Ecological Resource Use and Household Strategies in Minority Areas of Myanmar : Towards Wider Regional Comparison

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The purpose of this project was to examine the ecological resource use and, economic, social and cultural strategies of households as units of subsistence activities in minority areas of Myanmar. Myanmar is a country rich in resources, and in spite of political and social instability, it has been experiencing considerable capitalization of its economy as a country. However, the regions with which this project deals, have been less involved in the national economy, and in many cases more connected to border economies with neighboring countries within the globalizing network. Studies of these areas will benefit from a wider regional as well as comparative perspective. This project is carried out by scholars from diverse disciplines who have either been involved in the study of Myanmar, or, with minorities who are distributed both in Myanmar as well as other neighboring countries. Members of the project all started from micro perspectives on the ground to look at ecological resource use a … More nd/or household strategy as a way to understand the larger dynamics of the ecological and social changes in the region.As a result of this project, we have firstly been able to build a foundation towards wider regional comparison, by gathering basic data on the ecological resource use in relation to human livelihood, its social and cultural foundations, including historical material. Secondly, through the research of the members, we have examined how the ecological and social characteristics of the region are undergoing change through their relationship to the neighboring areas across the border, from a multi-disciplinary perspective. In Bago mountains, data were collected and analysed both from the perspective of forest ecology and management of forestry as well as from the strategies of the swidden cultivators and peasant participants in the taungya forestry We have also looked at the socio-economic adaptation of swidden-cultivators in Chin State, the generational continuity through land allocation as well as folk practices in Karen State, and the adaptive strategies taken by Shan saw-bwa households from a larger historical perspective. Less