SOCIALLY BENEFICIAL FOREST MANAGEMENT IN DUNHUA COUNTY: A BACKGROUND PAPER The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) promotes responsible management of the world’s forests both environmentally and socially. Socially beneficial forest management helps both “local people”1 and society at large to enjoy long term benefits and also provides strong incentives to local people to sustain the forest resources and adhere to long-term forest care. The purpose of this paper is to provide background information so that the compliance targets of socially beneficial forestry care in Dunhua County can be fully evaluated. It will consider:• • • •
Indigenous and local people in Jilin Province and Dunhua County Forest use and access by local people Community relations between forest farms and local people The benefit of the forest to local people
1.0 INDIGENOUS AND LOCAL PEOPLE Jilin Province There is 2,453,400 minorities in Jilin Province comprising (9.15%)2. The minority population of Jilin Province comprises 48 groups of which 91% include 5 groups: - Korean. Man. Mong. Hui and Xibo 90 % of the population are Hun 4.2 % are Korean 3.7 % are Manzu 0. 64 % are Mongzu 0. 47 % are Hui 0.07 % Xibo and other There are 189.000 Xibo living in China in 2 areas Xinjiang and Dongbei (Heilongjiang and Jilin) but the exact population in Jilin Province in unknown. There are 130,000 Da wu er in China but
1 2
See Discussion 4.1 - 4.4 2003 Source: Minorities department of the Yanbian KAP government
the exact population in Jilin Province in unknown Minority Administrations in Jilin Province 1 prefecture (Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture (KAP)) 3 counties (Qian Guo Er Luo Si Menggu, Chang Bai Korean, Yitong Manchu) 33 minzu villages Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture 800,000 Koreans Manzu 60,000 Hui 6,600 Mong 2,200 There are two ethnic villages in Yanbian KAP that are Manzu Dunhua city Koreans 23,000 Hui 3,000 Man 9,200 Dunhua Forest Bureau Korean 324 Hui 34 Man 76 The Han and the Manchu (Manzu) On several occasions I was told that “there was no difference between the Han and the Manchu (Manzu)” in Dunhua County which would appear to be politically expedient (Rhoads 2003) although highly questionable ethno-linguistically, culturally and on the basis of DNA analysis (Xue Y, et al 2005). It is important to recognise the aspirations of each ethnic group and not conflate them
Indigenous Peoples The following ethnic minorities (mizu) in Jilin Province might legitimately be considered as indigenous3:- Man, Mong, Korean, Hui, Xibe and Daur. Some caution is required because:• • •
Ethnic minority (minzu) is a political construct4 Minzu it is not based on an ethno-linguistic criteria or an autonym5 The term indigenous has been discursively engineered6
The people of southern Dunhua may be considered as indigenous as they can trace their history back to the Manchu dynasty, but they are not forest farm stakeholders. The people who live around the DFB Forest Farms are mostly Hanzu who typically migrated from Shen Dong province around 1941 to join the Japanese occupation (1941-1945) and remained after the war Others (mostly Han) arrived later during Mao’s 1968 “go to the countryside campaign” (shangshan xiaxiang movement) or later still as economic migrants. Given the facts it is not possible to consider an indigenous entity for the purpose of this audit but efforts should be made to address the aspirations of minority and rural stakeholders (who represent an alternative sub-culture7) and not conflate them
3
See Discussion 4.5 See Discussion 4.4 5 the self-assigned name of an ethnic group 6 See Dicussion 4.5 7 See Discussion 4.2 4
2.0 FOREST USE AND ACCESS Local Villagers8 and forest farm workers9 who live close to Dunhua Forest Bureau Farms collect up to • 15 species of mushrooms • 30 species of wild vegetables • 1300 species of medicinal plants • 5 species of nuts • 10 species of fruits • Grass fodder • Acorns for pigs • Fish • Honey • Water They reported that there are no restrictions on access or quantity collected except during the fire season when they had to register before they enter the forest. They consider that their current levels of gathering are sustainable and did not report that they had to travel further, or spend more time collecting certain products. This is impossible to assess without a baseline study, monitoring and evaluation and guidelines. 3.0 COMMUNITY RELATIONS Community relations appear to be predicated on top-down negotiation “through official channels” and the law. The concept of bottom-up participatory approaches appeared to be alien to FF staff and pragmatic answers to the repeated and justifiable break-down in community relations were not readily sought. The importance and benefit of the forest to local communities did not appear to be well understood with the exception of a few forest products. In some parts of China organizations such as the Ford Foundation10 and DFID have provided capacity building in bottom-up participatory approaches. This, however, requires political will from the centre and knowledge equity between all stakeholders (peasants, minorities, and indigenous people). I was able to find a pragmatic solution to the breakdown of community relations (over forest access) in Yunnan by transferring burnt forest land (and legal title) to local people as community forest.
