21

Shifting Cultivation in Xishuangbanna, Southwestern China:
A Vanishing Mountain Culture
Shigeru SHIRASAKA
College of Tourism, St. Paul’s University
1-2-26 Kitano, Niiza-shi, Saitama 352-8558, Japane-mail: vanshira@rikkyo.ac.jp

Abstract
Shifting cultivation (Swidden) was formerly practiced in Europe and Japan; however, today we canfind it only in the tropics, which abound in forest resources. This study discusses shifting cultivation by
analyzing the characteristics and recent changes among the minorities, especially in the heart of the
Jinuo tribal lands Xishuangbanna Dai Nationality Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, southern
China. Xishuangbanna is located deep in the southwestern part of Yunnan Province on the borders ofMyanmar and Laos.
The minorities in the mountainous regions of Xishuangbanna on the border placed shifting cultivation at the centre of their livelihood. Their agricultural systems, however, have been forced to change
because of population growth since the 1950s. Population growth and an increase in the area used forshifting cultivation by the minority societies have caused a decrease of the percentage of forest cover insouthwestern China
This population growth damages the sustainability of shifting cultivation, and introduction of the
Responsibility System for Agricultural Production in the 1980s exacerbated the problem. Today, theminorities are keen on introducing cash crops on a large scale such as natural rubber, tea and herbs for
Chinese medicines under the strict national and provincial policies. Shifting cultivation is quickly
declining and the fields will permanently change to cultivated land in a few years.
Key words: China, mountain areas, shifting cultivation, Swidden, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan

1. Introduction
Shifting cultivation (Swidden) was formerly themost widespread system of agriculture in the world(Conklin, 1961; Geertz, 1963; Grigg, 1974). It waspracticed in Japan and also in Europe. Today, however,
we can find it only in the tropics, which abound inforest resources.
In Japan, shifting cultivation was practiced in
77,000 ha of fields in 1935 (Forestry Bureau, Ministryof Agriculture and Forestry, Japan, 1936), and in about
9,600 ha as late as 1950 (The Agriculture and Forestry
Census 1950). It disappeared rapidly in the 1960s
when Japan experienced high economic growth(Sasaki, 1972). About 500 farmers, however, stillpracticed shifting cultivation in about 350 ha of fields
as late as 1970 (Fukui, 1974). Today, we can find a
few areas with shifting cultivation that local people
keep as a hobby or a resource for tourism in Nagano
and Kumamoto prefectures of Japan.
Fukui (1983: 235-274), who examined a wide
range of domestic and foreign studies on shifting
Global Environmental Research
10(1)/2006: 21-38
printed in Japan

cultivation, notes: ‘About 200 million people live in
dependence on shifting cultivation of 36 million km2
according to FAO, 1957. The population at the lowest
estimate were engaged in shifting cultivation andcultivated 10-18 million ha a year in the middle of the
1960s in India, Southeast Asia, and the southern partof China. The total area was one third of the arable
land in Southeast Asia.’
Today, the author estimates that roughly 100 million depend on shifting cultivation worldwide. This
cultivation still flourishes remarkably in Southeast
Asia, including the southwestern part of China.
Fukui (1983: 239) gives a clear definition of shifting cultivation:‘First of all, they clear the land by cutting down
and burning trees, and cultivate it for a short duration,and then abandon the land. Vegetation is then recovered naturally, and they can use the land for cultivation again. Shifting cultivation is a circular system
which makes very good use of the natural cycle ofvegetation.’In this paper, the author examines the process of©2006 AIRIES

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Shigeru SHIRASAKA

change and factors of shifting cultivation by analyzing
the characteristics and recent changes. The author has
observed many minorities, especially the Jinuo tribe(基諾族), in the southern tropical zone of Xishuangbanna族
Dai Nationality Autonomous Prefecture族自治州), Yunnan Province, China. Xishuangbanna
is located in southwestern China, bordering Burma(Myanmar) and Laos, as shown in Fig. 1. These fieldstudies were conducted between 1984 and 2005.

2. Distribution and System of Shifting Cultivation
2.1 Distribution of shifting cultivation and thenatural environment
Yunnan Province, which is located in southwestern
China, is a heaven for the minority races. The minorities in Yunnan number 24 out of all of the 55 Chineseminorities, i.e. everyone who is not of the Han race.
Thirteen of the 24 minorities live on the ChinaMyanmar, China-Laos, and China-Viet Nam borders.
Today, most of these minorities are engaged in
shifting cultivation (Fig. 1). This area is included in
the so-called Golden Triangle, where poppies arecultivated. But poppy cultivation is prohibited on the
China side with rigid regulations enforced by thenational authorities.

Fig. 1 Shifting cultivation area.
Source: Based on Yin (1992) and the author’s fieldwork.
Although shifting cultivation is practiced in
Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and northern Thailand,
the distribution of this form of cultivation outside of China is not shown.

Shifting cultivation is practiced in Hainan Province(Hainan Island) and also in the Guangxi Zhuan
Autonomy District. These thirteen minorities, Blang,
Derung, Nu, Jingpo, Benglong (De’ang), Va, Lafu,
Hani, Yao, Miao, Bouyei, Dai, and Jinuo, live in
China near the borders.
The author investigated shifting cultivation, mainlyof the Jinuo tribe, who live in the mountain zone atabout 1,000 m a.s.l. (Fig. 2), very close to the
China-Laos border, in the southwestern part of
Xishuangbanna Dai Nationality Autonomous Prefecture. The minorities in the mountainous areas of
Xishuangbanna, including the Jinuos, have similar
production systems of shifting cultivation. The Jinuos
are essentially a tribe practicing shifting cultivation.
There are many small basins where paddy rice isgrown in the mountains at about 600 m a.s.l., but noneof the basins are the Jinuos’. This area, which is a valley along the Lancang-jiang River (the upper reachesof the Mekong River) has a monsoon climate on asubtropical mountain, with an average temperature of
25°C in the warmest month (May) and 13°C in thecoolest month (February). The annual precipitation isabout 1,400 mm, and the rainy season lasts 6 months
from May through October. Eighty-five percent of theannual precipitation occurs in the rainy season.
From a global point of view, Xishuangbanna issituated on the northern fringe of the tropical climate
zone. In contrast with Malaysia and Indonesia, thenatural vegetation is not so typically tropical, but
Xishuangbanna, along with Hainan Island, is nevertheless very important for tropical crop cultivation
today. There is no winter there, and words that mean‘ice’ or ‘snow’ do not appear in any of the local
chronicles.
The vegetation is sub-tropical monsoon forest below 1,000 m a.s.l., and sub-tropical evergreen broadleaf forest above that altitude (Makita & Chujyo,1990).

Fig. 2 A Jinuo settlement.
A Jinuo settlement, about 1,040 m a.s.l. The Jinuo are a
traditional mountain tribe in this area. We can see theelementary school at the top of the settlement and thecultivated fields around and in the background. Most of
their settlements are on the ridges above the temperature inversion layer. It is interesting that the settlements of mountain people are located above the upper
limit of the temperature inversion.
(photograph by S. Shirasaka, March 2005)

Shifting Cultivation in Xishuangbanna, China

2.2 Classification of villages and their lands
There are 46 Jinuo villages (Xian, 郷; formerly
people’s communes), which were classified by cultivation systems in 1985 (Yin, 1992: 259):
1) villages with no paddie, dependent entirely
on shifting cultivation............................37 villages2) villages with a small area of paddy fields(10 m2/ farmer) but depend almost whollyon shifting cultivation..............................8 villages3) a village where the wetland paddy area
exceeds the shifting cultivation area ........ 1 village
According to the author’s fieldwork of Oct. 2005,
there is only one village at 1,320 m a.s.l., with no paddies. Although they continue small-scale shifting cultivation now, their main subsistence depends almost
entirely on tea cultivation. In the Jinuos’ territories,
generally speaking, they can cultivate only tea above
1,100 m a.s.l. and rubber trees under 1,100 m a.s.l. fortheir subsistence. Therefore, most of the 45 villages
with small or no paddy fields engage mainly in thecultivation of natural rubber and tea.
As stated above, the Jinuos’ subsistence has beenchanged from their traditional shifting cultivation to
cash crop cultivation on a large scale since the latter
half of the 1980s. The Jinuo people depend on their
cash crops cultivation for their livelihood today, butthey still engage in shifting cultivation on a small
scale.
The minorities who depend on shifting cultivation
can be classified into three types in terms of the way

