Tác động của giao đất lâm nghiệp vào việc sử dụng đất ở một tỉnh miền núi của Việt NamIn the early 1990s following the decollectivization of agriculture, the Vietnamese government distributed forest land-use rights to individual households. The new forestland policy had three related objectives: (i) the introduction of a sedentary livelihood system for those populations who had traditionally relied on shifting cultivation and regular migration; (ii) the development of the village economy through tree plantations; and (iii) the protection of forest resources. In this paper, we discuss the changes in land use that resulted from the new forestland policy and the effectiveness of the policy in achieving each of its three objectives. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Trang 1Land Use Policy 23 (2006) 147–160
Impact of forestland allocation on land use
in a mountainous province of Vietnam
Jean-Christophe Castellaa,b,c, , Stanislas Boissaua,c, Nguyen Hai Thanhc, Paul Novosadc
a Institut de Recherche pour le De´veloppement (IRD), 213 rue Lafayette, 75480 Paris, Cedex 10, France
b International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), DAPO 7777, Metro Manila, Philippines c
Mountain Agrarian Systems (SAM) Program, Vietnam Agricultural Science Institute (VASI), Thanh Tri, Hanoi, Vietnam
Received 19 January 2004; received in revised form 15 May 2004; accepted 28 July 2004
Abstract
In the early 1990s following the decollectivization of agriculture, the Vietnamese government distributed forest land-use rights to individual households The new forestland policy had three related objectives: (i) the introduction of a sedentary livelihood system for those populations who had traditionally relied on shifting cultivation and regular migration; (ii) the development of the village economy through tree plantations; and (iii) the protection of forest resources In this paper, we discuss the changes in land use that resulted from the new forestland policy and the effectiveness of the policy in achieving each of its three objectives
r2004 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved
Keywords: Land policy; Forestland allocation; Natural resource management; Livelihood systems; Mountain agriculture; Bac Kan; Vietnam
Introduction
The allocation of forestland to individual households
was the final step in the changes in land-use rights that
accompanied the doi moi (renovation) reforms in
Vietnam In a context of declining agricultural
produc-tivity and food shortages, the cooperative system was
undergoing a major crisis A dual system of production
had developed, with collectively managed work in
paddyfields complemented by individually managed
work on the hillsides (Sadoulet et al., 2002) Although
the ‘‘people’’ (in other words, the State, Article 19 of the
1980 constitution) officially owned all land, sloping
lands had not been integrated into the cooperatives For
this reason, sloping lands continued to be cultivated
according to rules of free-access,1 providing a
supple-mentary income for many households In times of shortage, farmers focused on the private economy, increasing the area cultivated on the slopes, which led
to major deforestation in northern regions (De Koninck,
1999;Castella et al., 2002)
On April 5, 1988, the Vietnamese Communist Party politburo adopted Resolution 10 to address the agri-cultural crisis in the country Resolution 10 emphasized the importance of private property rights, as well as the need for each region to design a development model suited to its own natural, economic and social environ-ment In recognition of the importance of the private agricultural economy, the new policy dismantled the failing cooperatives and began to restore ownership of means of production to individuals (Bergeret, 1995;
Kerkvliet and Porter, 1995) In the mountainous areas
of northern Vietnam, the restoration of the rights of the
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Corresponding author IRD, B.P 64501, 34394 Montpellier, Cedex
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E-mail address: j.castella@ird.fr (J.-C Castella).
1
Traditional land access was free, with the absence of rules made
feasible by the low population pressure on mountainous areas at this
(footnote continued) period ( Mellac, 2000 ) The farmer who cleared a given upland field secured for him- or herself the right to use that field until it was fallowed for regeneration.
