Their Ecology
By 200BC the Indo-Malay tribes of Vietnam and
Laos were forced into the Annamite Mountain forests by invaders who
seized the more fertile lowlands, hence the term "hill tribes."
The Annamites are the backbone of Indochina Peninsula and the
southwestern
portion of these mountains are in northeast Cambodia. The
original inhabitants of many other
countries in the world's humid tropics were similarly compelled to live
in forests.
The banished cultures which survived did so
"by
accepting and working within the constraints of the natural processes
associated with the year-round growing season and rapid ecological
succession in the humid tropics." 1 Their environments became an "agroecosystem" consisting of various life supporting
activities or subsystems the most important of which was/is
agriculture. The gathering of
non timber forestry products such as bamboo, rattan, fruits,
vegetables, honey, medicinals, etc. is another subsystem while hunting
and fishing represent others. These non agricultural subsystems
provide many essentials and bartering materials moreover serve
as a famine reserve in
case of crop failure.
These mostly preliterate cultures possess highly complex and very specific knowledge of their
local vegetation and wildlife developed over hundreds and in some cases
thousands of years. Their rich
and reliable traditional knowledge base reflects the man-environment
relationships necessary to meet their needs while sustaining earthly
resources for future generations. They resolved the issues of forestry management and
maintenance of bio diversity many centuries ago.
Due to
the poor fertility of tropical forest
soils particularly in the mountains, they developed
shifting
cultivation or swidden farming. This is the practice
of farming a crop field for a brief period of time and fallowing
it for
a much longer
period. The farmer or "swiddener" has a
series of crop fields he
rotates cultivating one at a time. A crop field or "forest patch" is selected based on empirical criteria
coupled with spiritual considerations. To enable all
families in the community to remain in close proximity to the primary
forests for gathering, hunting, etc., crop fields are widely
dispersed.
The
usual method of clearing forest for a crop field is by felling trees
and burning them
along with other vegetation and ground litter to boost topsoil
fertility.
These people are known as "integral" swiddeners and in Asia consist of the tribal ethnic
minorities which include the hill tribes of Vietnam, northeast
Cambodia, and Laos. These tribes consider the "old
growth" or evergreen areas as primary forest whereas the tangent
deciduous areas with less valuable timber are secondary
forest. The primary forest is normally left undisturbed and
reserved for
hunting, fishing, gathering activities, and most importantly a place of
dwelling for ancestral spirits. Crop fields are generally cleared only in the
secondary
areas.
A
field is farmed for only 3-5 years then fallowed for 20-25 years during which time reforestation occurs
replenishing
soil fertility. Except for the one currently being cultivated,
the fields in a farmer's rotational system are in various stages of
reforestation. If a field is farmed too long, the soil fertility becomes
severely degraded which allows the Imperata
Cylindrica weed to take over. These weeds prevent the
recolonization of
trees and the forest patch becomes wasteland.
Once swidden communities are established, unless war,
famine, etc. forces them to move elsewhere,
clearing additional fields is only necessary to accommodate population
growth. However due to the very primitive living conditions of
these peoples, their natural
mortality rates are higher and life spans shorter which constrains
population growth to far less than the mainstream cultures in their
areas. As well, some of these swidden cultures minimize sex
until a child is wanted.
In the 1970's and 80's some western
environmentalists and
forestry managers began slamming shifting cultivation as wasting
resources and causing deforestation hence the derogatory phrase "slash
and burn agriculture". Indeed irreversible deforestation
does occur when migrants and peasants from other areas move into an
agroecosystem. They're primarily motivated in meeting immediate
economic needs and have no interest in sustaining the forest or desire
to
adopt the lifestyle of the integral swiddener. About the only
thing they get right is "slash and burn" otherwise they engage in
sedentary farming or permanent cultivation as practiced in their areas
of origin. The soils become totally exhausted and the opportunist
or "partial" swiddener abandons his field. Soil fertility
exhausted, Cogon Grass or Imperata
Cylindrica invades the field and prevents recolonization of trees causing deforestation and
wasteland. The environmentalists were correct but only with
regards to such migrants.
Following the 1975 communist victory in Vietnam, that
government began resettling millions
of lowland Vietnamese into the hill tribe forests of the Central
Highlands. These lowlanders became partial
or itinerant swiddeners as described above. This plus the
clearing of forests for massive state-run coffee
plantations brought about the demise of that agroecosystem and forced
those hill tribes into sedentary farming. A political motivation
was also involved through the communist policy of Cultural Leveling
which is designed to eliminate all ethnic minority
cultures.
Governments in other developing countries used
the outcry
of these environmentalists
as an excuse to outlaw swidden
farming. In reality most of these regimes couldn't
have cared less about
deforestation rather they viewed burned trees as lost timber export
revenue.
As time passed objective analysis of shifting
cultivation emerged proving that "slash and burn agriculture" was a bad rap as regards integral swiddeners and their
agroecosystems actually contribute to forest preservation.