8
10 villagers from Ya Cha and 8 from Long Cai He A Han couple, a Manchu couple & a Korean lady 10 I understand that Ford Foundation is longer working in China because of CIA links 9
4.0 FOREST BENEFIT The benefit of forests to local people is gaining international recognition as its importance for forest audits that include a social dimension11. 4.1 Methodology Although no internationally agreed typology of forest benefits exists, coalescing under the aegis of a 'post-modern' forestry paradigm (McCay 2000, Schelhas 2003) there appears to be a set of fifteen forest benefits which are important to many indigenous peoples and local communities (Brown & Reed 2000). Table 1 : Forest Benefits No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Value Aesthetic
Narrative I/we value the forest because we enjoy the forest scenery, sights, sounds, smells, etc. Commercial12 I/we value the forest because it provides income from timber, fisheries, minerals and tourism. Recreation I/we value the forest because it provides a place for outdoor activities. Life sustaining I/we value the forest because it helps produce, preserve, clean, and renew air, soil and water. Learning value I/we value the forest because we can learn about the environment through observation or experimentation. Biological diversity I/we value the forest because it provides a variety of fish, wildlife, plant life, etc. Spiritual I/we value the forest because it is a sacred, religious, or spiritually special place to us or because we feel reverence and respect for nature Intrinsic I/we value the forest in and of itself for its existence, no matter what others think about it. Historic I/we value the forest because it has places and things of natural and human history that matter to us. Future I/we value the forest because it allows future generations to benefit from the forest. Subsistence I/we value the forest because it provides necessary food and supplies to sustain our lives. Therapeutic I/we value the forest because it makes us feel better, physically and /or mentally. Cultural I/we value the forest because it is a place for us to continue and pass down the wisdom, knowledge and trusteeship from our ancestors Identity13 I/we value the forest because of its historic and cultural links with our community] identity. Place attachment' I/we value the forest or parts of it because we feel an emotional, spiritual or psychological attachment.
For the present study, in Dunhua, it was decided to scale forest benefits by asking focus groups 11
http://www.pefc.org/internet/html/news/4_1154_65/5_1105_1263.htm Note that “economic value” was changed for the purposes of the present study to reflect the distinction between commercial (financial) use benefits (which provide opportunities for the subjects to generate cash incomes), and subsistence use benefits which do not generate cash. 13 A further two sources of benefit were also anticipated a priori; these were place attachment, (14) and identity (15) 12
to allocate 100 curtain rings (representing the sum total of forest benefit to their community) between a set of 15 forest benefits. This would produce a scale between 0-100 for each benefit, a % and a rank order based on scale magnitude. Two focus groups were organized and meetings conducted in the following villages:
Table 2: Dunhua focus groups Village Ya Cha Long Cai He
Ethnic Group pants Han Han
All
Male Participants 10 8
Female Partici
6 5
4 3
At the start of each focus group meeting, the purpose of the study was explained. The forest benefits were presented and a narrative summary with relevant examples provided to clarify each benefit. Each of the forest benefits was written (in Chinese) onto a coloured circle and placed in order (for ease of recording) in front of the participants. Once the benefits had been explained and described, 100 curtain rings were made available to the participants who were then asked as a group to distribute all 100 rings across the different forest benefits according to their relative importance to the community (See Fig 1). It was made clear that they did not have to place rings on all the circles and that they could also add any benefits that they thought were missing from the presented typology. Once all the rings had been allocated, the group was asked if they were all satisfied with the resulting allocation and whether they could think of any additional benefits not included in the typology so far presented. In most cases, there were few changes or additions and then the number of rings on each circle was counted. The number of curtain rings on each circle represented a relative scale and rank order for each forest benefit. This methodology can be easily replicated, and could also be extended (with slightly increased resource implications) to incorporate derivation of cash values for forest benefits, using a common numeraire or unit.