Trang 2individual to use paddyland in the early 1990s was
intended to stimulate paddyfield intensification while
reducing pressure on the surrounding upland areas
(Donovan et al., 1997) The policy was successful in that
it gave farmers an incentive to invest more in their own
ricefields, and resulted in substantial productivity gains
in the inter-mountain valleys (Sikor, 1999;Mellac, 2000;
Sadoulet et al., 2002)
However, the implementation of the national land
allocation policy varied from region to region Rather
than distributing land as the policy suggested, the Black
Thai villages of Son La Province left the village in
control of the land, and periodically redistributed land
among households (Sikor, 1999) In contrast, in 1990 the
Tay ethnic group in the Cao Bang Province began a
movement to reclaim the lands of their ancestors, a
movement that soon spread to neighbouring provinces
As Tay farmers repossessed the land that their
forefathers had contributed to the agricultural
coopera-tives, other groups were left without paddyfields,
particularly households who had not owned paddyfields
before the institution of the cooperatives, but who had
nonetheless been contributing to the cooperatives in
recent years These groups (mostly Kinh from the delta
region and Dao and H’mong who had emigrated from
the uplands) were forced to turn to the uplands to meet
their food needs
Despite the paddyland allocations, many farmers
turned to extensive slash-and-burn systems in the
uplands, which had not yet been allocated (Rambo et
al., 1995; Jamieson et al., 1998) The State hoped to
regulate the runaway exploitation of the uplands by
applying the same solution that had worked in the
lowland areas (Pillot, 1995;Fforde and de Vylder, 1996;
De Koninck, 1999) The forestland, which encompassed
all land that was or should be covered in forest (as
defined by the State), was allocated to individual
households as stipulated in the 1993 land law This final
stage of the land allocation policy had three major
objectives: (i) converting the populations of migratory cultivators to a sedentary livelihood system, (ii) increas-ing agricultural production in the uplands by givincreas-ing farmers incentives to grow perennial plantations, and (iii) preserving the deteriorating forest resource base (Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,
1994;Nguyen et al., 1995)
In this paper, we examine the goals of the State in forestland allocation Based on a case study undertaken
in four villages in a mountainous region of northern Vietnam, we then analyse to what extent this land allocation achieved its stated goals and what impacts it had on the livelihood systems of farmers Finally, we discuss possible trajectories of future production sys-tems, and their implications for development interven-tions
Methods The study draws on diverse sources of data including (i) a review of published literature, official statistics, legal and policy documents, (ii) monographic studies and analysis of land cover maps derived from aerial photographs, and (iii) qualitative data collected in interviews, oral histories and participatory observation
In four remote mountain villages within Na Ri District of Bac Kan Province, we investigated the process and effects of forestland allocation at the grassroots level None of the four villages is accessible
by road or motorized transportation Unlike many other ethnic minority villages in Bac Kan province, these villages have not been the targets of the major government projects (i.e., infrastructure, education, production innovations) associated with the sedentar-ization policy Fig 1 shows the location of the four villages within Lang San and Luong Thuong communes
of Na Ri District, along the Khuoi Sung and Ngan Son rivers We selected these villages to cover a large range
Khuoi Sap
Nam Ca
Na Hiu Khuoi Noc
5km
District boundary Commune boundary
Hamlet Village boundary River, stream Road
Case study site in Na Ri District
Bac Kan Province Vietnam, with
province boundaries
Fig 1 Study site in Bac Kan Province.
Trang 3of diversity in ethnic composition, natural resource base,
and livelihood systems The objective of the case study
was to analyse the way that the same land policies
resulted in notably different impacts on villages even in
a limited geographic area, due to the initial diversity of
village situations Our fieldwork was performed over the
course of several stays in the villages in 1999 and 2000
We combined informal interviews with direct
observa-tion In addition, we conducted an exhaustive survey of
all village households (n ¼ 106), allowing us to
system-atically complete the qualitative data collection
We analysed the impact of forestland allocation on
farmers’ livelihood systems and trajectories of changes
in land use by eliciting local people’s explanations of
why they had changed agricultural practices, by
examining forest tenure rights on the ground, and by
investigating, and when possible, ruling out other causes
of change in land-use practices Some evidence on
changes in land use/land cover at the village and district
scales is reported in more detail inCastella et al (2002)
Allocation of forestland in the mountain areas of northern
Vietnam
The objectives of the allocation
Fixed settlement of shifting cultivators: In the
moun-tain areas of northern Vietnam, the predominant upland
production system is swidden cultivation (Do, 1994)
Swidden cultivation involves burning a section of forest
and then growing crops (usually upland rice) in the rich
soil that is left behind The quality of the soil
degenerates quickly, so after several years of cultivation
the land is left fallow for a much longer period so that
the forest can regenerate (Husson et al., 2001; Roder,
2001) The particulars of swidden cultivation differ from
one group and from one region to another, but share the
common principle of leaving the land to regenerate In
this paper, we distinguish rotational cultivation (fixed
house, shifting fields) from migratory cultivation
(shift-ing house, shift(shift-ing fields), which complies with the need
of swidden cultivators to search for mature forests to
clear
The desire to settle mountainous populations in fixed
areas is not new in Vietnam Such policies first appeared
in the colonial era, where settled populations were
necessary for political control and taxation Further,
one of the objectives for the institution of the
cooperatives in the mountainous areas was bringing
nomadic populations down from the mountains, and
encouraging them to participate in lowland ricefield
cultivation (Dang, 1991) Before the collective period,
certain ethnic groups were the predominant cultivators
of lowland rice, while others engaged in swidden
