In pre-1492 Amazon, farmers managed without fires

Discovery News: Farming without fire in tropical regions, like indigenous populations did in Pre-Columbian times, may be the key to both feeding people and managing land more sustainably. For hundreds of years before Columbus arrived in Central America, indigenous people converted vast swaths of tropical savannas into agricultural fields with raised beds for growing crops -- all without the use of slash-and-burn or other fire-intensive techniques, which are common today and a major contributor to greenhouse gas...

URL: http://news.discovery.com/earth/sustainable-farming-precolumbian-120409.html