Cardamom Casualties: Extreme Weather Events and Ethnic Minority Livelihood Vulnerability in the Sino-Vietnamese Borderlands
In the wake of important economic reforms and an ongoing agrarian transition, non-timber forest products, most notably black cardamom, have emerged as significant trade options for ethnic minority farmers in the mountainous Sino-Vietnamese borderlands. Yet, after a series of harsh winters had alread...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2019-01-01
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| Series: | Climate |
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| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/7/1/14 |
| _version_ | 1811199659803148288 |
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| author | Jean-François Rousseau Sarah Turner Yiqiang Xu |
| author_facet | Jean-François Rousseau Sarah Turner Yiqiang Xu |
| author_sort | Jean-François Rousseau |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the wake of important economic reforms and an ongoing agrarian transition, non-timber forest products, most notably black cardamom, have emerged as significant trade options for ethnic minority farmers in the mountainous Sino-Vietnamese borderlands. Yet, after a series of harsh winters had already crippled cardamom harvests in the 2000s, extreme weather in 2016 decimated the cardamom plantations of hundreds of farming households. Drawing from sustainable livelihoods, livelihood diversification, and vulnerability literatures, we investigate the multiple factors shaping how these harvest failures have affected ethnic minority cultivator livelihoods. Focusing on four case study villages, two in Yunnan, and two in northern Vietnam, we analyse the coping and adaptation strategies Hmong, Yao, Hani, and Yi minority farmers have adopted. We find that farmers’ decisions and strategies have been rooted in a complex ensemble of factors including their degree of market access, other livelihood opportunities available to them, cultural traditions and expectations, and state development strategies. Moreover, we find that in recent years the Chinese and Vietnamese states have stood-by as affected cultivators have struggled to reorganize their livelihoods, suggesting that the impacts of extreme weather events might even serve state projects to further agrarian transitions in these borderlands. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T01:51:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-300ec84b05924b7990fe970a4128e57a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2225-1154 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T01:51:17Z |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Climate |
| spelling | doaj.art-300ec84b05924b7990fe970a4128e57a2022-12-22T03:52:55ZengMDPI AGClimate2225-11542019-01-01711410.3390/cli7010014cli7010014Cardamom Casualties: Extreme Weather Events and Ethnic Minority Livelihood Vulnerability in the Sino-Vietnamese BorderlandsJean-François Rousseau0Sarah Turner1Yiqiang Xu2School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, CanadaDepartment of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0B9, CanadaSchool of Philosophy and Political Science, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650500, ChinaIn the wake of important economic reforms and an ongoing agrarian transition, non-timber forest products, most notably black cardamom, have emerged as significant trade options for ethnic minority farmers in the mountainous Sino-Vietnamese borderlands. Yet, after a series of harsh winters had already crippled cardamom harvests in the 2000s, extreme weather in 2016 decimated the cardamom plantations of hundreds of farming households. Drawing from sustainable livelihoods, livelihood diversification, and vulnerability literatures, we investigate the multiple factors shaping how these harvest failures have affected ethnic minority cultivator livelihoods. Focusing on four case study villages, two in Yunnan, and two in northern Vietnam, we analyse the coping and adaptation strategies Hmong, Yao, Hani, and Yi minority farmers have adopted. We find that farmers’ decisions and strategies have been rooted in a complex ensemble of factors including their degree of market access, other livelihood opportunities available to them, cultural traditions and expectations, and state development strategies. Moreover, we find that in recent years the Chinese and Vietnamese states have stood-by as affected cultivators have struggled to reorganize their livelihoods, suggesting that the impacts of extreme weather events might even serve state projects to further agrarian transitions in these borderlands.http://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/7/1/14extreme weather eventsvulnerabilitylivelihoodsethnic minoritiescardamomSino-Vietnamese borderlands |
| spellingShingle | Jean-François Rousseau Sarah Turner Yiqiang Xu Cardamom Casualties: Extreme Weather Events and Ethnic Minority Livelihood Vulnerability in the Sino-Vietnamese Borderlands Climate extreme weather events vulnerability livelihoods ethnic minorities cardamom Sino-Vietnamese borderlands |
| title | Cardamom Casualties: Extreme Weather Events and Ethnic Minority Livelihood Vulnerability in the Sino-Vietnamese Borderlands |
| title_full | Cardamom Casualties: Extreme Weather Events and Ethnic Minority Livelihood Vulnerability in the Sino-Vietnamese Borderlands |
| title_fullStr | Cardamom Casualties: Extreme Weather Events and Ethnic Minority Livelihood Vulnerability in the Sino-Vietnamese Borderlands |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cardamom Casualties: Extreme Weather Events and Ethnic Minority Livelihood Vulnerability in the Sino-Vietnamese Borderlands |
| title_short | Cardamom Casualties: Extreme Weather Events and Ethnic Minority Livelihood Vulnerability in the Sino-Vietnamese Borderlands |
| title_sort | cardamom casualties extreme weather events and ethnic minority livelihood vulnerability in the sino vietnamese borderlands |
| topic | extreme weather events vulnerability livelihoods ethnic minorities cardamom Sino-Vietnamese borderlands |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/7/1/14 |
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