cultivation During the collective period, they all
engaged to some extent in swidden cultivation, the former in the form of rotational cultivation and the latter as migratory cultivation Today, such a distinction
is no longer possible—swidden cultivators are rather those who have been excluded from land allocation, regardless of ethnicity
Despite its diversity, until recently all swidden cultivation was considered to be similar and equally destructive (Do, 1994;Morrison and Dubois, 1998) The State views migratory cultivators as leading a precarious existence and harming forest resources (Dang, 1991) By settling these farmers on allocated pieces of land, the State hoped to end their slash-and-burn practices and encourage them to develop stable and fixed production systems (e.g., perennial plantations) that would allow them to produce more and consequently earn more Protection of forest resources and the battle against deforestation: Forest cover in Vietnam has decreased dramatically in recent decades, from 45% of the country’s area in 1943 to only 28% in 1991 (of which only 10% was primary forest; Vo, 1998) These percentages correspond to a reduction in natural forest area by 350,000 ha/year over the last 25 years Defor-estation has been accompanied by the appearance of severely eroded cleared lands, which according to some estimates covered up to 40% of the country in 1990 (Vo and Le, 1994)
While the causes of deforestation include war, timber exploitation (Poffenberger et al., 1997), relative land scarcity due to increasing population and to regulations
on access to resources, the State placed the blame for deforestation squarely on the backs of the migratory cultivators The State has long perceived swidden cultivation (raˆy in the Kinh language) as an ‘‘irrational’’ technique, a backward system that must eventually evolve into sedentary cultivation: ‘‘In Vietnam, since
1968, the Government has combined sedentarization and agricultural cooperation campaigns in search of a rational use of forest resources, to help mountain populations assist in mass agricultural production and put an end to their outdated raˆy practices’’ (Dang, 1991, p 26) It is worth noting that if a burned field is left fallow for enough time after cropping, then the soil and forest can regenerate sufficiently to provide for the next cycle
of cultivation Thus under the right conditions, particu-larly a combination of low population pressure and regular migration, swidden cultivation is sustainable (De Rouw and Van Oers, 1988; Mazoyer and Roudart,
1997) However, in the period following the coopera-tives, low population pressure was no longer a characteristic of northern Vietnam Allocating the forestland and obliging nomadic peoples to practice sedentary production would, the State hoped, result in
an end to the deforestation process begun decades earlier
Trang 4Increasing production through regional specialization:
Resolution 10 aimed to transform the economy from a
focus on self-sufficiency to a focus on the national
market: ‘‘The renovation of economic management must
meet the following needs: [y] transform our agriculture,
still autarkic in many regions, into specialized goods
production based on the natural, social and economic
characteristics of each region, thus modernizing socialist
agricultural production [y]’’ (Resolution 10) For the
agricultural sector, the State envisioned a system of
regional specialization, with intensive rice production in
the delta regions complemented by large-scale
sylvicul-ture and animal husbandry in the mountainous regions
These sedentary production systems would require
sedentary populations to manage them
Fig 2summarizes the rationale behind the forestland
allocation The granting of individual property rights on
sloping land put an end to the free access system Free
access has often been identified as the primary cause of
the over-exploitation of forest resources that had taken
place, as farmers can gain individual profits from the
land, while the costs of such exploitation are shared
collectively (Hardin, 1968) By granting renewable
land-use rights, the State hoped to transfer responsibility to
the individual, who would reap the benefits but also pay
the costs associated with the exploitation of forestland
Individual responsibility would give farmers the needed
incentive to make ‘‘rational’’ use of their land, leading to
the protection of forestland (arrow 1 inFig 2) Private
ownership would also encourage individuals to invest in
their forestland and develop perennial plantations (2)
Developing commercial perennial crops would lead to
both an increase in tree cover and additional income for
households, thus improving living conditions (3)
Assuming that poverty is what motivates farmers to
adopt short-term unsustainable survival strategies, the
economic gains from perennial plantations would allow
better protection of the forest (4) Further, the migration
associated with shifting cultivation would no longer be
necessary, tying improved living standards to policy on sedentary livelihood systems (5) Sedentary livelihood systems reinforce individual responsibility for resources and provide an incentive for the development of perennial plantations (6)
The allocation process Forestland allocation began in 1992, and was still underway in 2002 in some remote communes Resolu-tion 10 (April 1988) defined the main features of land allocation, with the 1993 land law and Decree 02-CP (January 15, 1994) supplying additional details The allocation policy is also closely associated with the forest protection and development code implemented in 1991
The 1993 land law (Article 43) defines forestland as
‘‘all land identified as being destined for sylviculture, natural forest regeneration, reforestation, timber, nur-series, forestry research and experimentation’’ Because forestland was defined according to planned future use rather than present use, the policy resulted in classifica-tion as ‘‘forests’’ of some lands that were currently being cultivated with annual crops and had been for dozens of years This categorization included the majority of sloping land in the mountainous regions
Forests were classified into three distinct types:
Protected forest, for the preservation of water resources; the prevention of erosion, natural disasters, and climatic risks; and the overall protection of the environment
Special-use forest, intended for the conservation of nature and of plant and animal species; scientific research; and the protection of historic, cultural and tourist sites
Production forest, used primarily for timber and other forest products, and associated with the other types of forest to protect the environment
Fig 2 Rationale for forestland allocation.