23

how they form their settlements in the southwesternpart of Yunnan:1) tribes who move their settlements freely andwidely while continuing their shifting cultivation.
The Yao and Miao frequently moved across the
China-Laos border until the 1950s.
2) tribes who move their villages within a certain territory over a period of one to three years.
3) tribes who settle down in one place and engage inshifting cultivation. The Jinuo tribe typifies thisthird group.
In recent years, the minorities of the first and second
types have shown a tendency to settle down. Although
the Jinuo people are domiciled today, their folklore
indicates that they once belonged to the first or second
type.
According to the author’s fieldwork, most minorities in Yunnan divide their lands for specified uses.
The Jinuos divide their territory into six or seven sections as shown in Fig. 3:1) lands for shifting cultivation
Land for shifting cultivation is divided
into thirteen lots. The Jinuo tribe calls
shifting cultivation ‘hyan’na.’2) holy hills where gods dwell (‘hyotsu’).
3) headwater conservation forest (‘akulo’mu’).
Generally, Akulo’mu is an unexploited forest (holyhill).
4) forest protective of the settlements (‘hou’).
5) pasture for buffaloes (‘nyu’ke’).
Local people keep one or two buffaloes per family
for transportation.

Fig. 3 The land-use concept in the Jinuo tribe’s single-year cultivation system.
[Remade from Yin Shao-ting (2000:30) with the author’s fieldwork in May and Dec. 2005.]
Note: The land for shifting cultivation is divided into thirteen lots. One lot is chosen by a clan leader
every year and the inhabitants use only that division for cultivation. Therefore, cultivation was
not allowed to be done freely and the place for cultivation was enforced. This arrangement ischanging on a large scale from shifting cultivation to cultivation of rubber and tea trees. All
the mountain minorities of Xishuangbanna have adopted these methods.

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Shigeru SHIRASAKA

6) public cemeteries.
7) wetland paddies.
The Jinuos introduced wetland paddy farming in
1975.
As the national and provincial authorities want themountain minorities to live without depending on
shifting cultivation, they took the most expedient
shortcut and began cultivating wetland paddies. The
Jinuos’ Village Authorities have a target for all inhabitants to own one mu (畝; about 667 square meters) ofwetland paddy. They are bent on reclaiming paddy
fields now, but it is difficult for them to achieve theirtarget, as there is little suitable land for wetland paddies in the Jinuos’ territories.
2.3 Traditional shifting cultivation and landownership
After the mid-1950s, like other minority ethnic
groups in Yunnan, shifting cultivation farmers also
participated in the programs of the Cooperative Society (合作社) for agriculture and the People’s Commune (人民公社).
Enforcement of the Cooperative Society for agriculture and the People’s Commune meant that the system of land property rights had been abolished and astate-owned land system was being established.
Doubtlessly, this new land system was brought sweeping changes for farmers of the ethnic Han race. However, it seemed that the new system brought no big
changes to minority ethnic groups involved in shifting
cultivation. The reason is that, among the minority
ethnic groups, land was a shared property owned
traditionally by villages or clans.
Nevertheless, the situation was not totally the sameand big differences occurred between the newstate-owned land system and the traditional landownership of shifting cultivators. Even though traditional landownership of shifting cultivators referred toa system where landownership belonged to villages orclans, agricultural production was still run by respective households (公有私耕). In other words, they
practiced shifting cultivation individually or by respective household while the land was under theshared-property system. After the new enforcement ofstate-owned land system, however, shifting cultivator’s land turned wholly into state-owned farms.
Under these circumstances, not only was the land
owned by state, but also agricultural activities werealso performed together and the harvest was divided
equally (吃大鍋飯 in Chinese; we eat at the samemess).
Under the new system of landownership, that is,land owned by state, the principle of absolute equalization was practiced, regardless individuals’ abilities,
experiences, technologies, and quality of individual
labour efforts. Agricultural products were equally divided without taking into consideration of differencesin each farmer’s effort. As a result, most of the farmers lost their enthusiasm for agricultural production.

Political instability continued for about 20 years since
the enforcement of the People’s Commune in the
mid-1950s. The political situation had turned dramatical, and agricultural policies made chameleonicchanges from time to time. The political authorities intheir own short-tempered way went ahead occasionally with a modernization that attacked shifting cultivation and dry field rice on slopes as primitive. They
went ahead forcefully with their plans to increase
paddy fields and non-rice dry fields with violent, hastysocial activities under the slogans of ‘The Great Leap
Forward’ and ‘Learn Agriculture from Taizhai (学大寨; 農業は大寨に学べ).’ Eventually, the wise methods of the minorities with regard to ecological systems,
natural resource exploitation and traditional farming
were seriously damaged.
After 1976, the People’s Commune system wasabolished and replaced by the so-called ‘family management oriented system (家庭聯戸承包制).’ One
interesting change here was that, under the new system, shifting cultivators brought back their traditional
production system, where landownership remained
under the state-owned system but the household was
the unit in charge of agricultural management. Nevertheless, after such a long time, the situation hadchanged. It was hard to find less populated villages
where land use was sustainable.
Most of the villages were brought back quickly tothe former system under which land was divided according to population or numbers of households. Theiragricultural system had returned to landownership byvillages or clans, and agricultural production was stillrun by respective households. As a result, the agricultural society of former days could be seen again inmost of the villages. They had returned to their pointof origin.
Until 1958, the land system of the Jinuos was clan
ownership (Yin, 1991: 151-160). Then, the state cameto own their lands, and their villages became the Cooperative Society for agriculture. After the People’s
Commune was formed, the villages became production teams. They engaged in cultivation in groups, andprovisions were distributed according to their labour.
The agricultural production system changed once
again in 1980. The Responsibility System for Agricultural Production (農業の生産責任制; 土地承包 in
Chinese) was introduced to Jinuo society. The first
introduction came in 1980-1984 and the second, in
1995-1996. The lands once owned by the villages
were divided and given to each farmer who became
responsible for controlling his own land.
The enforcement of the Responsibility System for
Agricultural Production brought an end to the Jinuos’
production system which had been initiated by clan
leaders. Since 1958, ‘The People’s Commune’ denied
and banned the Jinuos’ religion and culture, such as
ceremonies associated with farming. However, theJinuos have been restoring them in recent years.
The forests were also divided into state forests,

Shifting Cultivation in Xishuangbanna, China

commons, and private properties.
The Jinuos practice shifting cultivation even today,
as shown in Fig. 4, but they began to grow cash crops
such as Amomum villosum (砂仁) that was introduced
by a Cantonese merchant in the 1960s, Fructus
zingiberis (益智) (both herbs for Chinese medicine
cultivated in the shade of trees), tea and natural rubberin the latter half of the 1980s (Xu et al., 1989).
The Jinuos produced the following items traditionally by shifting cultivation:1) upland rice (they do not raise mixed crops),
2) Indian corn for main feed,3) several kinds of beans (mainly soybeans cultivatedamong crops other than rice),4) cotton, perilla (荏胡麻; Perilla ocymoides), sesame, ground nut, some kinds of melons and taroes.
They grow melon, soybean, and chili, or white
gourd, squash and taroes by mixed cultivation.
Up until the present, they have kept producing allthese crops, but only cotton cultivation has disappeared from their production since the latter half ofthe 1980s. They could secure the cotton supply
because China is a big producer of cotton.
In general, two or three families work together
from slashing to harvesting. They call this cooperative
work ‘buroh.’ They usually slash and burn the same
fields for three or four years, but will extend it to fiveor six years if the soil is in good condition.
Their yield of upland rice is 1,000 kg/ha according
to the author’s fieldwork, but they achieve 3,000 kg/ha
in good fields.
On the other hand, the wetland paddies produce
4,500-5,250 kg/ha of local varieties of rice, and 7,500
kg/ha of hybrids in Xishuangbanna.
2.4 The system of shifting cultivation
Jinuo farmers take the following steps to prepare
their shifting cultivation ‘hyangna.’ (These are theFig. 4 Typical shifting cultivation fields.
This is the landscape of the traditional shifting
cultivation fields after the harvesting of rice, at
690 m a.s.l., near the Baka-xiaozai settlement. Thereis a shed for relaxation in the fields.
(Photograph by S. Shirasaka, November 1992)

