The role of NTFPs in a shifting cultivation system in transition: A village case study from the uplands of North Central Vietnam

Abstract

Geografisk Tidsskrift, Danish Journal of Geography 106(2): 103–114, 2006 Periods characterized by agricultural change and transitions are often associated with insecurity and vulnerability regarding food production and food supplies. Forests and forest products tend to play an important buffer role during the process of change and uncertainty, where forest and fallows provide food products or income that people can temporarily fall back on. In the upland village of Que in North Central Vietnam, several different drivers are currently changing land use and land cover. The Forest Land Allocation policy, implemented in 1998, is one of the major driving forces, allocating farmers a reduced area of land for shifting cultivation in order to prevent any further deforestation and land degradation. However, the reduction in agricultural land set aside for shifting cultivation has lead to a severe decrease in hill rice production. The land use system is in a transition phase—from a conventional shifting cultivation system to a composite swiddening system. The area under shifting cultivation has been reduced, and the system has been intensified via the introduction of paddy rice cultivation, increased livestock rearing and commercial exploitation of non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Yet, the current transformation of the system has resulted in a drastic reduction in overall rice production. Thus, the collection and selling of NTFPs such as bamboo shoots, broom grass and pherynium leaves seem to prevent severe shortage of food since farmers are able to purchase food products with the money generated from the selling of NTFPs.