1 A e s t h e t ic
3 C o m m e r c ia l
2 R e c r e a tio n a l
4 L if e s u s t a in in g
5 L e a r n in g
6 B io d iv e r s it y
7 S p ir it u a l
8 In t r i n s i c
9 H is t o r ic a l
1 0 F u tu r e
1 1 S u b s u s te n c e
1 2 T h e r a p e u t ic
1 3 C u lt u r a l
1 4 Id e n t i t y
1 5 P la c e a tta c h m e n t
Figure 1 : Ring allocation of forest benefit by Han villagers in Ya Cha
In order to test for concordance (agreement) between forest benefit data at Dunhua and with
similar studies (Lugu & Alaska) a non-parametric test, Kendall’s Coefficient of Correlation (W), was adopted. (See Tables 4-6) 4.2 Results Plot 1: Forest Benefit by Village
15 Attachment 14 Identity 13 Cultural 12 Therapeutic 11 Subsistence 10 Future 9 Historical Ya Cha Lomg Cai He
8 Intrinsic 7 Spiritual 6 Biodiversity 5 Learning 4 Life sustaining 3 Recreational 2 Commercial 1 Aesthetic 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Rings (Max 200)
Although 15 benefits were scaled only 13 were used for comparison with other studies
Table 3: Forest benefits in rank order (with a comparison with 2 other studies)
Rank
Dunhua
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Commercial Future Life sustaining Aesthetic Recreational Biodiversity Cultural Learning Intrinsic Subsistence Spiritual Historical Therapeutic
Lugu (Rowcroft, Studley & Ward 2006) Life sustaining Intrinsic Subsistence Aesthetic Therapeutic Future Learning Biodiversity Commercial Spiritual Cultural Historical Recreational
Alaska (Brown & Reed 2000) Aesthetic Recreational Life sustaining Biodiversity Future Subsistence Therapeutic Commercial Learning Intrinsic Historical Spiritual Cultural
Table 4: Comparison between Dunhua Lugu and Alaska
N Chi-square Kendall Coeff. of Concordance (W)
Aesthetic Commercial Recreational Life sustaining Learning Biodiversity Spiritual Intrinsic Historical Future Subsistence Therapeutic Cultural
3 19.658402 0.5460667 Average rank 11 7.8333333 7.3333333 11.666667 6 8 2.8333333 7.1666667 2.3333333 9.6666667 7.6666667 5.6666667 3.8333333
Degrees Of Freedom p-level Average rank Sum of Ranks 33 23.5 22 35 18 24 8.5 21.5 7 29 23 17 11.5
If W=1 there is total agreement and if W=0 there is no agreement. Table 5: Comparison between Dunhua and Alaska
12 0.0738301 0.3191001 Mean 241 156.66667 225.33333 248 150 224 112.33333 151 115.33333 209 161 154.66667 83.333333
N Chi-square Kendall Coeff. of Concordance (W)
Aesthetic Commercial Recreational Life sustaining Learning Biodiversity Spiritual Intrinsic Historical Future Subsistence Therapeutic Cultural
2 18.066116 0.7527548 Average rank 11.5 9.25 10.5 11 5.5 9 2.5 4.75 2.5 10.5 6 4 4
Degrees Of Freedom p-level Average rank Sum of Ranks 23 18.5 21 22 11 18 5 9.5 5 21 12 8 8
12 0.1136977 0.5055096 Mean 328.5 216.5 326 322.5 197.5 312.5 153 187 158 282 205 199.5 109.5
If W=1 there is total agreement and if W=0 there is no agreement. Table 6: Comparison between Dunhua and Lugu N Chi-square Kendall Coeff. of Concordance (W)
Aesthetic Commercial Recreational Life sustaining Learning Biodiversity Spiritual Intrinsic Historical Future Subsistence Therapeutic Cultural
2 13.355372 0.5564738 Average rank 10 9 5 12 6.25 7 3.25 8.75 2 10 7.5 5 5.25
Degrees Of Freedom p-level Average rank Sum of Ranks 20 18 10 24 12.5 14 6.5 17.5 4 20 15 10 10.5
12 0.3437485 0.1129477 Mean 41 42 18 58.5 32 29 19 44 17.5 44 40.5 33 20.5
If W=1 there is total agreement and if W=0 there is no agreement. 4.3 Comments Commercial benefit ranked 1st out of 13 forest (or 24% of total benefit) among respondents in