25

steps which one farmer told the author and they may
not be in complete agreement with the general practice. This farmer, of course, managed in Type B to bementioned later.):
1) They (usually husband and wife) conduct deforestation between 8:00-11:30 a.m. and between
3:00-6:30 pm in August. It takes three days to deforest 1 mu (畝, about 670 m2), and therefore 45days to deforest 1 hectare.
2) After drying the slashed trees, they burn them andprepare the soil for planting from October toMarch. They do not plough the fields.
3) They sow the fields with upland rice in May; theman digs very small holes in the fields with a bamboo pole and the woman sows. They harvest in
September by picking only the heads of rice plants.
They do not manure the fields, but weed them out
in general.
4) After drying the picked heads for seven to eightdays in the fields, they thresh them on bamboo
mats. They separate the rice and hulls by winnowing in the wind, and then carry the rice home.
Threshing is men’s work and carrying is women’s.
5) After harvesting the upland rice, they burn thefields again between November and December,and then they plough the fields using their buffaloes. They use the same plough for both dryland
and wetland fields. Ploughing is men’s work
(Fig. 5).
6) They sow upland rice in the fields again in May,and repeat the same process.
7) In May of the third and fourth year, they cultivate
soybeans, maize, buckwheat, foxtail millet, andother crops in the same fields.
They used to cultivate cotton in the fields, but wecannot find it being cultivated today. Perilla, sesame,and taro are cultivated on the circumference of the
fields.

Fig. 5 Ploughing a shifting cultivation field.
In fields with two- or three-year cultivation, they
prepare for the next year’s cultivation after harvesting.
First, they burn the fields. Today, they plough after
burning in the second year, with cultivation for two or
three years. The author guesses that ploughing is an
initial step in permanent cultivation of the land.
(Photograph by Prof. Yin, Shao-ting, early 1990s, nearBaka-xiaozai of the Jinuo tribe)

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Shigeru SHIRASAKA

They have kept buffaloes from the old days anduse them for transportation. Therefore, it was easy forthem to introduce ploughing. The author estimates thatthey began ploughing in shifting cultivation in the
1950s.
The family whom the author interviewed in
December 1992 consisted of six persons, i.e., husband
and wife, their two children, and their parents. They
kept two buffaloes and cultivated 20 mu (about
1.34 ha) of Swidden per year and only 1 mu (670 m2)
of wetland paddy. In addition, they planted natural
rubber in 2 mu (13.4 a) of land, but they did not intend
to increase the number of natural rubber trees, because
the price was low. Their major cash crop was mainly
Amomum villosum.
In the case of this family, their yield of upland riceby shifting cultivation was 750-975 kg/ha. However,the upland rice yield was not enough to support thefamily, and wetland rice supplementing upland rice
barely satisfied the needs of the family.
If the first year’s yield of upland rice in the slashedand burnt field is taken as 100%, the second year’s
one will be reduced to about 80%.
The Responsibility System for Agricultural Production was introduced in 1983. Each farmer was
allotted land for shifting cultivation at a rate of 9 mu
(about 60 a) per person in this village. This particularfamily of six was given, therefore, 54 mu (about
3.6 ha) of land for Swidden. When the author
interviewed them in December 1992, this family wascultivating 20 mu (1.33 ha) of the 54 mu (3.6 ha).
The family slashes and burns 6 or 7 mu (about
0.47 ha) of land a year, and cultivates it for 3 or 4
years. Then they leave the land fallow for 7 or 8 years.
One cycle of shifting cultivation lasts about 10 years(12 years at the longest). This cycle is the one usuallyobserved in Xishuangbanna. As they said that the fallow period was 12-15 years before World War II, theperiod has clearly become shorter now.
This family’s area for shifting cultivation was dispersed among five separate places. Their farthest field
was 6 km away from their house, and the nearest one
lay 1 km away from their village. There are sheds forrelaxation in these fields, but they do not usually use
these sheds except on rainy days.
They choose the area to burn in view of their yieldin the preceding 2 or 3 years, and considering theamount necessary to support the whole family, but the
Jinuo village authorities participate in choosing thecultivation area of natural rubber.
Ethnic Jinuos possess advanced technology forpaddy cultivation in dry fields (陸稲栽培). In the areaof Jinuo Mountain, even though more than 30 traditional paddy breeds have been lost, there are still 71
paddy breeds being cultivated. Among these breeds,
16 types are precocious (early ripening) (早生), 16
types are mid-season rice crops (中生), and the rest
(21 types) are late-ripening types (晩生). Of the 71
paddy breeds mentioned above, 25 types are glutinous

rice (Yin 2000: 98-100). According to the author’sinterviews in March of 2005, they kept only 14 types(only two types of glutinous and eleven types of
non-glutinous rice). Fifty-seven types of rice had already disappeared form their culture with the decreasein shifting cultivation.
In order to maintain food sustainability during the
pre-harvest season (端境期), the Jinuos adequately
arrange for cultivation of three breeds, such asprecocious, mid-season-ripening and late-ripening
varieties. To achieve this goal, they cultivate various
breeds by taking into consideration of several specificconditions, such as the condition of soil, altitude of theland, and weather of that year. As a result, they
manage to utilize the maximum fertility of the soil andmaintain the quantity of the harvest.
On the other hand, one of the characteristics ofshifting cultivation among highland farmers is mixed
cropping, which refers to the cultivation of various
kinds of plants on the same field simultaneously.
These mixed cropping fields are called ‘Bai-Bao-Di(百宝地 in Chinese),’ where at least six to seventypes of plants are cultivated (Fig. 6). Sometimes, thenumber of plant types exceeds 20 in Bai-Bao-Di.

Fig. 6 Typical mixed cropping field (Bai-Bao-Di) of theHani tribe.
Bai-Bao-Di means ‘field to take many treasures’ inChinese. They grow different kinds of crops in one
field at the same time. By this cultivation system,
they can expect some harvest of crops even when
the climate changes suddenly in that season.
(photograph by Yin Shao-ting, early 1990s, inManhedong- zai, Jinghong, Xishuangbanna)

Shifting Cultivation in Xishuangbanna, China

Mixed cropping methods differ according to different ethnic groups.
The agricultural production system changed in
1980s. The Responsibility System for Agricultural
Production was introduced to Jinuo society in 1983.
The lands once owned by the villages were divided
and given to each farmer.
The Jinuos practice shifting cultivation even today,
but they have begun to grow cash crops, such as herbs
for Chinese medicine, tea and natural rubber since the1980s under national, provincial, and prefectural authorities. The authorities asked the Research Instituteof Tropical Crops of Yunnan and the Jinghong State
Farm to teach the minorities how to cultivate rubber
trees, tea, and herbs for medicine. Today, the cultivation of these cash crops is central to their subsistence.
2.5 Hunting and gathering of people who adopt
shifting cultivation
Generally speaking, hunting and gathering play animportant role among the mountain minorities in theirsystem of shifting cultivation.
The Jinuos produce vegetables by intercroppingand mixed cropping, but their vegetable production
insufficient to support a whole family. Gathering rootstocks, edible wild plants, bamboo shoots, mushrooms,
and some nuts is important. Several kinds of worms
are a very important source of protein to mountaintribes. Gathering is a women’s job.
The Jinuo people hunt panthers, bears, wild boars,
a kind of rat (so-called bamboo rat) and wild birds.
The burning fields provide them many chances for
hunting. They lie and wait for the many animals andbirds that run and fly away from the burning fields. In
the harvest season, animals and birds crowd aroundthe fields, and sometimes damage the crops in thefields. At these times, hunting is a mean of protecting
their fields as well as of obtaining protein (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7 Going to the fields.
A man and wife are going to their fields. The man always
keeps his rifle for hunting, and his wife is working as she
spins cotton. This spinning is a general practice among
the mountain minorities in Yunnan Province. In recent
years, their hunting was completely prohibited for theconservation of nature under the strict national policies.
(photograph by S. Shirasaka, January 1989)

27

However, their hunting has been completely prohibited since 2001 in order to conserve nature understrict national policies.

