| This thesis investigates the importance of forest products for Hmong highland minorities in Sa Pa district, Lao Cai province, northern Vietnam. Since their migration from Yunnan nearly two centuries ago, the Hmong in upland Vietnam have remained relatively autonomous, relying on a diverse production system including wet rice terraces, swidden fields, livestock, non-timber forest products and, more recently, for a limited number, handicraft and tourist-related activities. In 1992, the Vietnamese Government, via Decree 327, officially banned all forms of slash-and-burn practices and opium cultivation, thus cutting off highlanders from important sources of income. Drawing on qualitative field work, I examine the changing livelihood portfolios and the place of forest products within the Hmong domestic economy from the socialist (1954-1986) to the post Doi Moi period (1986-present) in Sa Pa district, Lao Cai province. Then, focusing on one such forest product, by using a case study of cardamom, analysed through a commodity chain approach, I detail trade networks and inter-ethnic exchange dynamics regulating the commercialisation of cardamom in Lao Cai province. As such, this study unravels the dynamic and fluid nature of Hmong livelihood strategies and the place of forest products within these livelihood portfolios. |