Dunhua which is considered much more important than a similar study at Lugu Lake and Alaska (Brown and Reed 2000). Clearly some care must be taken not to over-interpret these results, but overall they do suggest that forestry projects that typically use commercial or market benefits only capture a part of the total benefit of the forest to local people. Until recently, forests were seen as only having economic importance in so far as they could support commercial timber or wood extraction. Ultimately, unless the results of valuation are geared towards changing the economic trade-offs that are involved in sustainable forest management in the real world and capturing forest benefits as real values for local people, there is a real danger that the source of much of the world's economic life, will disappear altogether (Brown and Reed 2000). Recreational benefits are recognized in Dunhua where they ranked 5 th out of 13, although they were not elaborated on. The life sustaining benefit of forests are recognized in the region where they ranked 3rd out of 13 benefits in Dunhua, but were not articulated, but are assumed to be typical of rural people in China. The western mindset incorrectly assumes that many life-support services were largely independent of human agency, but from research in the region (Studley 2005) suggests that local people often saw every living and non-living thing in the world as being interrelated and interdependent and, typically, they embed nature in society (Raven Sinclair 2003 ). The Learning benefit of forests include all the modes of knowing that people use to elicit knowledge about and from the forest on the basis of cognition, epistemology and perception. It ranked 8th out of 13 among the people of Dunhua. This concept can be challenging for natural resource managers because they are part of a holistic and spiritual process that "gathers information from the mental, physical, spiritual, social, cultural, and historical realms" (Colorado 1989 page 52). The research tools (Raven Sinclair 2003) employed to investigate such benefits are often metaphysical and polyphasic 14 and may include feelings, history, prayer relations, spirit
helpers15 and dreams (Wayman 1967) as well as activities which may mirror western methods of 14
polyphasic cultures recognize that these other states of consciousness offer valid, valuable and complementary modes of knowing and types of knowledge that are not adequately addressed in our usual waking state alone (Walsh and Vaughan 1993) 15
The spirit helpers, for some people, are a conduit of information and knowing and dreams are a very important means of acquiring information, including knowledge of plants, songs and events of the future (Ankerberg and Weldon 2005)
knowledge gathering and learning. Biodiversity and conservation benefits only ranked 6th out of 13 in Dunhua although this is often a classic State/official technical rationale for forest-based interventions. For many rural people in China the spiritual significance of conservation appeared more important than the ecological significance. This response is similar to that of some other rural people (Callicott 1982), in that they are not deliberate conservationists or ecologists, but they manifest an ethical attitude16. From the perspective of the local people who have their own epistemologies and cosmologies of nature, species occupy special places and are protected, but not as species that should be 'conserved '. Discourse on biodiversity means little and is unrelated to local practices harnessing biodiversity for use. The concept of biodiversity, as embodied in the Convention on Biological Diversity, is strongly expert based. The focus is typically on genes, numbers of species, or ecosystem types. It fails to protect cultural diversity and traditional ethnic knowledge, which is already under threat (Howard 1994), or recognize the need to preserve areas where people live and rely on local biodiversity (Grubb et al 1993).
