|
|
|
PDF
|
|
Type:
|
Conference Paper |
|
Author:
|
Tannenbaum, Nicola |
|
Conference:
|
Inequality and the Commons, the Third Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property |
|
Location:
|
Washington, DC |
|
Conf. Date:
|
September 17-20, 1992 |
|
Date:
|
1992 |
|
URI:
|
https://hdl.handle.net/10535/741
|
|
Sector:
|
Forestry |
|
Region:
|
East Asia |
|
Subject(s):
|
forest management
social change
reforestation
rice
agricultural expansion
irrigation
equity
IASC
|
|
Abstract:
|
"Shan farmers have practiced a mixed rice cropping strategy using both irrigated and hill fields. While the hill forest is crown land and it is illegal to cut timber and make fields, until recently these laws have not been enforced. Farmers cleared a hill field, used it for one crop of rice and, perhaps, a second crop of sesame and then left it fallow for ten to fifteen years. Farmers only had usufruct rights to the field and they retained no residual rights to reclear the land; once the trees grew back any one could clear it and plant rice. Due to the increasing deforestation in Thailand and the market for plantation grown teak many hill areas are being re-planted in teak. Reforestation appeals to international ecology movement and benefits the military and elites who gain from the timber concessions. The amount of land available for swiddens is rapidly decreasing with negative consequence for the farmers who relied on it to meet their subsistence requirements.
"In this paper I show how use of this common property has changed from maintaining relatively egalitarian economic relationships within the community to a means of reinforcing the wealth differences on both a national and local scale."
|