September 26th: Dr. Christian Culas gives a presentation on environmental management in Vietnam's mountainous regions.

TopicResearch on knowledge exchange and indigenous practices in environmental management in mountainous regions of Vietnam: An anthropological perspective.

PresenterDr. Christian Culas - Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Marseille (IRSEA – Marseille)

Time9:00 AM, September 26, 2008 (Friday morning)

LocationMultimedia Room - Museum of Anthropology - 3rd floor, Building D - University of Social Sciences and Humanities - 336 Nguyen Trai Street - Thanh Xuan - Hanoi.

Summary of the presentation

For over 50 years, the slash-and-burn farming practices of ethnic minorities in the mountainous regions of Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand have often been criticized for destroying forests. In Vietnam, prior to the 1993 Land Law, most ethnic minorities, such as the Hmong and Dao, enjoyed considerable autonomy in land use. However, since the 1993 Land Law and the Law on Opium Production (1993), pressure on land use and agricultural production techniques has increased significantly. In this new situation, while most mountainous populations have adapted to varying degrees to agricultural and forestry production, in most cases, these adaptations were not anticipated by the authorities. Therefore, managing social change from a practical and network perspective, and considering the short-term and long-term impacts on the balance between agricultural production (as a direct source of income) and forest protection, remains challenging.

This presentation will explore the diverse perceptions of these pressures from the perspective of mountain farmers and explain the capacity for organizing agricultural production and forest management over the years. Drawing on case studies in Vietnam, along with examples from Thailand, the author aims to introduce the anthropological debate on the collection, analysis, and use of indigenous knowledge and practices to help us manage sustainable development.

Keywords

Epistemology of discourses in social sciences, anthropological perspectives, indigenous knowledge, ecological knowledge, practices in forest use and management, environmental management, shifting cultivation, agriculture, forestry, ethnic minorities, Northern and Central Vietnam.