Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Indigenous Systems of Forest Classification: Understanding Land Use Patterns and the Role of NTFPs in Shifting Cultivators’ Subsistence Economies

  • RESEARCH
  • Published:
Environmental Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article discusses the system of classification of forest types used by the Pwo Karen in Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand and the role of nontimber forest products (NTFPs), focusing on wild food plants, in Karen livelihoods. The article argues that the Pwo Karen have two methods of forest classification, closely related to their swidden farming practices. The first is used for forest land that has been, or can be, swiddened, and classifies forest types according to growth conditions. The second system is used for land that is not suitable for cultivation and looks at soil properties and slope. The article estimates the relative importance of each forest type in what concerns the collection of wild food plants. A total of 134 wild food plant species were recorded in December 2004. They account for some 80–90% of the amount of edible plants consumed by the Pwo Karen, and have a base value of Baht 11,505 per year, comparable to the cash incomes of many households. The article argues that the Pwo Karen reliance on NTFPs has influenced their land-use and forest management practices. However, by restricting the length of the fallow period, the Thai government has caused ecological changes that are challenging the ability of the Karen to remain subsistence oriented. By ignoring shifting cultivators’ dependence on such products, the involvement of governments in forest management, especially through restrictions imposed on swidden farming practices, is likely to have a considerable impact on the livelihood strategies of these communities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Albers H. J., M. J. Goldbach. 2000. Irreversible ecosystem change, species competition, and shifting cultivation. Resource and Energy Economics 22(3):261–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose-Oji B. 2003. The contribution of NTFPs to the livelihoods of the “forest poor” Evidence form the tropical forest zone of south-west Cameroon. International Forestry Review 5(2):106–117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anon. 2001. Farmers blamed for deforestation, floods. Bangkok Post, 16 August 2001

  • Bann, C. 1998. An economic analysis of tropical forest land use options, Ratanakiri province, Cambodia. Research Report. Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA)

  • Bernard H. R., P. Killworth, D. Kronenfeld, L. Sailer. 1984. The problem of informant accuracy: The validity of retrospective data. Annual Review of Anthropology 15:495–517

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouaket S. 1999. Forest fires in Lao PDR. IFFN No. 20-March 1999. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Department of Forestry, Forest Protection and Wood Industry Division, Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic

  • Boonchai K. 2002. Social movement and the making of cultural identity rights of Karen communities in Thungyai Naresuai. Foundation for Ecological Recovery, Bangkok

    Google Scholar 

  • Boonpinon, K. 1997. Institutional arrangements in communal resource management: A case study of a Karen village in a protected area MSc thesis. Mahidol University, Bangkok

  • Brown, C. 1997. Regional study, the South Pacific. FAO Forestry Planning and Statistics Branch. Rome

  • Buergin R. 2002a. Change and identity in Pwo Karen Communities in Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, a “Global Heritage” in Western Thailand. SEFUT Working Paper No. 11. Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg

    Google Scholar 

  • Buergin, R. 2002b. Lokaler Wandel und kulturelle Identität im Spannungsfeld nationaler Modernisierung und globaler Umweltdiskurse. Die Karen im Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, einem Weltnaturerbe im Westen Thailands. Ph.D. Thesis. Albert- Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg

  • Buergin R. 2003. Shifting frames for local people and forests in a global heritage: The Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in the context of Thailand’s globalization and modernization. Geoforum 34(3):375–393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chanthirath K. 2000. Forest utilization by local people in Vang Vieng district. in Interim Report 1998, a Step toward Forest Conservation Strategy. The Institute for Global Environmental Strategy, Kanagawa. Pp: 309–329

    Google Scholar 

  • Chazee, L. 1994. Shifting cultivations practices in Laos: Present systems and their future. Page 66–97 in D. Van Gansberghe and R. Pals (eds.) Shifting Cultivation Systems and Rural Development in the Lao P.D.R. Report of the Nabong Technical Meeting, Nabong Agricultural College, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, July 14–16, 1993. Vientiane: Nabong Agriculture College Project

  • Chopra K. 1993. The value of non-timber forest products: an estimation for tropical deciduous forests in India. Economic Botany 47(3):251–257

    Google Scholar 

  • De Beer J. H., M. J. McDermott. 1989. The economic value of non-timber forest products in Southeast Asia. Amsterdam. Netherlands Committee for IUCN

    Google Scholar 

  • deJong W. 1997. Developing swidden agriculture and the threat of biodiversity loss. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 62(2–3):187–197