The spiritual benefit of the forest ranked 11th out of 13 at Dunhua but ranged from 0% in Ya Cha where villagers were insistent (with strong support from a senior official) that they “lacked any religion”17 to 7% at Lang Cai He. In common with the rural peoples of the region (Studley 2005) it is not uncommon for villagers to be able to identify mountain gods, sacred mountains, trees, animals, and springs which are often considered “superstitious” by urban Chinese or state cadres18.
The Intrinsic benefit of forests often presents semantic and paradigmatic challenges to western economists. In common with many rural peoples the Dunhua respondents appear to consider intrinsic benefit to be of relative importance (it ranked 7th out of 13) and a tenet of their beliefs (Callicott 1986, 1999). This is often the case when local people believe that 'everything on earth is inherently valuable because it has been created by a divine being' (Laverty and Sterling 2004). This contrasts with the enlightenment thinking (Locke and Kant) of many economists today and 16
Normative guidelines governing man's attitudes, behaviour, and action toward the natural environment. See Discussion 4.3 18 The term cadre refers to a public official holding a responsible or managerial position, usually full time, in party and government. A cadre may or may not be a member of the CCP, although a person in a sensitive position would almost certainly be a party member. 17
some ethicists who believe that intrinsic benefits do not exist, arguing that all benefits are humancantered, and that a value cannot exist without an evaluator (Laverty and Sterling 2004).
The 'future' benefit of forests (or 'intergenerational access to forest resources') has been debated in numerous studies19 and its importance is recognized (in 2nd place) in Dunhua County in common with other rural peoples (Colfer et al 1995). Not only is intergenerational access important but so is intergenerational equity. Whilst there can be a range of interpretations of intergenerational equity, the view put forward by Brundtland (1987 page 8-9) expresses the relevance of this concept to sustainability and the long-term management of forests.
Although the Subsistence benefit of forests only ranked 10th in Dunhua it was evident from the villagers interviewed that forest products play an important role in the local economy. Their value globally has until very recently (Emerton 1997) been either ignored by economists and developers or included under the aegis of "culturally perceived poverty", and therefore a pretext for economic development (Shiva 1989 page 10). This is in spite of the fact that 80 percent of the "majority world" (Studley 2005 page 45) depend on forest products for their primary health and nutritional needs. Several million tribal people all over the world depend on these products for meeting their subsistence consumption and income needs and in many countries 'minor forest products' are a major export.
There is evidence that the cultural, historic, aesthetic and therapeutic benefit of forests are being recognized globally although in Dunhua only the aesthetic benefit (ranked 4th) and cultural benefit (ranked 7th) were considered of any importance. Some resource managers20 realize that they must consider all the ways in which people are involved in ecosystems, not just commercially, physically and biologically, but also culturally, symbolically, mythically, psychologically, and emotionally. The symbolic and emotional connections between people and the land are as real and as important as the ecological relationships between species of plants and animals. Therefore, we need to look for ways to bridge the scientific understanding of the world with the indigenous ways of experiencing 19 20
Contact the author for details A detailed reading list may be obtained from the author
nature.
The identity benefit of forests is relatively unimportant to the respondents of Dunhua but this may have resulted from the difficulty in identifying a local example. Tibetans identify very strongly with forests associated with yul-lha sites (See Studley 2007) and it is not uncommon for communities with a long history associated with a forest area to identify strongly with forest areas (London 2007) especially if the resource is threatened (Mackenzie 1998).