Shifting cultivation however requires a low population density to allow
adequate
land for all participants. The world is growing smaller at a
rapid pace and land pressures will continue forcing migrants into the
few remaining agroecosystems. But the greatest threat is
ecological and culturally damaging commercial exploitation and logging
operations. If these tropical
forests and the integral swiddeners who steward them
are to be preserved, the governments of these developing countries require incentives and pressure.
One such mechanism is the 1998 U.S. Tropical
Forest Conservation Act (TFCA) based on former President
Bush's 1991 Enterprise for the Americas Initiative (EAI). The
TFCA enables bilateral agreements with developing countries whereby
their U.S. concessional debt is reduced to generate funds for social
and forest preservation programs; such agreements are referred to as
"debt for nature swaps". Of the nine
developing countries with TFCA agreements, the closest to Cambodia
is the Philippines.
The greatest damage thus far to the hill tribe agroecosystem
in Mondolkiri and Ratanakiri Provinces, Cambodia is caused by the Yali
Falls Dam hydroelectric plant on the Se San River and population
growth upstream in Vietnam. The Sen San originates in Vietnam and
runs west through southern Ratanakiri Province to the Mekong
River. The Se San is now very polluted and the lives of some
55,000 mostly hill tribes people in Cambodia have been severely
disrupted. Since 1999 the unannounced and erratic water releases
from the dam have caused flash flooding downstream which has drowned 36
people and countless livestock; as well, these people have suffered
millions of dollars in damage to houses, farm fields, fishing boats,
and livelihoods. The Cambodian and Vietnamese Governments have
done nothing to address this situation moreover Vietnam plans to build
more such dams on the Se San.
Otherwise since 1998 the population of Mondolkiri Province, Cambodia
has increased by 38% due primarily to Khmer migration from the
lowlands. Most are peasants who as mentioned above clear forest
land and practice sedentary farming resulting in deforestation.
Without an educated infrastructure and education
in general,
these hill tribes will never gain influence in government and
development
decisions which impact their lives and ecology. Their
agroecosystem will vanish just as it did in Vietnam and once the
habitat is destroyed so too a culture from which we can learn so
much.
One should
readily appreciate why the hill tribe existence requires living in
small hamlets or isolated. In Mondolkiri this results in at least
41% of children living beyond walking distance
to government primary
schools. Of those
who do attend primary school and finish, only the few at our one
homeless child shelter have access to the middle and high
schools in the province capital. The situation is much the same
in Ratanakiri to the
north where the population is threefold and there is no homeless
child shelter.
Educational Constraints
Mondolkiri Province
The populations of the Mondolkiri Province
capital and the four rural district towns are almost exclusively Khmer;
most all are merchants, local
government officials, and military personnel, and all are prosperous
relative to the rural people. As mentioned the hill tribes
live throughout the hinterland where
proximity
to primary schools is spotty and distances to middle schools and the
high school are insurmountable. To illustrate, currently there
are 8,425 students in the 61 primary schools yet only 148
students enrolled in the five middle schools. Oddly there are
678 students
in the one high school.
Subtracting the
combined primary, middle, and high school enrollments of 9,251 from the
Mondolkiri age 5-19
population
of 15,670 leaves 6,419 or 41% of school age children who are not in
school. Some may have completed primary
school but
can not attend a middle school due to lack of proximity; or, more
likely the 41% never entered primary school. Since
the rural population consists almost exclusively of
hill
tribes, their children comprise the overwhelming portion or possibly
all of
this 41%.
There are 98
villages in the province therefore 37 do not have primary schools. A “village” however for government
administrative expediency includes the numerous hamlets within
it’s
economic sphere which range from one to several miles from the village
proper. Oftentimes the cumulative
population in the surrounding hamlets exceeds that of the village
proper. If all 98 villages had a primary
school,
certainly the 41% not in school would be significantly less but many
children in
remote hamlets would remain beyond walking distance.
Presently (2005) 14 Mondolkiri primary
schools are
being
upgraded by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.
Summary
An innovative
program is required to take formal education into the
rural areas of Mondolkiri and Ratanakiri, Cambodia where there are no
schools. Moreover it should address the
larger socio economic
problems which plague these hill tribes and make them vulnerable to the
forces of development and outsiders who now want their land and
timber. Our program can accomplish these
objectives and serve as a complement to government education provided
we can develop and fund the human
resources to staff it. These teachers and advocates must be
indigenous to the area and there are plenty of orphans and impoverished
youngsters who are eager to have
mattered and can be educated and
trained for these roles.
In June, 2005 I learned of a
four-year $30 million USD World Bank grant program to greatly enhance
education in under served rural areas throughout the
country.
I'm due to meet with these officials in August to try and obtain
support for our program.
Please see Objectives & Needs
1. Food &
Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations, Katherine Warner,
Rome, 1991