    Google Scholar 

  • Delang C. O. 2000. Suffering in silence: The human rights nightmare of the Karen people of Burma. Universal Press, Parkland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delang C. O. 2003. Social and economic adaptation to a changing landscape: Realities, opportunities and constraints. In C. O. Delang (ed.). Living at the edge of Thai society: The Karen in the highlands of northern Thailand. Routledge, London

  • Delang C. O. 2005a. The political ecology of deforestation in Thailand, 1840s– 1990s. Geography 90(3): 225–237

    Google Scholar 

  • Delang, C. O. 2005b. Not just minor forest products: The economic rationale for the consumption of wild food plants by subsistence farmers. Ecological Economics

  • Fujisaka S. 1991. A diagnostic survey of shifting cultivation in northern Laos: Targeting research to improve sustainability and productivity. Agroforestry Systems 13(2):95–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Funakawa S., S. Tanaka, H. Shinjyo, T. Kaewkhongkha, T. Hattori, K. Yonebayashi. 1997. Ecological study on the dynamics of soil organic matter and its related properties in shifting cultivation systems of Northern Thailand. Soil Scienceand Plant Nutrition 43(3):681–693

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Giang, L. M. 2004, Community forest management: A case study of Tay people at Tat village, Tan Minh commune, Da Bac district, Hoa Binh province, Vietnam. Master’s thesis. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

  • Godoy R., R. Lubowski, A. Markandya. 1993. A method for the economic valuation of non-timber tropical forest products. Economic Botany 47(3):220–233

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunatilake H. M., D. M. A. H. Senaratne, P. Abeygunawardena. 1993. Role of non-timber forest products in the economy of peripheral communities of knuckles national wilderness area of Sri Lanka: A farming systems approach. Economic Botany 47(3):275–281.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grandstaff T. B. 1980. Shifting cultivation in northern Thailand: Possibilities for development. The United Nations University, Resource Systems Theory and Methodology Series No. 3. The United Nations, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  • Hedge R., S. Suryaprakash, L Achoth, K. S. Bawa. 1996. Extraction of non-timber forest products in the forests of Biligiri Rangan Hills, India 1. Contribution to rural income. Economic Botany 50:243–251

    Google Scholar 

  • IFFN (International Forest Fire Network). 1999. Forest fires in Lao PDR. IFFN No. 20 March 1999

  • Ithi-pon-o-lan, W. 1996. Rotational shifting cultivation: A case study of Mae Lan Kham Village, Mu 6, Samoeng Tai tambon, Samoeng District, Chiang Mai province, upper northern Thailand. In Regional Pakanyaw Community Forum at the Rotational Shifting Cultivation Year 2000 Meeting

  • Johnson N., L. E. Grivetti. 2002a. Environmental change in northern Thailand: Impact on wild edible plant availability. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 41(5):373–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson N., L. E. Grivetti. 2002b. Gathering practices of Karen women: Questionable contribution to beta-carotene intake. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 53(6):489–501

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kendawang J. J., S. Tanaka, J. Ishihara, J. Ishihara, K. Shibata, J. Sabang, I. Ninomiya, S. Ishizuka, K. Sakurai. 2004. Effects of shifting cultivation on soil ecosystems in Sarawak, Malaysia I. Slash and burning at Balai Ringin and Sabal experimental sites and effect on soil organic matter. Soil Science and Plant Nutrition 50(5):677–687

    Google Scholar 

  • Koetsawang, P. 2002. After the tragedy, the blame. The Nation 7 September 2002

  • Kunstadter, P. 1978. Subsistence agricultural economies of Lua and Karen hill farmers, Mae Sariang District, Northwestern Thailand. In P. Kunstadter, E.C. Chapman, and S. Sabhasri (eds.). Farmers in the forest: Economic development and marginal agriculture in northern Thailand. East West Centre, Honolulu

  • McKinnon, J. 1997. The forests of Thailand: Strike up the ban? In D. McCaskill and K. Kampe (eds.). Development or domestication? Indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia. Silkworm Books Chiang Mai

  • Mertz O. 2002. The relationship between length of fallow and crop yields in shifting cultivation: A rethinking. Agroforestry Systems 55(2):149–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ngobo M. P., S. F. Weise, M. A. McDonald. 2004. Revisiting the performance of natural fallows in central Africa. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research 19(4):14–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Padoch C. 1988. The economic importance of marketing of forest and fallow products in the Iquitos region. Advances in Economic Botany 5:74–89

