The Challenges of Highland Development in Vietnam edited by A. Terry Rambo, Robert R. Reed, Le Trong Cue, and Michael R. DiGregorio East-West Center Center for Natural Resources Center for Southeast Asia Studies, Program on Environment and Environmental Studies, University of California Honolulu, Hawaii Hanoi University at Berkeley The Challenges of Highland Development in Vietnam edited by A. Terry Rambo, Robert R. Reed, Le Trong Cue, and Michael R. DiGregorio October 1995 East-West Center Center for Natural Resources Center for Southeast Asia Studies, Program on Environment and Environmental Studies, University of California Honolulu, Hawaii Hanoi University at Berkeley A. Terry Rambo Robert R. Reed Director, Program on Environment Chair, Center for Southeast Asia Studies East-West Center University of California, Berkeley 1777 East-West Road 2223 Fulton Street, Room 617 Honolulu, HI 96848 USA Berkeley, CA 94720 USA Le Trong Cue Michael R. DiGregorio Deputy Director Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning Center for Natural Resources University of California, LA and Environmental Studies 405 Hilgard Avenue Hanoi University Los Angeles, CA 90025 USA Hanoi, Vietnam LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA The challenges of Highland development in Vietnam / edited by A. Terry Rambo . [et al.]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-86638-176-7 1. Natural resources—Vietnam—Central Highlands—Management— Congresses. 2. Central Highlands (Vietnam)—Economic conditions— Congresses. 3. Central Highlands (Vietnam)—Economic policy— Congresses. I. Rambo, A. Terry. HC444.Z7C463 1995 338.9597—dc20 95-41204 Cover photo: Thai village in Mai Chau district, Hoa Binh province (photo taken in January 1992). Cover photo credit: A. Terry Rambo To secure copies, write to the: Publication Sales Office East-West Center 1777 East-West Road Honolulu, HI 96848 USA Phone: 808-944-7145 Fax: 808-944-7376 E-mail: [email protected] © 1995 by East-West Center. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Contents Maps, Figures, and Tables vii Preface ix Defining Highland Development Challenges in Vietnam: Some Themes and Issues Emerging from the Conference xi by A. Terry Rambo PART ONE The Highlands as an Area for Development 1 Overview of Highland Development in Vietnam: General Characteristics, Socioeco• nomic Situation, and Development Challenges 3 by Chu Huu Quy 2 Perspectives on Defining Highland Development Challenges in Vietnam: New Frontier or Cul-De-Sac? 21 by A. Terry Rambo 3 Natural Conditions and Resources of the Tay Nguyen Highlands 31 by Nguyen Tran Cau PART TWO The Impact of Large-Scale Development on the Highlands 4 From Highland Hamlet to Regional Capital: Reflections on the Colonial Origins, Urban Transformation, and Environmental Impact of Dalat 39 by Robert R. Reed 5 Some Issues of Fixed Cultivation and Sedentarization of Ethnic Minority People in Mountainous Areas of Vietnam 63 by Le Duy Hung 6 Hydro Versus Gas—Getting It Right: Implications for Highland Developments in Vietnam 69 by Charles f. Johnson iv Contents PART THREE Developing Human Resources 7 Activities of the Agricultural University No. 3 in the Development of the Northern Highlands of Vietnam 77 by Nguyen Khanh Quae, Tu Quang Hien, and Hoang Van Phu PART FOUR Approaches to Sustainable Development 8 Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Land Use in the Da River Watershed 89 by Le Trong Cue 9 The Hmong and Dzao Peoples in Vietnam: Impact of Traditional Socioeconomic and Cultural Factors on the Protection and Development of Forest Resources 101 by Nguyen Van Thang 10 Highland Development and Forest Resource Protection in Vietnam: Status and Research Priorities 121 by Hoang Xuan Ty 11 Community-Based Natural Resources Management in Lam Dong Province in the Highlands of Southern Vietnam 131 by Bui Cach Tuyen 12 Decree 327 and the Restoration of Barren Land in the Vietnamese Highlands 143 by Thomas Sikor PART FIVE Comparative Analyses 13 Functions of the Forest for Laotian Households: Supermarket, Gold Mine, and Welfare Subsidy 159 by Carol Ireson 14 Coffee and Culture: Smallholders, Minorities, and Plantations in Highland South• east Asia 169 by Eric Crystal 15 Tropical Upland Development Policy: China and Vietnam 179 byR. D. Hill PART SIX Abstracts 1 Human Resource Development for the Highlands of Vietnam: Present State and Needs 197 by Nguyen Viet Tung 2 Development of Highland Education in Vietnam 199 by Tran Lanh Contents v 3 Project Planning and Evaluation for Sustainable Watershed Development in the Uplands of Vietnam 201 by Leslie Upper 4 Immigration and Health Care in the Vietnamese Highlands: A View from Lam Dong Province 205 by Dominic Montagu Appendix Contributors and Participants 209 Maps, Figures, and Tables Maps I.I Percent change in gross population density, 1979-89 xxiv 1.1 Topography of Vietnam 4 1.2 Five highland zones 6 3.1 The Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) of Vietnam 32 4.1 Major hill stations in South and Southeast Asia, c. 1940 43 4.2 Hill stations in French Indochina, c. 1940 48 4.3 Transportation links to Dalat, c. 1940 52 6.1 Distribution of Vietnam's major energy resources 70 8.1 The Da River watershed 90 10.1 Midland and mountain areas of Vietnam 122 Figures 4.1 H£brard Plan of 1923 50 6.1 Vietnam's gas potential 72 6.2 Comparison of the total costs per kWh for a hydroelectric versus a gas-fired plant 73 10.1 Total volume of wood and non-wood products by forest region and landownership 124 Tables 1.1 Increases in the cultivation of selected agricultural products 9 1.2 Rate of transfer of forest land 10 viii Maps, Figures, and Tables I. 3 Crop production targets 13 7.1 Comparison of highland resources, Vietnam and the Northern Mountainous Region 78 7.2 Land distribution in Bac Thai, Cao Bang, and Lang Son provinces, 1992 78 7.3 Population characteristics of Bac Thai, Cao Bang, and Lang Son provinces, 1992 79 8.1 Ethnic composition of the Da River watershed 92 8.2 Land use in-the Da River watershed 94 9.1 Classification of the Dzao Groups 103 9.2 Distribution of Hmong and Dzao Populations 103 10.1 Characteristics of the midland and mountain areas of Vietnam 123 II. 1 Living standards of ethnic families in Lam Dong province 134 11.2 Housing conditions of ethnic people in Lam Dong province 134 11.3 Educational status of ethnic minority people in Lam Dong province 135 11.4 Health classification of ethnic minority people in Lam Dong province 136 11.5 Diseases among ethnic minority people in Lam Dong province 136 12.1 Forest cover and barren lands 146 12 2 Differentiating conditions and their relative effects on the strategies 152 13.1 Items gathered or hunted by household members in Bolikhamxay province 161 13.2 Household Economy—T-tests of differences between enterprise and village 163 13.3 Living conditions—T-tests of differences between enterprise and village 164 13.4 Income sources—Cross-tabulated with type of village: With or without access to old-growth forest 165 15.1 Basic agricultural statistics: China and Vietnam 190 Al.l Population five years of age and over by ethnic group and school attendance 197 A2.1 Number of boarding schools for ethnic minorities 199 A4.1 Change in birth site, Lam Ha 206 Preface This volume is the proceedings of a conference held at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, in July 1994. It makes available to a wider audience revised versions of most of the papers presented at that meeting, which was jointly sponsored by the Indochina Initiative of the East-West Center, the Center for Southeast Asia Studies of the University of California at Berkeley, and the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies of Hanoi University. The goals of the conference were to review existing knowledge about Vietnam's highland regions and to explore specific issues relating to the development of the human and natural resources of the uplands. A number of papers provide comparative analyses of highland development issues in neighboring countries. Taking part in the discussions were some thirty scholars and development policy specialists from Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, and the United States (see Appendix). All of the conference papers contribute to sharpening our definition of the challenges of developing-Vietnam's highlands in two ways. On the one hand, they provide.us with a great deal of information about the highlands as a human landscape, a specific place in space and time characterized by a unique array of geographic, ethnological, demographic, and economic characteristics. We can learn much about these different characteristics and the ways that they have interacted to generate the specific developmental trajectory traced by the highlands. For those with a positivist bent, these papers offer convenient access to what we currently understand to be the "facts" of the matter. On the other hand, the papers offer many insights into the diverse and often contradictory ways in which the highlands are conceptualized as a development arena. They allow us to see, however imperfectly, the mental models that guide perception of reality and determine which aspects of empirical experience are granted recognition as constituting "facts." Thus, in studying these papers we simultaneously can learn both about the highlands as 'an empirical landscape and about the different ways in which different observers con• struct their visions of that landscape. Both kinds of information are important; both are equally real. Indeed, the major dilemmas of formulating and implementing development policies for the highlands reflect the complex interplay between them. Finally, we would note that although we have lightly edited all papers for style we have made no attempt to impose any kind of common viewpoint on the diverse arguments x Preface presented.