Yayoi Fujita: 'From Swidden to Rubber: Transforming Landscape and Livelihoods in Mountainous Norther

A presentation by Yayoi Fujita, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago.Part of the University of Chicago Program on the Global Environment's inaugural conference on the Social Life of Forests, held May 30-31, 2008. Rugged terrain and war had long inhibited development of northern Laos. However, influx of development aid and improvement of road networks throughout the 1990s and opening of the regional border had began to invite foreign investment, and promote regional trade namely with China and northern Thailand since the 1990s. Coupled with government policies restricting shifting cultivation practices, and on the other hand promoting relocation and consolidation of remote villages had significant impact on demographic and land use patterns in the upland areas. Opening of the regional border with China in the early 1990s had particularly boosted commercialization of agriculture in Sing District of Luang Namtha province located across the border from Southwest China, as flow of investment, people and goods flourished. Upland farmers whose livelihoods were based on upland shifting cultivation practices are increasingly engaged in commercial agricultural production including sugarcane and rubber exported to China, which is transforming their landscape and livelihood. The current paper is based on fieldwork in Sing district and it provides overview of demographic and land use, and livelihood changes. It also examines driving forces of change, and different perspectives of key agencies involved in upland resource management and development including villagers to understand the meaning of change.