Land degradation is an inevitable result of continuing shifting cultivation under these circumstances. There is an urgent need to change existing sloping land use by smallholder mountainous farmers to prevent potentially disastrous consequences. In a small country with high population density, like Vietnam, the problems are particularly serious. In this contextn the upland agro-ecology approach has become the most promising way of maintaining sustainable agricultural production. This research was implemented by VASI and CIRAD with promising results.