Trang 5The land-allocation process consisted of a series of
meetings, beginning at the district People’s Committee
and progressing down the administrative hierarchy to
each individual village The district developed an
allocation plan, which delineated the areas to be
classified as one of three types of forest (protection
forest, production forest, special-use forest) The plan
was then disseminated through the communes to the
villages, where each household who wanted to receive a
plot of forestland had to fill in a request form, which was
sent on to the Forest Service The Forest Service then
measured and classified each individual plot In many
cases, the process only ratified the informal rights that
already existed, the clearer’s rights, for households often
requested the plots that they were currently developing
or cultivating The allocations thus legitimized
tradi-tional land-use rights That said, a number of conflicts
also arose from the allocations, with households
occasionally evicted from the process by a village
head trying to privilege his own lineage Such conflicts
are reminiscent of those that arose with the allocation
of irrigated ricefields at the end of the collective
period and the ancestral reclamation movement
(Nguyen and La, 1999) Once all conflicts had been
cooperatively resolved at the village level, the Forest
Service integrated the information into a land map and
gave certificates of land-use rights to households
Following the granting of land-use certificates, a
meet-ing was held in each village to address the issue of forest
protection At this meeting, the Forest Service explained
the policy and regulations concerning forest protection
and development, and each household possessing
forest-land had to sign an agreement to treat their forest-land
accordingly Each village was then able to develop its
own system of forest management, protection and
development based on its own particular circumstances
However, the rules implemented by all villages
were based on model regulations supplied by the
Forest Service
The rule development system appeared to be
par-ticipatory and flexible, but in reality it was a
top-down procedure Instructions were passed down
from one hierarchical level to the next with minimal
changes It was not uncommon to find that the
management rules of one village were nothing
more than a photocopy of those of the
neigh-bouring village, with the names of the village and its
leaders changed The top-down implementation of
the system favoured neither local participation nor
ownership
The effects of the forestland allocation
We examined the effects of the forestland allocation
through a case study of four villages in Bac Kan
Province (Fig 1 and Box 1) In Na Ri District as a whole, the allocation process began in 1992 and ended in
2000 Specifically, the allocation of land-use rights in Lang San and Luong Thuong communes took place from
1997 to 2000
The villages studied were all founded relatively recently, the oldest being Nam Ca, settled just
100 years ago All of the villages with the exception
of Na Hiu were settled for their abundant forest resources,2 and even Na Hiu now relies on the forest more than ever, as two-thirds of its ricefields were repossessed during the Tay land reclamation movement Although paddy rice has gained popularity
as a means of subsistence, there is almost no remaining land in the region suitable for terracing for new paddyfields The majority of households cannot produce enough paddyland rice to feed themselves, and have adopted production strategies based on rotational swidden cultivation
Effects on sedentary livelihood systems Clarification of individual and village land boundaries: The nature of the forestland allocation process necessi-tated the clear demarcation of each individual’s property rights In doing this, the Forest Service implicitly defined all village and commune boundaries ‘‘Under the old system, individuals of the neighbouring villages could clear lands in the territory of our village for swidden cultivation, and the village authorities were powerless to stop them This often led farmers to blame neighbouring villages for forest deterioration’’ Under the new land allocation system, farmers are fully responsible for their own land, and should be satisfied that no household other than their own can harm this resource What was designated as ‘‘village territory’’ now comprised the set
of land plots allocated to the households of a village, together with plots placed under direct village owner-ship Each village territory defined clear boundaries for agricultural and forestry activities By definition, the existence of individual land-use rights excluded indivi-duals from use of land to which they did not have formal land-use rights Thus, the new land policy abruptly ended the traditional free access rules that had existed before Each village and household now possessed land that was protected from outsiders, but that same protection now also limited the scope of their actions
The end of free access was of critical importance
to those groups with production systems based on 2
Although settlers chose the locations for these villages for their abundance of ‘‘primary’’ forest, the settlers did not realize that the forest was not more than 20 years old Aerial photographs from 1954,
1977 and 1998 show that although the areas were densely forested in
1954, they had been cleared almost entirely at least once by 1977.
