Vegetation of Southeast Asia Studies of Forest Types 1963-1965

Formerly, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia collectively formed the
French Union of Indochina, as it was known in official documents,
or simply Indochina. This large area occupies the eastern portion
of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia, situated between
parallel 8° 30'and almost 20° N, and meridians 100° to 109° 30' E.
Indochina was established by France as a single political
entity towards the end of the 19th Century. Up to that time this
large territory was not united, by any political or administrative
ties, but represented an assemblage of different states and Geographically
diverse ureas.
Under French rule, Indochina consisted of 5 territories or
protectorates; Tonkin, currently a part of North Vietnam; Annam,
in central Vietnam, divided betweer .forth and South Vietnam; Cochin-
China, now forming a part of South Vietnam; Cambodia; and Laos.
When Indochina lost its cohesion, in 1946, it was divided alonrj
geographical and ethnical lines into the independent states: Laos,
in the northwest, with an area of approximately 89,000 square miles;
Cambodia, in the southwest, covering an area of about 70,000 square
miles; and Vietnam, in the east, with a total area of approximately
126,000 square miles. In 195^, & t the Geneva Conference, Vietnam
was separated into the Republic of South Vietnam, the region couth
of the 17th parallel, as distinguished from the Communist-dominated
State of North Vietnam, north of-the parallel.
The great majority of the inhabitants of Southeast Asia are
farmers and peasants. It is estimated that up to 85 or 90 percent
of the national income of each of the five countries is derived from
agricultural, crops and forest products. Approximately 65 percent
of the land, under permanent cultivation, is u&,ed for fee production
of rice. Other natural products or crops c.f importance include:
timbers, especially teak from northern Thailand, bamboos, rattans,
Para" rubber (Hevea bras il tens is) from plantations, lac and cassava
(Manihot), for domestic use and for export, and corn, oeans, peanuts,
cotton arid kenaf fiber, tobacco, vegetables, fruits and other nrorvu:c>.
As in most Asiatic countries the diet consists principally or
plant foods, especially rice. '•' -, also figures prominently i :> the
diet of ail classes.
The general physiography of southeast Asia is that of' .nonitain.
ranges, with peaks upwards of '.,;> 00 i't. (2,000 m.) in altitude, Interspersed
with mountain ';or;;os 5 plateaus and /-rcat plains.
The region is drained by numerous rivers, nost of which i'low
in a southerly or southeasterly direction, and their estuarier; i'c>m
extensive deltas. The largest of these, and the longest in iSouthear.t
A^ia, is the Mekong, flowing tlirou^'i pLateaus and plains of vt;stc;rn