English 2.28MB - Center for International Forestry Research

| Site description
The process of compiling the map showed us that, even if the landscape
around Khe Tran is severely disturbed, mainly made up of secondary forests,
plantations, grassland and bare lands, villagers recognize a large number of wild
resources not far from the village, including some extremely rare animals (tigers,
bear). According to informants, these animals were observed at some time during
the last 5–6 years.
Therefore, even if the knowledge of resources and land type locations is
important, it is concentrated mainly in the village’s vicinity. We will return to this
map during our discussion on traditional knowledge in the following chapter.
Summary
The village is characterized by the presence of a strong minority group, the
Pahy, mixed with the majority group in Vietnam, the Kinh, and with the Khome.
The population of Khe Tran moved during the war against the USA, some to
A Luoi district, close to the Laotian border, and some into Laos. At the end
of the war, they were authorized to resettle in their village, and in 1992 the
government encouraged the villagers to settle near the main road and helped
them to develop more sedentary cultivation of rice fields and industrial crops
plantations of Acacia and rubber.
Only few people among the 20 households have received no education.
Most villagers spend a large amount of time in their gardens, rice fields and
plantations. The village is divided in two areas, the upper part, where villagers
have smaller incomes and depend on home gardens and Acacia plantations for
their livelihoods; and the lower part, with a higher mean income, depending
on more diversified crops cultivation, including Acacia and rubber plantations,
home gardens and peanut, cassava and rice fields. The 20 households are
scattered and it takes about 30 minutes to walk from one end of the village to
the other.
Villagers distinguish a large number of land types, some corresponding
with the official nomenclature. Of the eight main land types, forests account
for three. In addition to big tree forests and small tree forests, villagers include
plantations among the forest landscape. This classification may relate to the
official ‘forest status’ of the bare land used for plantation. Plantation forests are
part of a large land allocation and forest rehabilitation plan promoted by the
local government to provide more income from ‘stable’ and sedentary activities
and to keep the villagers out of more forest-dependant activities (shifting
cultivation, timber collection, NTFP collection), especially in the Phong Dien
Nature Reserve. Nevertheless, participatory mapping of the natural resources
of the village shows that knowledge of forest products, wildlife and other
natural resources is still important among the villagers, even if this knowledge
tends to be limited to the close vicinity of the village. We did not collect
much information on areas situated farther from the village, in the core zone
of the Nature Reserve. Villagers also have a strong sense of ownership when
discussing land tenure in the village, repartition of plantation responsibilities
and expectation in the future.