3. Changes in the Social Environment for
Shifting Cultivation
3.1 Population changes of the minorities and their
SwiddenAfter the 1950s, natural and social environments
underwent a large-scale transformation. The greatest
was population growth among the minorities in
Yunnan Province. The population of the minorities
increased by about two and a half times between 1952
and 2000 as shown in Table 1.
The one-child policy is strictly applied to the Hanpeople, but not to the minorities, especially in themountain area of Yunnan Province. The Dai people
who have been cultivating wetland paddies in theplains of Xishuangbanna, for example, are allowed tohave two children and there is no restriction on the
Jinuo according to the author’s fieldwork. Therefore,
the population of the minorities has increased remarkably. It is a serious problem for the people engaged mainly in shifting cultivation. According to thedata published by the Bureau of Population, Yunnan
Province, the population of the Jinuos increased markedly as shown in Table 1. Other minorities are following same trend as the Jinuo people. The growth rate of
the minorities was higher than that of the Han.
In the Jinuo people’s area, arable land including
paddies increased from 1,248 ha in 1954 to 2,250 hain 1985 and to 14,913 ha in 2005. Wetland paddies
covered an area of 283 ha in 1985 and 447 ha in 2005.
The slashed and burnt area increased by 1.6 times,
from 1,248 ha in 1954 to 1,967 ha in 1984 (Yin, 1992:
297-298; and the author’s interview in March 2005).
According to research and statistics on shifting cultivation in Yunnan, one person needs 52 mu (about
3.5 ha) of forestland to guarantee a sufficient
circulation of fallow land in shifting cultivation. Thatis, one person plants 4 mu (about 27 a) of shifting
cultivation per year and it takes twelve years (onecycle is thirteen years) to let the land lie fallow after
one year of farming activities have finished. Therefore,
it is necessary for a family of five to have 260 mu(about 17.4 ha). In the minimum case, it takes eight
years for one cycle, which means one year for
cultivation and another seven years to let the land lie
fallow. In this case, at least 30 mu (2.0 ha) per capita
is needed for sufficient circulation of fallow land. If
all these conditions are provided, sustainable shifting
cultivation is preserved.
If we observe conditions in various places in theworld, however, the relationship between populations
and forest resources is heading in a negative direction.
That is, under certain circumstances, population
growth is uncontrollable while in other circumstances,the process of deforestation is rapidly proceeding. The

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Shigeru SHIRASAKA

decline and fall of shifting cultivation in Yunnanclearly shows this relationship between population
growth and forest resources.
The Jinuo people’s area which can be used forshifting cultivation has decreased with the increase inpopulation. The most important problem that theyneed to solve today is population growth. Their land isclearly too overpopulated for them to continue shifting
cultivation. It cannot yield enough to support the
population. The author can find no other alternative
but to change their agricultural system and shorten thefallow term of the shifting cultivation.
In the past, many minorities who practiced cultivation transferred their settlements and relocated to otherareas (Yin, 2000: 16-21). However, they became
settled down before they knew it. The author supposesthat the Jinuo people followed the same process ofTable 1

Populations of Minorities & Han in Yunnan, China (1952-2000).

Minority
Miao
Yi
Yao
Hani
Lisu
Va
Lafu
Jingpo
Blang
Primi
Nu
Benglong(Du’ang)
Durung
Jinuo
Total

relocation and settling down in their history. The Jinuo
people have generally become known today as one of
the minorities who settled down and engaged in
shifting cultivation.
Yin Shao-ting (1992: 266-277) has found that the
Jinuos generally practice two types of shifting cultivation: one-year cultivation (Type A; 無輪作焼畑) andtwo or three-year cultivation (Type B；輪作焼畑).
Though they do not plough in the case of Type A, theyusually plough using buffaloes in the case of Type B,
as shown in Fig. 5.
The Jinuos had been practicing Type A cultivation
until around the 1940s. The land of most villages was
divided into thirteen sections, and one cycle of shifting cultivation was completed in thirteen years with afallow period of twelve years. They thought twelve
years were necessary for the recovery of the vegeta-

1953
359,992100
1,839,770
100
72,317100
452,353100
219,757100
286,161100
121,400
100
102,811100
18,833100
12,458100
12,736
100
2,926
100
2,501
100
3,860
100
3,507,805
100

1964
427,496
119
2,122,358
115
85,856
119624,527138
260,200
118
200,237
70
193,860
106
57,222
56
40,274213
14,293115
15,041
118
7,252
248
3,085
123
5,903
153
4,056,767
116

1982
752,122209
3,352,732
182
147,147203
1,058,386
234
467,869213
298,516104
304,131251
92,87690
58,328310
24,141
194
22,837
179
12,279
420
4,599
184
11,954310
6,607,913
188

1990
896,712249
4,054,177
220
173,114239
1,248,106
276
557,144254
347,738122
408,203
336
118,322
115
81,768434
29,302
235
26,583
209
15,399
526
5,536
221
17,843462
7,979,947
227

1995
918,100
255
4,195,600
267
179,100
248
1,296,300
287
585,600
266
360,200
126
412,800
340
121,900
119
85,000451
31,000249
27,000212
17,000
581
6,000
240
18,000466
8,253,600
235

2000
1,043,535
290
4,705,658
256
190,610264
1,424,990
315
609,768277
383,023134
447,631369
130,212
127
90,388480
32,923264
27,738218
17,804
608
5,884
235
20,685536
9,130,849
260

Sources: Yin Shao-ting (2000) and The Bureau of Population , Yunnan, China.

1952
Han

11,750,000
100

1964

1984

1990

1995

2004

n.a. 22,968,000 24,769,000 25,881,900 26,573,700
n.a.
195
211
220
226

Source: Yunnan Province (1986) and the Bureau of Population, Yunnan, China.

Shifting Cultivation in Xishuangbanna, China

tion and fertility of the soil. Indeed, the author ascertained that the forest had recovered well after lying
fallow for twelve years. The minorities who practiced
shifting cultivation generally developed systematicand sustainable cultivation methods.
One characteristic of the Type A shifting cultivation is that they use no hoes or ploughs, while in TypeB they plough by buffalo as mentioned earlier. Only
three of the 46 Jinuo villages practiced Type A cultivation in 1986 (Yin, 1992: 274). Their system of cultivation has changed remarkably from Type A to Type B
since the latter half of the 1950s. Type A needs moreland than Type B. They can conserve land by the
adoption of Type B cultivation.
Type A was the time-honoured form of shifting
cultivation in Yunnan. It has the following characteristics (Yin, 1992: 268-269; and the author’s fieldwork):
1) They can thoroughly exterminate weeds and pests
by burning the wooded hills after a long fallow
period.
2) They know that continuous cultivation in the same
slashed and burnt fields decreases fertility, breeding in weeds and pests rapidly, and that it delays
the recovery of the forest because it blights tree
stumps in the fields.
3) In the fields where one-year cultivation is practiced,
soil erosion and flow are reduced to a minimum.
4) They do not plough the fields for one-year cultivation. Burning exterminates weeds and pests, andthe fields grow fertile after a long fallow period.
Therefore ploughing is unwise from the viewpointof agricultural techniques.
5) The crop production rate is comparatively high infields where one-year cultivation is done, that is,
the labour productivity is high (Table 2).
Table 2 shows that Type A takes less time thanType B. Manpower is two times as high with Type B