The place attachment benefit of forests is considered important to respondents in Dunhua County (ranked 3rd out of 15). Place attachment is the symbolic relationship formed by people giving culturally shared emotional meanings to a particular space of piece of land that provides the basis for the individual’s and group’s understanding of and relation to the environment. Thus, place attachment is more than an emotional and cognitive experience, and includes cultural and spiritual beliefs and practices that link people to place. Because of their strong sense of place attachment loggers in Dunhua will typically establish an altar at the foot of a large tree (See Photo 1), before felling trees, and sacrifice a pig to the local mountain god to ensure protection. Attachment to place is profound, ongoing and dynamic, and initiatives related to “cultural landscapes” offer an invaluable opportunity to address issues relating to social, spiritual and ecological alienation and disenfranchisement21 in rural areas, and among local and ethnic people.
21
In China the values, worldview and indigenous knowledge of rural peasants & minorities is undervalued
Photo 1: Forest Altar in Dapucai Forest Farm, established by loggers before felling
Some anomalies appear to exist in the Chinese terms used, in particular with spiritual benefits. Spiritual has historic connotations22 (Anagnost 1994) with "superstition" (迷信 mixin) which as a pejorative description of certain beliefs and ritual practices came to China, via Japan, in the late nineteenth century. This and the subsequent campaigns against superstition has had the effect of separating practices such as shamanism & animism off as discontinuous with the other forms 22
See Discussion 4.3
of belief, which were classified as "religion" (宗教zongjiao).
Given that only two samples were taken in Dunhua county it is only possible to make some suggestions about the comparisons. It would appear that there is very good agreement/ concordance between Dunhua and Alaska. This suggests that disparate communities with similar worldviews and livelihood strategies rank forest benefits on a similar basis.
There is only moderate concordance between Dunhua and Lugu, which suggests that poverty, ethnicity and livelihood strategies (n Lugu) make a difference in benefit ranking. The following benefits are 8 ranks apart:- Commercial, Recreation & Therapeutic and the following are 7 ranks apart:- Subsistence & Intrinsic.
In order to provide strong incentives to local people to sustain the forest resources and adhere to long-term forest care it is important to incorporate all the locally recognized forest benefits into management plans.
5.0 DISCUSSION However “local people” are identified in China they are subjected to evolutionary stratification and discursive engineering by the civilizing centre. This applies to their location (“local”), what they do (land tillers = “peasants”), ethnic status (“minzu”), their knowledge (“inferior”) by their beliefs (“superstitious”) and origin (“indigenous”).
4.1 Local People Historically Chinese society was stratified: - Emperor-noble-urban-rural-barbarian. In spite of Communism, stratification still exists and is discursively engineered (oral & written) in official views of “peasants”, “local”, minority peoples, ethnicity, culture and indigenous people.
These views make bottom-up participatory approaches, community relations and the use of
indigenous or local knowledge or practice a challenge. The Chinese (Marxist-Leninist) model of development has one fundamental characteristic in common with the capitalist development project. There is fundamental agreement about the necessity and legitimacy of a major social engineering crusade. In order to facilitate the ultimate transition to a 'new era' it is necessary to replace local cultural values, and local practices and the knowledge systems that inform them with a singularly rational, scientific, and unquestionably superior cognitive system. It is only within the logics of these two ideologies of development that the diversity of cultural meanings of a local society can be reduced to 'backward',
Although the state tolerates ethnic revitalization as long as it helps tourism and fits in with its vision of 'sanitised' multiculturalism it continued to curb large-scale endeavour and to reduce popular culture to 'superstitious', 'local' and 'of the ordinary people'. Such practices are rarely shown on television or in school textbooks and when they are, they are represented as "thin description" or as a means of "commoditizing ethnicity" for tourism.
