2008 Volume 17 Issue 3 Pages 271-280
The cultivation fields of tea trees, the so-called ‘miang tea gardens’, are scattered in the forested area of the mountainous region of northern Thailand. The ‘miang tea garden&rsquo system has been evaluated as a successful form of ‘agroforestry&rsquo and ‘community forest management&rsquo. This paper aims to elucidate the process of changes involved in the management system of miang tea gardens in the last three decades from 1970 to 2002 when land-use and the subsistence were completely different. The study was conducted at the PMO miang village where had been researched in 1970 by Keen, one of the socio-economic researchers. As of September 2002, PMO village consisted of 32 households with a population of 87; 30 households were earning their livelihood through miang tea gardens management and miang production. The field survey was conducted between February and November 2002 and between July and August 2004, using interactive questioning to interview all the households who managed the miang tea gardens. Prior to 1970, forest materials except for tea trees had been utilized and managed by the village as co-managed resources. In the 1970s, an increase in the cultivation of tea tree seedlings led the villagers to set up borders for each garden; this was done to define the usufruct of each seedlings. Thus, the usufruct of forest materials, including tea trees, was confined to the relevant user of the garden. From the late 1980s onwards, following the decline of the miang market, the villagers began to introduce other crops in their gardens. This land-use change allowed the villagers to recognize their gardens as cultivation fields. Thus, the resources comprising their gardens were emphasized its conceptual characteristic as the ‘property managed by an individual for each subsistence activity&rsquo. In conclusion, it is indicated that the villagers should adopt changes in the management system and the conceptual characteristic of miang tea gardens, induced by the villagers themselves, as strategies for maximal utilization of their gardens as cultivation fields.
