Shifting cultivation is one of the subsistence agriculture forms in many tropical countries with longer periods of fallow vegetation though it recently becomes a leading factor of forest degradation. This study reveals process of vegetation succession by 1 (A1), 5 (A5), and 10 (A10) year after shifting cultivation and primary forest (PF) in central Kalimantan, Indonesia in term of the number of individual and species and two diversity indices (Shannon and Evenness index).

The result showed that the number individual and species were significantly different among A1, A5, A10 and PF (P < 0.05) of adult trees (DBH >20 cm), poles (10 < DBH < 19.9 cm), sapling and seedling. The Shannon’s index tended to increase linearly with years of abandonment, suggesting that the species diversity at the fallows increases with age, particularly for poles and trees. There were clear changes in species composition in A1, A5, A10 and PF in spite of high species diversity was found in abandonment but consisted of pioneer species. The species presence/absence composition in abandonment need more time to reach climax species where A10 recovered 6,9% of the total species of PF.