29

in comparison with Type A in shifting cultivation. In
particular, it is necessary for them to spend many
working hours weeding with the Type B system. The
growth rate of weeds in the tropics and the subtropicalzone is more terrible than we can believe.
The author can say that the mountain minorities
who engage in shifting cultivation, shifting their cultivated fields every year, save time that would otherwise be needed for weed control. Local mountain people call their shifting cultivation ‘the lazy fellow’s
fields (懶火地; Lan-Huo-Di in Chinese).’ They saythat their shifting cultivation system keeps productivity high and saves labour.
The Jinuos have been known as an ethnic group
who practiced ‘the crop without rotation system,’ thatis, single-year cultivation (Type A) with a circulationof 13 years in old days. Starting from the 1940s, thefarming system with crop rotation with a circulationof a few years (Type B) appeared in several big Jinuo
settlements like Baya-zai and Baka-zai (zai means
settlement). Furthermore, in the 1950s, the crop rotation was further developed in Baya and Baka-zai.
During this time, not only was ‘the crop without rotation system’ practiced, but also a crop rotation systemwith a few years farming was observed. Some of themeven had shifting cultivation, practicing a ten year
crop rotation system.
The two different crop rotation systems (Table 3 &Table 4) are shown as below: Table 3 shows the
combination of crops in the short-term crop rotation
system (farming in 2 to 3 year periods and letting theland lie fallow) in shifting cultivation. This information was collected in Jinuo villages, like Baduo-zai.
Table 4 shows several case studies of long-term crop
rotation systems (farming in 5 to 6 year periods) in
Baya and Baka settlements (Yin, 2001: 43-46).
From the cases mentioned above, one can see that

Table 2 The number of working days required for single-year and two- or three-year cultivation by the Jinuo
Tribe in the 1980s.
Single-year cultivation per 1.25 ha (Type A)
Two- or three-year cultivation per 1.25 ha (Type B)
Number of
Number of
Kind of work
Kind of work
days
days
(man-days)(man-days)
・felling
20
・felling and weeding20
・making a fire-break line around3
・burning and combustion3
the field
・initial burning
1・cultivation
・several subsequent burnings
10plowing the field by buffalo
16
tilling in the field with a hoe
40
・field preparation
50
・sowing seeds
20
・sowing seeds
47
sowing seeds after plowing by baffalo(7)with hoesowing seeds after tilling with hoe(40)・weeding
40・weeding
180
・harvesting, threshing and120
・harvesting, threshing and carrying to the120
carrying to the village
village
Total
214
Total
418-476
After Yin, Shao-ting (2000: 45).

30

Shigeru SHIRASAKA
Table 3 Crop combinations in the short-term system of the Baduo Settlementin the Jinuo Area in the first half of the 1980s.

Sample field
1
2
3
4
5

Crop rotation
cotton - dryland rice
dryland rice - cotton - dryland rice - soybeansmaize - buckwheat (in winter) - dryland ricesoybeans - buckwheat (in winter) - dryland rice
early ripening maize - sweet potatoes - dryland rice

After Yin, Shao-ting (2000: 43).
Table 4 Crop combination in the long-term rotation system of the Baka-xiazai Settlement in the Jinuo Area (1986).
Crop rotation
PatternI

1st yearbuckwheat

2nd year

3rd year

4th year

5th year

6th year

Fallowterm

dryland rice

perilla andsesame orgroundnut
and soybeans

dryland ricemaize

dryland rice

15-20
years

dryland rice

dryland rice(hybrid)

15-20
years

II

dryland ricesoybeans

dryland ricesoybeans or
maize,
groundnut
and sesameIIIdryland rice
(glutinous)

dryland rice(hybrid)dryland rice(hybrid)soybeans orperilladryland ricemaize
or soybeans
and sesame

15-20
years

IV

dryland ricemaize

dryland ricemaize

dryland rice

maize

15-20
years

After Yin Shao-ting (2000: 44).

an advantage of practicing crop rotation system byfarming at an interval of several years is to save land(forestland). However, one disadvantage of this system is the need for a large amount of labour, comparedto cropping without rotation by farming once in one
season. Furthermore, they also faced the serious problem of weeding.
According to Yin (2000: 44-45), the labour force
input in the crop rotation system (Type B) with aninterval of several years is two times larger than thatfor single-season cultivation (Type A) as shown in
Table 2. Why is two times the labour force needed in
the crop rotation system with an interval of several
years? Table 2 clearly shows the amount of labour
needed in the crop rotation system and the crop without rotation system of the Jinuos’ shifting cultivation.
In the case of crop rotation with an interval of several
years, there was a need to plow the farming fields repeatedly using hoes and ploughs. In addition, muchtime was also needed for weeding.
Harm from weeds can be a serious problem intropical highland agricultural farming. Sometimes,
harm from weeds can even cause a complete loss ofthe harvest in highland agricultural farming. The tremendous condition of weed overgrowth is unimaginable in tropical or subtropical zones.
As mentioned above, Type A cultivation has many
excellent characteristics in comparison with Type B;
therefore, the Jinuo people want to continue using
A-Type cultivation, but it has been getting more andmore difficult for them to sustain their farming system.
Type A cultivation needs more land than Type B.
On the average, land of 4 mu (about 27 a) is required
to produce enough food to support one person for ayear. If one cycle of land use (cultivation and fallow)
is 13 years, 50 mu (about 3.4 ha) is needed for only
one person. Therefore, in the case of a five-member
family, it is possible for them to preserve the sustainable shifting cultivation if they keep 14 ha in the forest. Today, they cannot keep the amount of land forshifting cultivation that they want to preserve.
When the population keeps on growing and a land
shortage occurs, cropping without rotation in shifting
cultivation (Type A) would bring the situation into a
critical stage. When this type of crisis happens, someethnic groups choose to plant trees in fallow land as asolution. By planting trees, the growth period of thetrees can be shortened. However, most of the ethnic
groups choose to utilize the reclaimed land for farming for a few years ⎯ the so-called crop rotation shifting cultivation system (Type B) ⎯ as a solution forthe crisis.
In using land for several-year farming, there are
two types of crop rotation in shifting cultivation: ashort-term crop rotation and a long-term crop rotation.
As the farming period gets longer, the more land it
is able to save. For example, in the case of a land
where 3 years of crop rotation and a fallow term of 15
years are practiced, it is able to save 12 mu (0.8 ha)

Shifting Cultivation in Xishuangbanna, China

per capita, compared to the case of single-year cultivation (Type A). In other words, on the average, it isadequate to have 18 mu (about 1.2 ha) per capita. In
the case of land where five-years of crop rotation anda fallow term of 20 years are practiced, about half ofthe land will be saved, that is, 15 mu (1.0 ha) per capita of land will be needed on the average. Certainly, in
reality, it would be difficult to distribute suitable land
to all members of the settlements adequately by taking
short-term or long-term crop rotation into consideration. Even if part of the land is suitable for crop rotation, it can relieve the population stress on the land.
For this reason, from the beginning of the 1950s, thecrop rotation shifting cultivation system has been themain agricultural system in Yunnan (Yin, 2000:
39-48).
The village authorities of the Jinuo people once
made it their policy to provide one person with 3 mu
(20 a) / year for 7 years to complete one cycle. That
was the shortest possible cycle of shifting, cultivationconsidering the natural and ecological conditions (Yin,
1992: 284). Even for this cycle of cultivation, 21 mu(1.4 ha) was needed for one person.
On the other hand, Type B requires 15 mu (1.0 ha)
for one person in a cycle of 15 years including three
years of cultivation and twelve years of lying fallow.
If the term of cultivation is 5 years, the land necessary
for one person will be no more than 9 mu (about 0.6
ha). They can save land by the adopting Type B.
Population growth has been one of the most important causes for the shift from Type A to Type B in
shifting cultivation. Their land is clearly too overpopulated to continue with shifting cultivation andcannot yield enough to support the population. The
author finds no alternatives unless their agricultural
system is changed and the fallow term is shortened in
shifting cultivation.
The extended cultivation period and the shortened
fallow period mean that they cannot continue the normal shifting cultivation. Not only the Jinuos but also
other minorities in Yunnan are confronting this problem (Yin, 1991: 198-205).
The population increase among minorities in
Yunnan Province is mainly caused by reforms in thesocial system since 1949, including a medical system
and measures for minorities, among many others. Also,
the ‘One-Child Policy’ was not forced upon minorities.
However, Jinuo society was restricted to no more than
two children from the 1990s. Consequently, thepopulation of minorities in Yunnan has tended toremain stable since the 1990s.
3.2 The deadlock of the Swidden and the makingof permanent fields
Figure 8 illustrates models of the shifting cultivation from the past to the present (Shirasaka, 1995:
114). It is based on the supposition that two thirds ofthe biomass is lost by burning and the remaining one
third (roots and trunks) is preserved. In the past, the31

