SUSTAINABLE USE OF NATURAL RESOURCES

& POVERTY DIALOGUE IN MAINLAND MONTANE

SOUTH-EAST ASIA

The Centre for Sustainable Development in the Mountains – CSDM – announces the 4 th Mainland Montane South-East Asia Conference, to be held from 16-19 May 2005 in Sa Pa, Vietnam ! The conference is organised in collaboration with the People’s Committee of Lao Cai Province (PCLC), the Ethnic Minorities Working Group (EMWG) in Vietnam, and the Indigenous Knowledge and People’s Network (IKAP) , Mekong Environment and Resource Institute (MERI ) from Chiang Mai in Thailand.

For details and registration, contact: Ms Malita Allan & Ms Trinh Thi Khanh Chi,

mmsea4@vnn.vn

Overview

The MMSEA Conference unites a vast group of researchers, scholars, development workers, donor agencies and NGO-managers from SE-Asia and abroad, which has been meeting and discussing since the late eighties. In 1995, the MCC and RMDC of Chiang Mai University organised the first MMSEA Conference focussing on agro-ecosystems analysis. In 2000 MERI and ICRAF convened the Second MMSEA Conference in Chiang Mai , Thailand , and natural and social scientists analysed together the importance of the natural and cultural landscapes and resources for sustainable development. The III MMSEA Conference in Lijiang , Yunnan , China in August 2002 hosted by Kunming Institute of Botany, CBIK and YASS included a significant group of indigenous peoples from 6 countries. The meeting discussed the wealth of indigenous knowledge in the MMSEA area and established a new format for events, based on field discussions with indigenous farmers in NW-Yunnan, a Mountain Festival highlighting indigenous arts & crafts to outsiders and the proper Conference arranged as topic focussed workshops. The indigenous participants and NGOs formed then the regional Indigenous Knowledge and Peoples network (IKAP) for Capacity Building in MMSEA.

The IV MMSEA in Sa Pa in 2005 includes four main events:

8-13 May Voluntary field work in five ethnic mountain areas (Son La, Mu Cang Chai, Sapa, Bac Ha, Ha Giang) of Northern Vietnam

14-15 May Mountain Festival and Indigenous Knowledge Fair of Arts, Crafts,

Seeds, Food and Games in Sa Pa ( Main Square ).

16-19 May The IVth MMSEA Conference

19 May Networking Groups, NTFP, Ethnobotany etc, arrange

coordination and follow-up.

These four events link to constitute important steps in achieving a dialogue about poverty issues between researchers, development workers, donor agencies, politicians and indigenous peoples.

Rationale

The IV MMSEA aims to build on the achievements of the previous MMSEA Conferences. Through the development of a ‘Poverty Dialogue’ the IV MMSEA aims to negotiate the confusion surrounding poverty reduction policies based on international ethnocentric conceptions of poverty and to integrate the voices of mountain people into the debate. This ‘Poverty Dialogue’ will create the space to understand local conditions; the meaning of poverty to different stakeholders; and to prioritise the perceptions of the mountain people. It also aims to respect and recognise the wealth of ethnic knowledge and cultures as an important part of the future capacity of mountain people to secure and increase the value (material, cultural and spiritual) of mountain livelihoods. The international community has usually undervalued the local capacity of indigenous peoples to decide their own future by offering paternalistic approaches within development initiatives. There is a need to recognise and integrate the potential of local / ethnic communities , and to consider how outsiders can contribute to their initiatives and gain the policy support for wealth of cultural diversity in regional and national strategies to fight with poverty.

Goal

To enable local representatives, researchers, development practitioners and policy makers to share experiences and exchange ideas relating to selected key themes that are of special relevance to poverty alleviation in the MMSEA. This will help to promote local initiatives as well as regional and country strategies and actions by increasing the participation of MMSEA communities in policy-making processes such as the development of national Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and Plans.

Topics

Based on pre-registrationsbefore January 10, 2005 of the participants the organising committee will reduce the number of topics for workshops (from 12 to 6) to be held during the Conference.