4.2 “Peasants”/Soil Tillers Starting in the late nineteenth century many crucial loan words entered China from Japan. Chief among them were peasant (nongmin), feudal (fengjian), and superstition (mixin). Over the next decades, both Marxist and non-Marxist Western perceptions of the peasants as a discreet and destructive element filtered into China. In the decade leading up to the May 4th Movement (1919)23, elites began to believe that China’s rural population was “backward” and a major obstacle to national development and salvation. For them rural China was still a “feudal society” of “peasants” who were intellectually and culturally crippled by “superstition”. While some intellectuals were more sympathetic to the peasants’ situation, they tended to demonstrate their sympathy by engaging in folklore studies in the 1920s which only served to reify peasants as a separate and quaintly anachronistic assemblage. The result was that the countryside lost its status as the heartland of Chinese values and the place that defined what it meant to be Chinese. In addition, those who tilled the soil gained a new harmful characterization requiring their isolation and reform. This represents a reversal of Western conceptions of modernization which tended to 23
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Fourth_Movement
turn peasants into farmers. Instead, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, “peasants” now have second-class citizenship, ironically, giving legal confirmation to the secondclass culture they earlier had been identified with (Cohen 1993).
4.3 Beliefs Officially Communist China is an atheist country, God does not exist, and only atheists are allowed to be members of the Communist Party. In reality there are only 50 million Communists and 1,950 million people who practice Animism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Even though it could argued that the Chinese are not very religious, religion and religious culture have had a profound effect shaping the Chinese psyche. Individuals in China often recognize a wide range of beliefs and religions including organized religions like Buddhism and Taoism as well as folk religions and beliefs in local deities, ancestral spirits and superstitions in the hope of making all spirits, gods and supernatural forces happy and thus ensuring good fortune. The goal for an individual is often to be in harmony with the cosmic world rather than seek one true, divine path. It is widely recognized that China has changed rapidly in such areas as economy, society, and the way of life since the beginning of the 1990s, but there is no comparable consensus as yet with regard to religion and religious beliefs. It would appear that religious belief and practice in China is characterized24 by: (1) A negative perception of ‘religion’ and confusing terms such as religion (zongjiao), belief (xinyang) and superstition (minxin) underlie the facts that few urban Chinese would admit they are religious; (2) Urban Chinese who are stretched between scientism and spirituality, pro-rationalism, proreligiosity and syncretism. (3) A complex religiousness in which a significant part of the population takes part in religious activities (practice) but do not necessarily hold a religious belief, and believes in religious powers or figures but do not consciously belong themselves to the corresponding religious organizations; (4) The majority of state or party cadres who officially are atheistic Marxists and reject
24
http://www.wun.ac.uk/chinastudies/debates/archives/05_06_program/seminarsix.html
superstition but a minority25 who possess a political26 and spiritual identity27 (5) Animistic-Shamanistic peoples who may not have a “religion” if their beliefs are deemed to be “superstitious” but typically believe in local deities, sacred mountains and trees and totem animals. They achieve harmony within the cosmos by placating local spirits or through a local shaman (See Studley 2007)
4.4 Minority Peoples The Minzu designation is a political construct based on Stalin’s definition of nationhood and has very little ethno-linguistic basis. In Yunnan Province, for example, more than 250 ethno-linguistic people groups applied for ethnic minority status but they were conflated to 24. Some scholars have suggested that the Yizu alone comprise more than 400 ethno-linguistic groups
There were assumptions that ethnic distinctions would disappear as class differences faded and a homogenous proletarian culture came into being. This clearly has not happened and although the organs of state continue to mouth the rhetoric of “ethnic participation” and “autonomy” progress is clearly predicated on a civilizing agenda
The discourses of the “civilizing centre” are predicated on hierarchies of class and ethnicity through an official social evolutionism schema that justifies the superiority and inferiority of different groups (Bulag 1999). The Han are anointed as the nationality of destiny while all minorities are classified as being located at various lower stages and exhorted to “catch up” with the Han in values, social customs, class structures and developmental praxis.
