Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Effects of Ethnicity and Migration on Forest Use and Conservation in Central VietNam

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0108992Dove / McElwee The impact of native groups on tropical forests is not well understood. In some cases, analysts feel that traditional societies have a benign conservationist effect on the forest, in others, that they exploit and degrade the forest with no thought on future productivity. This project involves the dissertation research of a Forestry/Environmental Studies and Anthropology student from Yale University. The student will analyze the effects of ethnicity, migration and land tenure on forest use in Vietnam through ethnographic fieldwork using participant observation, household surveys, mapping and analysis of extant records. The hypotheses to be tested are that ethnicity, migration and land tenure play a role in how different user groups manage the forest. Three different ethnic groups will be studied: indigenous Chut, in-migrant and longer-term Vietnamese, and in-migrant Muong. The new knowledge created by this project will advance our understanding of how multi-ethnic societies can manage a scarce resource, a timely question in the contemporary world. In addition the project contributes to the training of a young social scientist, and increases our knowledge of this important region of the world.