Since "開拓" had a meaning of clearing the land for the expansion of farmland/settlement to unsettled frontier or area, while "Assarting" means an act of clearing forested lands for use in agriculture or other purposes, ec. settlements.
Poaching has traditionally been defined as the illegal hunting or plant harvesting. So I don't think it have the land clearing meaning.
The alternative : "Pioneering" and or "Colonization" had been so diluted in the meaning that it was hard to limit it only for land-clearing for agriculture.
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