International Conference
on Biodiversity & Society

Columbia University and
the UNESCO Division of Ecological Sciences

May 22-25, 2001

How Humans Shape the Environment
is Focus of International Biodiversity Conference
at Columbia, May 22-25

Case Studies: 4. China: Xishuangbanna

Thematic Focus

From the mountains of Yunnan Province in Southwestern China to the interior of Kalimantan, the smallholder farmers of Southeast Asia have historically been divided into two groups: shifting cultivators or swiddeners in the hills and paddy farmers in the valley bottoms. These groups and their technologies have always been dynamic, with populations periodically migrating, changing the way they farmed, and even shifting their ethnicity. But there have always been and still are hill rice farmers, usually belonging to ethnic minorities, and paddy cultivators in Southeast Asia. The rates at which these ways of life are now changing and the geographic extent of that change are, however, unprecedented. The hill farmers with their hundred of rice landraces, their many intercropped vegetables and fruits, and their cyclic way of farming are disappearing throughout the region. The rice swiddens and fallows are largely being replaced by industrial crops including rubber, oil palm, and a host of fruits grown in plantation. Where possible, paddies are being extended. The environmental as well as cultural consequences of that technological change have yet to be appreciated.

The XBCS looks at this regional change broadly, delineating its causes, describing the processes of change, and understanding its effects, particularly changes in biodiversity. The theme comprises issues in conservation of "natural" biodiversity, specifically the effects of eliminating the fires and cycles of secondary growth that have for centuries been an integral part of the swidden systems. It focuses on several specific issues in the conservation of important crop genetic resources, including endangered rice landraces and possibly the loss of hundreds of vegetable varieties that tend to be the "cash crops" of diverse hill rice swidden systems. The XBCS considers in addition the effects on cultural diversity of this change. The complex of economic, political, and demographic trends that are contributing to this transformation will also an important component of our inquiries.

Multi-Stakeholder Workshops

A workshop was held at Xishuangbanna on January 3rd  5th in collaboration with the Xishuagbanna Tropical Botanical Gardens and the adjacent Xishuangbanna Biosphere Reserve, with the participation of Christine Padoch, NYBG, and ICBS Coordinator Christine Alfsen-Norodom.

Collaborators and Institutional Affiliates

The Xishuangbanna Case Study is being conducted by Christine Padoch (New York Botanical Gardens), in collaboration with Guo Hui Jun, Deputy Director, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Gardens.

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