Trang 6migratory cultivation, particularly the H’mong and
Dao people in the study area Under the new land
policy, these groups could no longer migrate in search
of mature forests to clear, as other individuals or
villages now owned the right to use all forests At first
glance, one of the goals seemed to have been
accom-plished: previously nomadic populations were settled
permanently However, it is necessary to distinguish
between sedentary housing and sedentary production
systems
Sedentary housing versus sedentary production systems: Effective transformation from a migratory to a seden-tary society has at least two different levels of indicators:
sedentary housing, indicated by kinds of homes and the materials used to construct them; and
sedentary production systems, indicated by an agri-cultural system that is ecologically and economically sustainable within a fixed territory (without requiring regular migration)
Box 1
Main characteristics of the four villages under study
In 2000, Na Hiu village comprised 9 households spread out over a large area The village population
was made up of 62 inhabitants of diverse ethnic backgrounds, including Dao Cooc Mun, Red Dao and
Nung The villagers shared a history of coming to Na Hiu in search of cultivable land The first arrived
in 1985 and redeveloped a group of paddyfields that had been abandoned for more than 20 years Most
of these paddyfields have since been repossessed by the original owners The remaining inhabitants (the later arrivals) were not able to acquire paddyfields and had to rely on the forested slopes
Although Na Hiu village was founded because of its abandoned ricefields, its inhabitants have
increasingly turned to swidden cultivation and hunting and gathering as a mean of survival Even the inhabitants who arrived in the hope of developing new paddyfields now depend on the forest for survival, as terracing requires considerable investment in labour Many paddyfield terraces have been under construction for years and remain unfinished
Nam Ca village was founded over 100 years ago by a Tay, whose descendants now make up the 11
households and 57 inhabitants of the village He chose a location favourable for the development of
irrigated paddyfields, the basis of Tay production systems in northern Vietnam (Castella and Erout,
2002)
However, the lowlands are now saturated, and no more paddyfields can be constructed This has led the village to develop new inheritance rules forcing all but the eldest son in each family to emigrate Households rely primarily on paddy-rice cultivation, with upland glutinous rice as a supplement The forest is also used for free-grazing buffaloes in the winter season
In the spring of 2000, most households attempted a spring-season cycle of rice The trials were not a complete failure, but produced mediocre yields due to cold weather
Khuoi Sap is the village farthest from the road, the administrative centre, and the marketplace (about
an hour and a half away by foot) In 2000, Khuoi Sap comprised 17 households and 95 people, all Red
Dao with the exception of one Tay family The village encompasses four hamlets settled by two
different family groups
The continuous spread of the village was motivated by the abundance of old-growth forestland that could be cleared and used for the production of upland rice Village inhabitants initially opened
swidden fields very close to their houses, but with time villagers cleared areas farther and farther from the settlements, now reaching distances of up to one or two hours on foot The village production system is based on swidden cultivation, beginning with several years of upland rice followed by cassava and maize This is complemented by hunting and gathering Only two families own
paddyfields, and these only cover a small area (1000 m2each)
Khuoi Noc village occupies the entire northern area of Luong Thuong Commune The village is
composed of 394 H’mong inhabitants forming 70 households spread among six hamlets When the first households (about 22) arrived from Cao Bang Province in 1983, the land was unoccupied.