population was small and the fallow term was long.
Today, the population has grown and the fallow term
has been shortened, which means that the vegetation
cannot recover fully and that shifting cultivation is indanger of failure.
Yin (1992: 276-300; 2000: 43-45) reported that insome cases the fallow term was as short as 3-5 years.
The author infers from the fieldwork that the fields
will become virtually permanent in the near future as
the cultivation term extends and the fallow term shortens as at present.
The first and second introduction of the Responsibility System for Agricultural Production in 19801984 (第一次土地延包 in Chinese) and 1995-1996(第二次土地延包) is another social factor accelerating the emergence of permanent fields. Under thissystem, they cannot enlarge their cultivation area aseasily as they used to.
If the population growth continues, the fallow term
will be made shorter and shorter, and the forest will
not fully recover. The author assumes that virtuallypermanent fields will appear in near future. The authorities of Yunnan Province and Xishuangbanna Dai
Nationality Autonomous Prefecture have been making
efforts to promote production techniques of such cash
crops as natural rubber, tea and Amomum villosum
since the 1980s in order to prevent such a criticalsituation in their field system.
The provincial and prefectural governments want
the mountain minorities to free themselves from shifting cultivation by developing natural rubber cultivation.
Natural rubber was introduced to Hainan Islands insoutheastern China, in 1919 by some Chinese returning from Malaysia, according to the author’s fieldwork. China had imported natural rubber from
Malaysia until the outbreak of the Korean War when
the allied powers cut its import route. China, therefore,
has had to develop its own natural rubber production

Fig. 8 Model of the relationship between shifting cultivationand declining biomass in the southern part of China.
*The time axis is graduated in ten year intervals.
S. Shirasaka and T. Kikuchi made this figure on the
supposition that two thirds of the biomass is lost duringslashing and burnting (the remaining one third comprises
roots and trunks).

32

Shigeru SHIRASAKA

since then. Rubber cultivation started on the Jinghong
State Farm (景洪国営農場), Xishuangbanna, in 1953.
It was experimental, so they searched for the best possible natural conditions for producing natural rubber.
The yield of natural rubber increased after the establishment of the Jinghong State Farm in the 1960s.
In the 1980s, the Research Institute of Tropical
Crops of Yunnan (雲南省熱帯作物科学研究所) andthe Jinghong State Farm have introduced rubber production techniques to the minorities in the mountains(Abe, 2002; Lan, 1992; Yoshino, 1989; Yunnan
Province, 1986). In addition, with the introduction of
the Responsibility System for Agricultural Production,
young rubber trees were distributed for free to theminorities, and natural rubber cultivation spreadamong the minority societies in the montane zone.
Chemical fertilizers have not been used in shifting
cultivation even when the biomass in the soil decreased. In those days, the minorities in the mountains
could not afford fertilizers. The author surmises thatshifting cultivation reached a deadlock because of the
population increase and the minorities were forced to
begin cultivating cash crops.
Today, the introduction of cash crops such as natural rubber and tea has greatly changed the occupation
structure among the minorities (Fig. 9).
The national, provincial, and prefectural authorities
have vehemently opposed shifting cultivation, andrecommended the introduction of cash crop’ cultivation to the minorities in the mountain areas since the1980s. The Jinuo people needed only ten years to master techniques of natural rubber cultivation, and theyknow the cultivation techniques well today. The introduction of cash crops such as natural rubber, tea, andherbs for Chinese medicine has greatly changed theoccupation structure among the minorities since thesecond half of the 1990s.

Furthermore, the Chinese government adopted ‘theSloping Land Conversion Program,’ also known as‘Grain for Green’ to convert shifting cultivation land
to forest (「退耕還林」政策) in 1995. The government
provides either 300 kg of dryland rice or ¥20 (元;Chinese Yuan) to farmers for each mu (670 m2) of
their converted land every year for 8 years. Although
free saplings are provided, the right to cut trees
belongs to the government.
The Jinuos have used the trees, cutting them for
firewood while preparing for shifting cultivation.
Therefore, it is important to find a substitute fuel for
firewood when reducing shifting cultivation.
On the other hand, under the policy of the national
government, the Jinuo village authorities introduced
the Responsibility System for Agricultural Production
two times: the first in 1980-1984 and the second in
1995-1996. The village authorities decided from theirexperience that it was necessary for each inhabitant touse 3 mu (about 20.1 a) per year, and that the basic
system of shifting cultivation would be to cultivate forone year and let lie fallow for 6 years. Therefore, each
inhabitant was assigned the land of 21 mu (about
1.4 ha). Land was distributed basically by the numberof family members. For example, in the case of thefamily with five persons including newborn babies,
they were assigned the land of 105 mu (about 7.0 ha).
The local government decided not to change thissystem for 30 years from 1996. In Jinuo society,however, clans originally possessed land based on avillage as unit. Consequently, families belonging tovillages with much land were provided more land thanfamilies belonging to villages with little land. According to the author’s fieldwork, the distribution per person ranged from 16 mu (about 1.1 ha) to 27 mu (about
1.8 ha).
As land under shifting cultivation decreased, com-

Fig. 9 Transition from shifting cultivation to permanent fields.
This landscape shows the tea and natural rubber fields on the slopes along a valley at 1,000 m a.s.l. There are wetland paddies
in the bottom of ravine. The former land use on these slopes was shifting cultivation. We can see their holy hills where gods
dwell near the ridge and the headwater conservation forest in the small valleys. (photograph by S. Shirasaka, March 2005)

Shifting Cultivation in Xishuangbanna, China

mon land was distributed for cultivation in the second
phase of the Responsibility System for Agricultural
Production. Consequently, no common land remainedin the villages.
Under the Responsibility System for Agricultural
Production, many families today hold ownership ofland in four to six different locations. Some lands areclose to their settlement but some lands are 10 km
away from the village. In the past, before 1980, when
the population of a village increased, they used to divide their village and migrate to a new settlement.
However, the Responsibility System for Agricultural
Production forces each family to settle in a designatedland. Migrating to a new settlement is no longer possible. Nonetheless, two new villages for migration were
found from the author’s fieldwork; one was settled in
the 1980s and the other in the 1990s.
What is most critical to the Jinuos is that all land,
excluding those distributed to households and common land, were designated as national lands under the
Responsibility System for Agricultural Production.
Evidently, the Jinuos cannot continue shifting cultivation on state land.
With the introduction of the Responsibility System
for Agricultural Production, the Jinuos feel difficultyin shifting cultivation more and more keenly. Because
national authorities had required modifications to thenational land and forest laws, the area of national andconservation forest increased, limiting shifting cultivation, and areas for nature conservation were widely
established.
State forests and the natural conservation districts
were designated by the government in the territory of
the Jinuos in the 1980s, and those areas account for
63.1% of the Jinuo people’s territories. Roughly
speaking, the lands available for the Jinuo tribe havedecreased to one third of those of the past, as shown in
Table 4. After the establishment of the nature conservation district in 1985, shifting cultivation was prohibited in all state forests and nature conservation forests, and in the commons, which were their water conservation forests and holy hills.
The Jinuo tribe could use 70%-80% of all their territories for shifting cultivation before the 1950s, but
now they can use less than 35% from the 1990s.
As mentioned above, the available land decreasedin the Jinuos’ territory and their commons were distributed to each household with the second phase of
the Responsibility System for Agricultural Production.
Therefore, most of their various commons have disappeared. However, part of their commons close to theirvillages was left.
The author believes that the Jinuos’ shifting cultivation system, which is one of their most important
traditions, will disappear in the near future because of
the various social conditions that the Jinuo people arefacing now, as mentioned above.

