Pathways of “Indigenous Knowledge” in Yunnan, China

Abstract

Although the word indigenous is prohibited in China, indigenous knowledge was adopted by a Chinese NGO in Kunming in 1995 to focus on minority farmers' land uses that protect biodiversity. The author's research on Akha farmers in southern Yunnan traced Akha land use from 1950 to 2006, assessing the effects of changing political economies, especially the 1980s switch to a neoliberal path, on Akha land management. Akha practices that maintained biodiversity persisted through collectivization (1958–82) and economic reforms (1982–1997), but have almost disappeared since the 1998 state policies reclaiming villagers' forests and sloping agricultural lands. Aspects of neoliberalism that combined crisis environmentalism with state development plans have removed Akha land uses that protected biodiversity more effectively than socialist collectivism did. Links between indigenous knowledge and biodiversity are called into question as Akha farmers plant monoculture cash crops on remaining lands.