Founded because of the area’s abundant primary forests, the village now has an economy based on the swidden cultivation of upland rice and cassava, narrow fields of maize on the flat lands along the river, and hunting and gathering Only 5 of the 70 families own irrigated ricefields, which they built themselves; the combined surface area is only 8100 m2 Some families engage in gold mining to complement their income
Trang 7The Tay village of Nam Ca offers an example of
sedentary housing The people of the village have lived
in the same location for over 100 years and have built
houses on wooden stilts with tile roofs Such houses
require substantial investments in both materials and
labour Migrating populations tend not to build such
houses, but usually live instead in houses made from
bamboo, built on the ground or on simple stilts This
type of house is mostly found in Dao and H’mong
villages For a family to build a wooden-stilt house with
a tile roof is both a sign of relative wealth and an
indicator that they intend to stay in one place for several
years at least, even if such structures can occasionally be
sold upon departure
The second, more fundamental change in the
liveli-hood systems is the transition from a system based on
swidden cultivation to a system based on irrigated
ricefields, whether in flatlands or terraces on sloping
land surrounded by intensive (long cultivation, short
fallow period) upland fields Almost all farmers in the
study area had this transition as one of their goals, even
before the new land policy Even though the
construc-tion of paddyfields or terraces is extremely
labour-intensive, farmers consider paddy rice cultivation to be
easier than sloping-land cultivation This is particularly
the case when the swidden fields have to be cleared from
degraded forests, requiring increased time investment in
weeding for lower and highly uncertain yields (Husson
et al., 2001; Roder, 2001) The village headman of
Khuoi Sap stated that: ‘‘Everyone in the village would be
ready to buy a paddyfield like I did, or expand the paddy
area as I did, but we do not have any more suitable land
for terracing’’ Although the majority of households
have identified paddyfields as a major objective, few
have achieved this objective Reasons put forward by
the farmers surveyed include inadequate access to
flatlands, inadequate water sources for irrigating
ter-races on sloping lands, and insufficient labour for the
construction of paddyfields or terraces
The villages with economies based on irrigated rice
(Nam Ca and part of Na Hiu) had both sedentary
housing and sedentary production systems even before
the forestland allocation Consequently, transformation
to a sedentary society was not an issue for them The
remaining villages (Khuoi Sap, Khuoi Noc and the rest of
Na Hiu) have been converted to a sedentary existence
only in terms of their housing Even after the
implementation of the new land policy, the majority of
production systems in the studied Dao and H’mong
villages continue to be based on swidden cultivation, a
system that is sustainable only when accompanied by
regular migration and under the condition of low
demographic pressure (Mazoyer and Roudart, 1997)
These populations now find themselves in a very delicate
situation, with a production system that is poorly
adapted to their institutional environment At the same
time, their sedentary housing reveals a de facto transformation to a sedentary lifestyle This is not a true transformation of society based on a new livelihood system that no longer requires migration Rather, it is merely a transitional stage induced by the loss of the possibility to migrate but not yet truly sustainable Effects on forest protection
Individual responsibility for forests: Farmers fre-quently mentioned the rapid decrease in old-growth forest that has taken place in recent years, and state that the over-exploitation of the forest could have serious effects on their families They stated that ‘‘four or five years ago farmers in Khuoi Noc reached the last forested areas suitable for swidden cultivation within their village boundaries’’ This statement was confirmed by our analysis of a chronological series of land-use maps (1954, 1977, 1998) that revealed the rapid decrease in forest cover between 1977 and 1998 in the study area (see land-use maps of Luong Thuong and Lang San communes in the digital atlas in Castella et al., 2003) Deforestation was associated with a sharp increase in upland crop areas and shrub land, which is typical of the rapid expansion of swidden cultivation that occurred everywhere in Bac Kan Province before the allocation of forestland (Castella et al., 2002) As a consequence, forest wildlife, another important component of peo-ple’s livelihood, has also rapidly disappeared
The populations of the study villages were mostly satisfied with the individual land allocations (Table 1), though not necessarily for the same reasons Most farmers received the land that they requested, that which would have been theirs by traditional rights Some were happy to own land near their home, as this either reduced the walking time to swidden fields or allowed for the continual surveillance required for the develop-ment of perennial plantations Others were happy with the quality of the land (generally when old-growth forest was involved) The reasons for individual satisfaction tended to reflect people’s planned use of the forestland Consequently, many were less enthusiastic about the accompanying forest protection policy as an outright ban on forest exploitation would jeopardize their food security Farmers in the study area are particularly conscious of the need for forest protection, as their livelihoods depend on the survival of this resource base The announcement of the forest protection policy, particularly the ban on the clearing and burning of forestland, was met with apprehension by a large number of farmers who had no short-term alternative ways to feed their families Given their reliance on the forest, farmers are eager to learn about initiatives to protect it New circumstances will inevitably force them