33

3.3 Changing systems of cultivation and subsistence
Today, the Jinuos’ subsistence has changed fromtheir traditional shifting cultivation to cash crop cultivation on a large scale under the national policy forchange. Although many Jinuo families kept their shifting cultivation on a small scale until the latter half ofthe 1990s, the subsistence of the mountain minorities
including the Jinuos in Xishuangbanna has firmly
changed to their cash crop cultivation of natural rubber (Fig. 10), tea, herbs for Chinese medicine, andothers, and they have abandoned shifting cultivation.
The annual production of natural rubber in China
is about 500,000 tons in recent years. They produce
most of it in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.
On the other hand, China’s consumption of natural
rubber reached 1,600,000 tons in 2004. China ranks
first in the amount of world rubber consumption due
to expansion of the domestic car market. China imposes a 20% duty on imported rubber, and encourages
the cultivation of rubber on Hainan Island and in
Xishuangbanna. Therefore, the producers’ price of
rubber has increased three times since 2000 according
to the author’s fieldwork, December 2005.
There are 46 villages in the Jinuos’ territory, which
are located in the mountainous district from about
600 to 1,350 m a.s.l. The limit for cultivation ofnatural rubber trees is about 1,100 m a.s.l. They cancultivate Amomum villosum below 1,000 m a.s.l. Tea
trees can be grown anywhere, and the quality is very
good when the trees are grown above 1,000 m a.s.l.
Table 5 shows the crop cultivated and area undercultivation in recent years by the Jinuos.

Fig. 10 Terrace culture of rubber trees.
This shows young rubber trees in the fields after
shifting cultivation at 1,100 m a.s.l. They have cometo make terracettes for preventing soil erosion innatural rubber cultivation. According to the author’s
fieldwork, the highest fields for rubber growing aresituated 1,100 m a.s.l. around Jinghong Basin, but
the author has heard some local people say thatrubber trees over 1,000 m a.s.l. are less productive
than those below it.
(Photograph by S. Shirasaka, January 1989)

34

Shigeru SHIRASAKA

Many families still provide food for themselves,
except for rice, from the permanent fields near theirvillage. Under the policies of the provincial government, the local authorities set a target for providing all
Table 5 The cultivated area in the Jinuos’ territories.
( ha )
2002
2108.31161.4594.4
234.8
415.9*

Crop
1996
2001
rubber1727.52107.6
Amomum villosum
1021.81122.1
tea
431.3
553.8
watermelonnana
wetland paddy
373.9
na*Data of 2004
Amomum villosum is an herb used in Chinese medicine.
(Data from the Jinuo Village Authorities)

Fig. 11 Carrying latex home.
Local people tap the rubber trees and take latex early
every morning. They carry latex by pole from rubber
fields to their home.
(Photograph by S. Shirasaka, 1,030 m a.s.l., March
2005)

(a)

Fields that have just been burnt in the background. There
are sheds here and there, at 1,060 m a.s.l. In recent years,
they have been making terracettes and planting rubber or
tea trees after burning. We can see young tea trees on thisside. Perhaps, we will be able to see rubber groves or a tea
plantation 10 years from now here.
(photograph by S. Shirasaka, March 2005)

Fig. 12inhabitants with one mu of wetland paddy. Therefore,
many families own a small amount of wetland paddy
now. The Jinuo, however, do not like wetland rice because it does not suit their taste. Thus they are often
found selling the wetland rice which they made andbuying rice which suits their taste. Consequently, thepolicy of increasing wetland paddy land does not contribute to a reduction in shifting cultivation at all (Abe,2002).
The minorities in the mountains make more cashfrom producing natural rubber and Amomum villosum(Chinese herb for medicine) along with tea, their traditional cash crop, and can buy rice more easily now.
According to the author’s fieldwork, the area of
cash crop cultivation is as follows: natural rubber,
3,033 ha; Amomum villosum, 1,236 ha; and tea, 763 ha,as of 2004. From the viewpoint of their income, natural rubber takes first rank accounting for almost 50%,
with Amomum villosum second at 30%, and tea third,
20%, among all sources of Jinuo village income.
Rubber tree cultivation has become now the mostimportant means of subsistence among the minorities
in the mountain areas of Xishuangbanna (Fig. 11) under 1,000 m a.s.l. in general. We can frequently findfreshly slashed and burnt fields, especially at the endof the dry season from March to April, but the fields
are not used for shifting cultivation any longer. Theyarrange the fields and cultivate rubber trees and tea(Figs. 12(a) & (b)).
The state-operated processing companies buy mostof the natural rubber produced. A few foreign companies, such as Japanese companies, buy and processsome of it. While the price of rubber was 8 Chinese
Yuan per kg before China became a member of the
WTO in 2001, it has increased to 14 Yuan per kg since
2004.

(b) They plant rubber and tea soon after burning in recent
years. (photograph by S. Shirasaka, Dec. 2005)

Recently burnt fields (a) and recently planted rubber trees and tea (b).
Both photographs were taken at the same site.

Shifting Cultivation in Xishuangbanna, China

Fig. 13 Mixed cultivation of natural rubber and tea.
In recent years, especially since the latter half of the
1980s, the landscape of natural rubber and tea cultivation is to be found everywhere in Xishuangbanna. Thisshows a view of mixed cultivation of natural rubber andtea at 1,100 m a.s.l. The author is very interested inthese mixed cultivation systems from the viewpoint ofallelopathy. In this case, when they cultivate rubber
trees with tea trees, both trees are affected by each otherand it is not necessary for them to take insecticides andfungicide. This cultivation method is not so popular in
the area. (photograph by S. Shirasaka, March 2005)

Most of the tea produced in Xishuangbanna isprocessed by local private companies but part of it issold to tea brokers, sent to Pu’er Prefecture and madeinto the famous ‘Pu’er tea (普洱茶).’ The development of the cash crops contributes to an increased income among the minorities in the mountain areas.
In the near future, all of their shifting cultivation
areas will be turned over to natural rubber and tea
cultivation (Fig. 13).

4. The Forest Rate and the Holy Hills in
Natural Environment
4.1 The decline in forest cover and changes in thenatural environment
Economic conditions in southwestern China, including the Yunnan region, have changed a great deal
since the political and economic center transferred tosouth Non-Song in twelfth-century China. Many people emigrated into the southwest, that is to say, theYunnan region from northern China. A wide area offorest was cut down for reclamation, building materials, salt production, charcoal for copper metallurgy,
and firewood. The forest cover ratio in the Yunnan
region was probably between 70%-90% although
locally the forest decreased remarkably.
The ratio in the middle of the 20th century was
50% for the entire Yunnan region, and notably 19.8%
in northern Yunnan, 22.2% in the west, and 50%-70%
in Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan. But the ratio in
the middle of the 1980s decreased to only 4% in thenorth, 6.3% in the west and 33.9% in Xishuangbanna(Lan, 1992).

