Priority Issues of Concern in

Southwest China, like other parts of China, has experienced rapid changes caused by economic reforms, market transformation, and regionalization. Although recent development policy has paid attention to the issues of poverty and environmental degradation in the region, development interventions fail to address the complexity and diversity of the biophysical and socioeconomic landscapes in the mountainous region.

CBIK views this complex diversity of ethnic minorities, their cultures and their environments as assets for their endogenous development. Indigenous peoples evolve as knowledge bankers for biological diversity and practitioners for nurturing and sustaining the diverse landscapes, as well as providing responsive institutions for resource governance and livelihood development.

Ethnic minorities and mountain communities have been practicing a highly autonomous subsistence system in which they have stayed at the periphery of decision-making within the context of centralized nation states. This autonomy has allowed them to shape diverse and highly responsive adaptations to particular local environments. These vary across communities and are reflected in all aspects of life, including language, cosmology, behavior, values, vision, rituals, taboos, technology, literature, and customary laws.

The transition to a market system has led to deterioration of these local institutions and the sensitive relationships they embody. Non-local factors working through market institutions increasingly determine the use and flow of mountain resources according to needs, purposes and priorities set outside the mountain areas.