to develop new production systems to compensate for the ban on swidden production
Trang 8The end of swidden cultivation: Farmers are
experien-cing declining yields from swidden fields and increasing
labour requirements for weeding.Fig 3shows that the
number of newly opened swidden fields has decreased
over the last 2 years Our field survey indicates that a
large number of households have continued to cultivate
swidden fields opened in previous years Farmers
explained that this change is a direct consequence of
the forestland allocation and forest protection policy as
it is no longer possible to open new fields The
cultivation of old swidden fields is particularly striking
in Khuoi Noc, where some swidden fields have been
cultivated continuously since 1990, while in Na Hiu and
Khuoi Sap the oldest fields date from 1994 and 1995,
respectively In addition, the yields of newly cleared
swidden fields (defined as the rice harvest in proportion
to the quantity of seed sown) have been declining in
Khuoi Noc For the village head of Khuoi Noc ‘‘the low
and still diminishing yields in my village are the result of a
forest that is becoming thinner and thinner while the
population of swidden cultivators, swollen by immigration, continues to rise’’ The surprising (and alarming) result
is that fields in their first year of cultivation produce yields that are even lower than fields that have been cultivated for 7 years (Fig 4) We checked with the farmer that this result was not imputable to an exceptional bad climatic season or unfavourable field topography but to the ‘‘repeated use of the same pieces of land, which exhausts the soil’’ as an older farmer in Khuoi Sap explained
The average surface area of swidden fields3opened 3 years earlier has not changed substantially (Fig 5) Taken with declining yields, this is a clear sign that, confined to fixed territories under the new land policy, production systems based on swidden agriculture are slowly failing
Table 1
Farmers’ satisfaction with forest land allocations (expressed answers only)
Village
Fig 3 Number of upland fields under cultivation in 2000, plotted
against year of opening * Swidden fields opened in 2000 under
cultivation in 2001.
Fig 4 Yield of upland rice crops cultivated in 2000, plotted against year of opening * Yields are expressed as multiples of the quantity of seeds sown For example, if a farmer sowed 10 kg/ha and harvested
150 kg/ha, then the yield would be 15 (150/10=15).
3 Because it is difficult to measure actual plot sizes on sloping lands,
we estimated the surface area of swidden fields by the kilograms of seeds sown per plot, using a conversion factor of 10 kg seed sown per hactare.
Trang 9Effects on agricultural production and economic
development
The new land policy was intended to result in both
intensification of paddyland production and the use of
the uplands for perennial plantations and livestock
development Both outcomes were intended to increase
the income and thus the quality of life of farmers In
reality, the new system exacerbated the problems of
swidden cultivation without providing farmers with an
adequate alternative source of income
Migratory cultivators facing crisis: The reduction in
upland rice yields implies a reduction in the living
standards of the populations who rely on swidden
cultivation In 1999, in two out of the three villages that
formerly practiced migratory cultivation, the average
rice yield was under the 250 kg/person self-sufficiency
threshold (Table 2) Indeed, a substantial number of
households faced rice deficits in 1999 (Table 3) This
does not necessarily mean that they went hungry, but
instead purchased rice, or relied on non-rice staples
However, as most of these complementary sources of
food are traditionally harvested from the forest
ecosys-tem, their quantity and quality were deeply affected by
deforestation and access to these resources was affected
by the forestland allocation to individuals The Dao
(which means ‘‘people of the forest’’) people recognize
that ‘‘beyond the negative impact of the imposed
sedentary life on their traditional cropping systems the
new land policy has transformed other key activities such
as animal husbandry, hunting, gathering, and collection of
timber and firewood’’ The multiplicity of land uses and
local rules over natural resource management that
overlap on the same forestland creates a very complex
situation in the relationships between people and their environment Considerable variability was observed between locations with respect to specific village regulations over individual and or collective manage-ment of forest resources (Pandey and Dang, 1998;
Castella and Dang, 2002)
In sum, a general feature of the villages predomi-nantly populated by swidden cultivators is a high percentage of households facing food deficits, which is indicative of a production system in crisis, a system that
is no longer adapted to its environment We will now discuss how farmers have adapted their production systems in response to the crisis, and more generally how they have adapted their systems to the new land policy Intensification of lowland production: The ban on opening new upland fields was intended to encourage households to focus their energies on the lowlands Lowland rice production can be increased either by creating new paddyfields; or intensifying production in existing paddyfields (e.g., by introducing a spring-season rice crop); or both New paddyfields have recently been constructed in Na Hiu (eight households) and Khuoi Noc (six households), while two households from Khuoi Sap purchased paddyfields However, most of this increase happened between 1987 and 1993, before the new forestland policy was implemented Our interviews
Fig 5 Surface area of upland ricefields cultivated in 2000 plotted
against year of opening * Plot size is expressed in kilograms of seeds
sown per plot (the sowing density commonly used as a reference is
10 kg seeds/ha).
Table 2 Indices of upland rice production in 1999, by village Index of upland rice
production
Village Khuoi Sap Na Hiu Khuoi Noc
‘A’=quantity seed sown/person (kg)
‘A B’=average production/person (kg)
N.B Yields are expressed as multiples of the quantity of seeds sown.
Table 3 Indices of rice deficit in 1999, by village Index of rice
deficit
Village Khuoi Sap Nam Ca Na Hiu Khuoi Noc Percentage of
households experiencing deficit (food requirements exceeded rice production)
Average length of the deficit (months)
Trang 10indicated that the decreasing availability of old-growth
forest was already encouraging individuals to move to
the lowlands; land allocations were only an added
incentive As we mentioned earlier, the paddyland
within the study area is already almost saturated; little
flatland remains that could still be developed In spite of
a growing population and the progressive subdivision of
fields (because of inheritance), no new ricefields have
been created in Nam Ca since 1971 With the lowlands
already saturated with ricefields, the only possibility for
increased production in Nam Ca is to find ways to
intensify rice production in existing ricefields In the
spring of 2000 Nam Ca farmers began to experiment
with increasing production by adding a second,
spring-season rice crop Farmers in Nam Ca justified this
intensification of paddy-rice production as a
conse-quence of the increased demographic pressure within the
village combined with the restrictions imposed by the
village authorities on clearing new lands on the hillsides
This illustrates the interdependence of paddylands and
sloping lands, demonstrated by Castella and Erout
(2002)
Perennial plantations: State policy suggests a future of
uplands brimming with fruit tree plantations, bringing
wealth or at least self-sufficiency even to farmers who
lack paddyfields With swidden cultivation no longer
feasible, upland rice production will decline or cease,
and perennial plantations are expected to fill the gap
Plantations are indeed being developed in the study
area, but they are far from an all-purpose solution to the
difficulties faced by farmers Cinnamon and anise
plantations account for 70% and 15%, respectively, of
the trees planted in the study area, while fruit trees (e.g
plum, orange, apricot) make up the remaining 15%
(Fig 6) For most farmers, tree-crop production is still
experimental, as revealed by the fact that the majority of
plantations are very small—the trees are located in the
vegetable garden or very near to swidden fields, and the
harvest is mostly consumed by the household
‘‘Planta-tions represent a highly uncertain source of income because of village remoteness and market uncertainty’’ mentioned the few household heads who engaged in large scale cinnamon plantations in Na Hui with the help of the World Food Programme thanks to their proximity to the main road as compared to the three other villages
The new land policy successfully destabilized migra-tory cultivation, but perennial plantations and lowland intensification have not been sufficient to meet the needs
of swidden farmers Struggling to feed their families, they are rapidly experimenting with new possibilities, from aquaculture and animal husbandry (mainly poultry, pigs, and cattle) to the testing of any cropping innovation that shows promise Another option is to move to a new location in search of better environ-mental conditions for agriculture or opportunities for non-agricultural income
New kinds of migration: Migrating to new communes
or districts within the province is no longer possible because all the land has already been allocated to villagers However, households without opportunities in their current locations can move their houses closer to forestland they own within a village In Khuoi Sap and Khuoi Noc, some households have created new hamlets, and others have moved their houses to their more remote upland plots to develop irrigated paddyfields or fishponds A few other families have moved closer to the road to engage in non-farming activities such as small-scale commerce (e.g., selling consumer goods or agricultural inputs) or motorcycle taxi services, as well
as to give their children better access to schools The most dramatic option is migration to southern Vietnam, where New Economic Zones are being developed Supported by State subsidies, families can relocate to work in the new industrial plantations (mostly coffee and rubber) in these zones, located in the Central Highlands region or in the south of Vietnam The New Economic Zones hold a particular appeal for highland peoples; the prospect of having sufficient land to grow commercial crops that can be readily sold leads many to dream of a better future Ten households from Khuoi Sap have already made the long journey Between 1991 and 1996 nearly 1.5 million people migrated to the Central Highlands (Vo et al.,
1999) The journey south is costly; farmers interviewed estimated that such an undertaking would cost at least ten million dong Migration is thus only possible for households who have been able to accumulate capital, but who nonetheless find themselves in sufficiently difficult circumstances to justify leaving everything behind for the great unknown Households who have difficulty meeting their most basic needs are more likely
to consider small-scale migration (often within a village)
to improve their situation
Fig 6 Plantation composition per village.