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters C. M., A. H. Gentry, R. O. Mendelsohn. 1989. Valuation of an Amazonian rainforest. Nature 339:655–656

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peters C. M. 1994. Sustainable harvest of non-timber plant resources in tropical moist forest: An ecological primer. Biodiversity Support Program, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters C. M. 1996. The ecology and management of non-timber forest resources. World Bank Technical Papers. World Bank, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinkaew L. 2001. Redefining nature: Karen ecological knowledge and the challenge to the modern conservation paradigm, Earthworm Books, Chennai

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinkaew, L. 2003. Constructing marginality: The “hill tribe” Karen and their shifting locations within Thai state and public perspective. In C. O. Delang (ed.). Living at the edge of Thai society: The Karen in the highlands of northern Thailand. Routledge, London

  • Pravongviengham P. P. 1998. The role of animal husbandry and aquaculture in improvements of swidden-based livelihood system in the Lao PDR. PhD thesis. Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok

    Google Scholar 

  • Renard, R. D. 1979. Kariang: History of Karen-T’ai relations from the beginnings to 1923. PhD thesis University of Hawaii

  • Renard R. D. 1994. The monk, the Hmong, the forest, the cabbage, fire and water: Incongruities in northern Thailand opium replacement. Law & Society Review 28 (3): 657–664

    Google Scholar 

  • Renard R. D. 2001. Opium reduction in thailand 1970–2000: A thirty-year journey. Silkworm Books,Chiang Mai.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ros-Tonen M., W. Dijkman, E. Lammerts, van Bueren. 1995. Commercial and sustainable extraction of non-timber forest products. Towards a policy and management-oriented research strategy. The Tropenbos Foundation, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

    Google Scholar 

  • Samabuddhi, K. 2005. NSC turns eye on threat to nation’s forest. Bangkok Post, 14 Jan 2005

  • Santasombat Y. 2004. Karen cultural capital and the political economy of symbolic power. Asian Ethnicity 5(1):105–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt-Vogt D. 1998. Defining degradation: The impacts of swidden on forests in northern Thailand. Mountain Research and Development 18:135–149

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt-Vogt D. 1999. Swidden farming and fallow vegetation in northern Thailand. Geoecological Research Vol. 9. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt-Vogt D. 2001. Secondary forests in swidden agriculture in the highlands of Thailand. Journal of Tropical Forest Science 13(4):748–767

    Google Scholar 

  • Steannan A. 1990. The effects of settler incursion on fish and game resources of the Yuqui, a native Amazonian society of eastern Bolivia. Human Organization 49:373–385

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanaka S., T. Ando, S. Funakawa, C. Sukhrun, T. Kaewkhongkha, K. Sakurai. 2001. Effect of burning on soil organic matter content and N mineralization under shifting cultivation system of Karen people in northern Thailand. Soil Science and Plant Nutrition 47(3):547–558

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tanaka S, S. Funakawa, T. Kaewkhongkha, T. Hattori, K. Yonebayashi. 1997. Soil ecological study on dynamics of K, Mg, and Ca, and soil acidity in shifting cultivation in northern Thailand. Soil Science and Plant Nutrition 43(3):695–708

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Trakarnsuphakorn, P. 1997. The wisdom of the Karen in natural resource conservation. In D. McCaskill and K. Kampe (eds.). Development or domestication? Indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia. Silkworm Books. Chiang Mai.

  • Walker A. 2003. Agricultural transformation and the politics of hydrology in northern Thailand. Development and Change 34(5):941–964

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ziegler A. D., T. W. Giambelluca, L. T. Tran, T. T. Vana, M. A. Nullet, J. Fox, T. D. Vien, J. Pinthong, J. F. Maxwell, S. Evett. 2004. Hydrological consequences of landscape fragmentation in mountainous northern Vietnam: evidence of accelerated overland flow generation. Journal of Hydrology 287(1–4):124–146

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank the population of Gomongta and Sanepong for their help and support during the fieldwork. I would also like to thank Yoko Hayami, Dietrich Schmidt -Vogt, Ole Mertz, and Theresa Wong for their helpful comments. I gratefully acknowledge the financial contribution of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science toward the cost of the fieldwork.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto UniversityYoshida, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Claudio O. Delang

Authors
  1. Claudio O. Delang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claudio O. Delang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Delang, C.O. Indigenous Systems of Forest Classification: Understanding Land Use Patterns and the Role of NTFPs in Shifting Cultivators’ Subsistence Economies. Environmental Management 37, 470–486 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-005-0097-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-005-0097-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation