Data from: Shifting agriculture supports more tropical forest birds than oil palm or teak plantations in Mizoram, northeast India

Conversion of tropical forests and diverse multicrop agricultural land to
commercial monocultures is a conservation concern worldwide. In northeast
India, landscapes under shifting agriculture (or jhum) practiced by tribal
communities are increasingly being replaced by monoculture plantations
(e.g., teak, oil palm). We compared oil palm and teak plantations,
shifting agricultural fields, and forest fallows (0–8 yr regeneration)
with tropical rainforest edge and interior sites in Dampa Tiger Reserve,
Mizoram, India. Twenty replicate transects were surveyed in each of the 5
study strata for vegetation structure, bird species richness and density,
bird abundance, and species composition. Tree density and canopy and
vertical structure were lowest in oil palm plantations, intermediate in
teak plantations and jhum, and highest in rainforest sites. Tree density
in jhum (4.3 stems per 100 m2) was much higher than in oil palm
plantations (0.5 stems per 100 m2), but lower than in rainforest (6.8–8.2
stems per 100 m2), with bamboo absent in oil palm plantations and most
abundant in regenerating jhum (25 culms per 50 m2). We recorded 107 bird
species (94 forest species, 13 open-country species). Oil palm plantations
had the lowest forest bird species richness (10 species), followed by teak
plantations (38), while jhum (50) had only slightly lower species richness
than the rainforest edge (58) and interior (70). Forest bird abundance in
the jhum landscape was similar to that in rainforest, on average 304%
higher than in oil palm plantations, and 87% higher than in teak
plantations. Jhum sites were more similar in bird community composition to
rainforest than were monocultures. Rapid recovery of dense and diverse
secondary bamboo forests during fallow periods makes the shifting
agricultural landscape mosaic a better form of land use for bird
conservation than monocultures. Land use policy and conservation plans
should provide greater support for shifting agriculture, while mandating
better land use practices such as retention of forest remnants, native
trees, and riparian vegetation in monoculture plantations.