4.5 Indigenous People Indigenous people are variously defined 25
Reports say that at least one-third of the 60-70 million Communist Party members belong to a religious organisation. According to AsiaNews, the records of the Communist Party's Disciplinary Commission indicate that 12 million party cadres in urban areas are involved in religious activities, 5 million of them on a regular basis. At the same time, 8 million party cadres in rural areas are involved in religious activities and 4 million of them are regular religious participants http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=910 26 Communist Party member 27 of a religious believer.
“Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system” http://www.iwgia.org/sw641.asp
Han China is either reducing its indigenous people, especially if they are ethnic minorities, to three stereotypes or is systematically removing the foundations of minority autonomy by questioning the legitimacy of their native/indigenous status.
China's modernization agenda, featuring the centralizing and assimilating power of education and propaganda systems, draws on three stereotypes (Salas et al 2000) • • •
Indigenous people are passive like women, seen from the perspective of the male dominant Han society Indigenous people are like children who need to be educated in the higher values and 'culture' of the Han Chinese Indigenous people are frozen in the early stages of the unilinear evolution of society, unchanged, far from the cultural standards and the 'civilized' Han
In addition they have discursively engineered (Bulag 1999) the concept of indigenous by claiming native/indigenous status of Han everywhere, including minority autonomous regions (such as Mongolia). In Xinjiang they claimed native status because the indigenes had “disappeared without a trace” and because of blood relations and intermarriage with minority peoples...
In order to provide strong incentives to local people to sustain the forest resources and adhere to long-term forest care it is important that local/indigenous/ethnic knowledge systems, worldviews, culture, practices of earth care and language are not undermined by the civilizing propensities of the state.
6. CONCLUSIONS AND RECCOMENDATIONS Indigenous & Local Peoples The following indigenous people exist in Jilin Province:-Man, Mong, Korean, Hui, Xibe and Daur, but there only are few in Dunhua Forest Bureau area (Korean 324, Hui 34, and Man 76)
On the basis of official discourse there is “no difference between the Han and the Manchu (Manzu)”. While would this might to be politically expedient it is highly questionable ethnolinguistically, culturally and on the basis of DNA analysis.
The local people who live around the Forest farms are mostly “peasants” from Shan Dong province who moved to the area in 1941 during the Japanese war and remained after it finished in 1945. It is suggested that in order to provide strong incentives to sustain the forest resource and adhere to long-term forest care it is important that peasant/indigenous/ethnic knowledge systems, worldviews, culture, practices of earth care and language are not undermined by the civilizing propensities of the state and are recognized in forest management plans. Forest Use and Rights The Villagers who live around the DFB forest farms collect up to ten different categories of forest product. There are no restrictions on access or quantity collected except during the fire season when they had to register before they enter the forest. They consider that their current levels of gathering are sustainable and did not report that they had to travel further, or spend more time collecting certain products. It is suggested that a baseline study is required to assess the status of forest products in the area with the aim of developing a monitoring and evaluation programme and operational guidelines
.Community Relations Community relations appear to be predicated on top-down negotiation “through official channels” and the law and pragmatic answers to the repeated and justifiable break-down in community relations were not readily sought The importance and benefit of the forest to local communities by interest group or stakeholder group did not appear to be well understood with the exception of a few forest products. It is suggested that capacity building in bottom-up participatory approached be introduced and mechanisms to enhance community relations and a greater understanding of the importance of the forest to the community Forest Benefits The Villagers who live around DFB forest farms on the basis of a very small study, consider the following forest benefits •
of great importance:- Commercial, Future, Place attachment, Life sustaining, Aesthetic
•
of moderate importance:- Recreation, Biodiversity, Cultural, Intrinsic, Learning
•
of minor importance:- Identity, Therapeutic, Historic, Spiritual, Subsistence
It is suggested that in order to provide strong incentives to sustain the forest resource and adhere to long-term forest care that these benefits are recognized and incorporated into forest management plans.
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