Shifting Cultivation in Xishuangbanna, Southwestern China: A Vanishing Mountain Culture

抄録

　Shifting cultivation (Swidden) was formerly practiced in Europe and Japan; however, today we can find it only in the tropics, which abound in forest resources. This study discusses shifting cultivation by analyzing the characteristics and recent changes among the minorities, especially in the heart of the Jinuo tribal lands Xishuangbanna Dai Nationality Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, southern China. Xishuangbanna is located deep in the southwestern part of Yunnan Province on the borders of Myanmar and Laos.

　The minorities in the mountainous regions of Xishuangbanna on the border placed shifting cultivation at the centre of their livelihood. Their agricultural systems, however, have been forced to change because of population growth since the 1950s. Population growth and an increase in the area used for shifting cultivation by the minority societies have caused a decrease of the percentage of forest cover in southwestern China.

　This population growth damages the sustainability of shifting cultivation, and introduction of the Responsibility System for Agricultural Production in the 1980s exacerbated the problem. Today, the minorities are keen on introducing cash crops on a large scale such as natural rubber, tea and herbs for Chinese medicines under the strict national and provincial policies. Shifting cultivation is quickly declining and the fields will permanently change to cultivated land in a few years.