Shifting cultivation (Swidden) in a tradition of the Jinuo people in Xishuangbanna Dai National Autonomous Prefecture (Yunnan Province, southwestern part of China). The Jinuo, a minority in mountainous regions, places shifting cultivation at the centre of their lives.
This rational and sustainable agricultural system is well suited to the ecological environment in their region. Hunting and gathering of wild plants and insects play a very important role in sustaining communities that practice shifting cultivation. The inhabitants of the area possess great knowledge about their environment and the forest, for example, “holly hill”, which is their preserved forest. While shifting cultivation was an appropriate art under conditions of low population density and abundant forest resources, the inhabitants have been obliged to change their agricultural system fundamentally because of population growth since the 1950s. The decrease of forested areas in the southwestern end of China has been caused by this population growth and increased areas needed for shifting cultivation by the minority societies. Population growth is destructive to the sustainability of shifting cultivation, along with the introduction of a responsibility system for agricultural production in the 1980s. Today, minorities are keen on introducing cash crops on a large scale such as natural rubber, tea, and herbs for Chinese medicines under the control of government authorities. The Swidden may be declining and the fields will change to permanently cultivated land in the near future.
