ruthless timber companies and drug cartels.