35

One of the most serious problems in terms of theenvironment of the region in recent years has been theeffect of deforestation on the local climate (Yoshino,
1986, 1989; Zhang, 1984; Nomoto et al., 1989;
Nomoto, 1995). Figure 14, which Dr. S. Nomoto
kindly provided the author, shows the secular changes
in annual, February, and August mean temperatures.
Each thick line denotes a deviation from the 30-year
average value. All the lines show that the temperature
has been rising. Thin lines indicate the changes in the
5-year moving average temperature (Note the difference between year and month in the graduation of thelongitudinal lines).
This study by Dr. Nomoto has made it clear thatthe climate of Yunnan is influenced by various factors,
such as the SW monsoon, the polar continental air
mass over mid-Siberia, the sea surface temperature of
the Pacific Ocean, and probably human factors. With
regard to future research, we have to consider not only
the climates of regions other than Yunnan, which we
think are essential to our work, but also various data
concerning human factors. According to Dr. Nomoto,who is making a special study of the climate of
Yunnan Province, the temperature rise is conspicuous
only in Xishuangbanna in Yunnan Province.
Zhang (1984), Nomoto et al. (1989), and Yoshino(1986, 1989) pointed out the effects that recklessdeforestation have exerted on the local climate in
Xishuangbanna in the last three decades:
1) Annual precipitation decreased by about 4%, i.e.,by 50-60 mm. This decrease was remarkable in thedry season from December to April.
2) The annual relative humidity decreased by 2%-3%.
The absolute humidity decreased by 0.3 mb, and
0.8 mb in the rainy season.
3) Foggy days decreased by 7-15 days, especially in
winter. As the fog layer became thin, the durationof sunshine extended by 330-370 hours per year.
Because of its many foggy days, Xishuangbanna is
nicknamed ‘the State of Fog.’ One researcher divided
the seasons of the southern part of Yunnan Province
into three, the dry season from March to May, therainy season from June to September, and the foggy
season from October to February.
The annual number of foggy days was 160-180 in
Jinghong in the 1950s, but less than 100 days in theearly 1980s. According to the recent data, foggy days
numbered about 70 in the first half of the 1990s. That
is to say, the local climate of Xishuangbanna is getting
drier. The average temperature is falling in winter, andrising in summer.
As a result of the decrease in foggy days, the duration of sunshine extended. Scholars have come to thisconclusion about the local climate regardless of theirview on global climate changes in general.
The forest cover ratio was 50% in Xishuangbanna
at the beginning of the 1950s but decreased abruptly(Lü, 1992). According to the author’s fieldwork, theforested area decreased suddenly in the 1970s.

36

Shigeru SHIRASAKA

Fig. 14 Trends in temperatures in Jinghong, Xishuangbanna(1958-1987). (Data Source: Dr. S. Nomoto)

The author does not jump to the hasty conclusionthat the increase in areas under shifting cultivation by
the minorities is the only cause of the decrease forest
cover in Xishuangbanna. It is certain, however, thatthe main cause is the development of agriculture
throughout China, including by the Han.
4.2 Mountain minority society and ‘holy hills’
When the author observed the minority groups in
Xishuangbanna, such as Shui-Dai tribe, Han-Dai tribe,
Jinuo tribe, Santa tribe, and Tibetan people, he found
one interesting similarity among these minority
groups: the existence of ‘holy hill (unexploited) forests.’
Holy hills clearly exist among the Jinuo and Santa
tribes, who have been highly dependent on shifting
cultivation. The Jinuo holy hills (hyotsu: hyo means
mountain and tsu means god) are also a burial place
for the dead, and the akulo’mu (akulo means a sourceof water and mu means a head) are the forests where
the Jinuos get drinkable water. Additionally woods(hou) which aimed at the fire prevention are locatedaround their villages.
The Santa tribe maintains important forests that arelocated in highlands above their settlements. They
definitely do not use them for shifting cultivation.
They do not give a special name to these forests, eventhough it is certain that this forest occupies a large
area which has never been exploited.

In the Han-Dai group, there are also their holy hills(long-shan, 龍山) which are located far away fromsettlements, are situated at a high altitude and havenever been exploited. These forests have been said toby places where gods live. The main trees of these
forests are Kassod trees (Cassia siamea) and theHan-Dai people have used their branches as firewood.
According to the author’s interview with the Han-Daipeople in Tuguo-zhai, there are many places wheredead bodies are buried in the long-shan.
Paddy farming is the main occupation of the
Shui-Dai people. There are common forests (Bahyao)near their settlements where they believe that gods areliving. Bahyao means a place where the dead are buried and the Shui-Dai people utilize this forest as a
cemetery. Through the author’s fieldwork in the
Tibetan people’s settlements located in northernmost
Yunnan, the author has confirmed the existence of
so-called ‘jeida,’ also meaning ‘holy hill,’ as unexploited forests.
The existence of holy hills (unexploited forest) is afascinating phenomenon among mountainous minority
groups because they have depended highly on shifting
cultivation. This phenomenon clearly shows thatminorities in Xishuangbanna already possess the technologies of preserving natural resources, such as restoring steep slopes and maintaining unexploitedforest.
Today, some of these holy hills have been includedin the state forests and national nature conservation
districts in the Jinuo territories, but most remain along
the ridges and valleys and near their settlements(Fig. 9).

5. Concluding Remarks
The Author thinks that shifting cultivation is essentially a sustainable and rational system of agriculture,
given certain physical, environmental, and social conditions. The minorities in the mountainous regions ofsouthwestern China place shifting cultivation at thecentre of their living. They have long been carrying ona systematic and excellent practice of Swidden thatworked harmoniously with the natural environment
through accurate analysis of the natural arrangement,
soil conditions, topography and characteristics ofcrops. The minorities’ agricultural system, however,has been obliged to change because of population
growth since the 1950s.
The decrease in the forest ratio in Xishuangbannahas been caused by various factors, such as commercial deforestation and agricultural development, but
population growth and an increase of the area of shifting cultivation of the minority societies have accelerated the deforestation.
Population growth has been destructive to the sustainability of shifting cultivation, along with the introduction of the Responsibility System for Agricultural
Production in the 1980s.

Shifting Cultivation in Xishuangbanna, China

Although differences occur among each area andeach minority society in Yunnan, they have been facing deforestation due to the increase in population
since a long time ago. Most of the Swidden cultivators,
to different degrees, are facing problems of deforestation and difficulties surviving. Nevertheless, Swidden
cultivators have not taken this critical situation passively. They have been working hard to adapt themselves to this environment and to ease the contradiction between the problems of the increase in population and deforestation.
With introduction of the Responsibility System for
Agricultural Production, they have experienced difficulty in their shifting cultivation more and more
keenly. The national authorities had required modifications to the national laws on land and forests. The
result was that area occupied by national and conservation forests increased, restricting shifting cultivation, and nature conservation areas were widely established. Before the 1950s, the Jinuo tribe could use
70%-80% of their territories for shifting cultivation,
but this declined to less than 30% in the 1990s.
Today, the mountain minorities who have engaged
in shifting cultivation on a small scale in southwestern
China are keen on introducing large-scale cash crops
such as natural rubber, tea and herbs for Chinese
medicine under a strong national policy of extinguishing their shifting cultivation.
Shifting cultivation is declining rapidly and thefields will turn to permanently cultivated land for rubber and tea under strong national and provincial policies. Their hunting has been completely prohibited fornature conservation under strict national policies.
The mountain minorities of Xishuangbanna havedeep ecological knowledge of their natural environment and they have been engaged in their shifting
cultivation even recently. Shifting cultivation is an
important culture that the mountain minorities haveproduced and maintained, with much ecologicalknowledge. The author believes that traditional shifting cultivation with detailed ecological knowledge
will disappear in Xishuangbanna in the near future.
The cultivation system of the mountain tribes including the Jinuos in Xishuangbanna developed fromtheir efforts to adapt to their natural environment and,later, to the political and socio-economical environment. Shifting cultivation as a culture of the mountainpeople is vanishing in Xishuangbanna.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to express his greatest gratitude to Prof. Yin, Shao-ting of the Anthropology
Museum of Yunnan University, Ms. Tan, Xiao-xia and
Ms. Wunier of Yunnan University, Mr. Zi, Qie of the
Cultural Centre of the Jinuo tribe in Jinghong,
Xishuangbanna, Wang, Ke of ex-head of the ResearchInstitute of Tropical Crops of Yunnan, Prof. Emeritus

37

Masatoshi Yoshino of Tsukuba University and Senior
Advisor of the United Nations University, Prof.
Emeritus, Dr. and Mrs. Karl A. Sinnhuber,
Wirschaftuniversität Wien, and Dr. Han, Jiho of St.
Paul’s University for their comments and kind advice.
The author first presented this article to the United
Nations University International Symposium ‘Conservation of Mountain Ecosystems,’ 1 Feb. 2002, Tokyo,
Japan, as one of the global international events scheduled for the International Year of Mountains.
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