• Forest livelihoods – the diversity of alternative forest livelihoods beyond NTFP usage and the ethnocentric neglect and ignorance towards forest people and their relationships to forests and forest land.
• Water and rivers in MMSEA – key lessons learnt from diverse indigenous users across the region.
• Land uses and shifting cultivation – overcoming biased perceptions of shifting cultivation and its related policies – applying a holistic view on integrated land use systems and looking at new insights on shifting cultivation as one of the advanced alternative agro-forestry technologies.
• Seeds and plants (Biodiversity) – indigenous farming communities as best conservationists to maintain the world gene banks alive, women as the symbols and practitioners of the seed diversity in local communities (indigenous genetists), the seed road and exchange networks, indigenous experimentation.
• Food diversity and nutrition – the richer the poorer, what can indigenous people offer to rich consumers, what can we learn from food diversity in mountain communities, different concepts of food also with relation to health and gender.
• Children and Biodiversity – indigenous children can be the best stewards to conserve nature, now and in the future.
• Gender and Indigenous Knowledge – gender relations in a careful management and use of natural resources, potential of gender division of labour against poverty.
• Artisans, Crafts and Art and sustainable natural resource use as means to strengthen local cultural identity and the incorporation of the younger generation into the cultural revival process, the potential of own identity vs. global crafts production for anonymous tourist markets.
• Hemp as a fabric and resource to recreate cultural identity and provide sources for textiles and for income generation within local and global markets.
• Herbal Medicine and Healing – can local people benefit from the national income on the growing export profits of herbal medicine; indigenous healing as an integrated concept (spiritual and material) towards health as alternative for the ‘commodification’ of health care. Local knowledge can overcome global diseases.
• Sacred landscapes and the spiritual integrity of the local cultures beyond conservation practices towards alternative development; sacred landscapes as oasis for the recovery and regeneration of humankind.
• Indigenous education, local identity and language – often not even recognised as a valid dimension to secure livelihoods – the perspectives of a multilingual world, the recovery of the own history against the biases of official history on indigenous peoples.

Outputs

• Three-Year Action Plan according to topics, shared by regional networks to promote increasing inclusion of MMSEA communities and their interests in local, national and regional policy-making processes.
• Strengthening of regional networks to service poverty alleviation and natural resource management needs of local MMSEA communities
• Proposals for research, monitoring, documentation and publication of local and regional activities relating to cultural diversity, poverty alleviation and NRM in MMSEA developed
• Establishment of a voluntary MMSEA Secretariat to carry the role of focal point for the follow up of MMSEA outputs, including circulation of information and preparing for V MMSEA (anticipated in Lao PDR in 2007-2008)
• Conference proceedings and papers developed as educational or promotional material in local languages

Structure and conference methods

Following the successful organisation based on precise planning and coordination of the III MMSEA in Zhongdian and in Lijiang, the MMSEA IV Conference will continue to evolve the innovative format of this Conference by holding facilitated workshops. This will help to achieve a high interaction and dialogue between all stakeholders in the MMSEA Conference, and develop the four main events. The events form a coherent unit and provide support to different levels of intervention: from advice and contribution to local community action; the local policies and efforts of the official government agencies; observation and contribution to finding solutions to the national policies; organising exchange and cooperation of the MMSEA community and the different regional networks engaged in locally led development.

Conference Programme

May 16

May 17

May 18

May 19

am

Introduction

OVERVIEW ON MMSEA

COUNTRY REPORTS

Country workshops

Plenary to present situation of each country

Poverty Dialogue

CULTURAL DIVERSITY & NATURE

Topic workshops on the Practice of Indigenous Knowledge – Exchange between practitioners

Plenary to present results

Poverty Dialogue

INDIGENOUS INITIATIVES

Looking at local initiatives and learning from success and failure

Plenary to present results

Poverty Dialogue

ETHNO-DEVELOPMENT Regional Strategies and country Action Plans

Follow up and next MMSEA V

pm

Networking groups and departure of participants in the evening

eve

Video Festival & Community Space

Video Festival & Community Space

Video Festival & Community Space

Participants

Participants will come from different backgrounds. It is planned to invite about 100 ethnic community representatives, and have space for 100 academics, development workers and politicians, many of whom are also indigenous peoples. The five Study Field Trips expect groups of 10 - 15 participants each, who establish a division of labour and smaller work teams. Several hundred indigenous crafts people, artists, performers from the MMSEA and from the local area of Sapa are expected to participate in the Festival and Fair. Indigenous youth and children will hold an own conference within the frame of the IV MMSEA.

English is the main language of the Conference. Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Lao and the main ethnic languages will be translated simultaneously for small groups in workshops and Plenaries.

Contributors

Support for the Conference and its preparations comes from the Rockefeller Foundation, ICCO, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, SWEDBIO, CORDAID, Government of Luxembourg, IDRC,Plan Vietnam, SIDA have been approached for academic/development advice and financial support. EMWG, IKAP, MERI, RCSD, IMPECT and CBIK contribute in-kind and technical advice to support coordination, planning, and symposium events.

Call for Papers and Contributions

The Academic Committee under the leadership of Dr. Anan Ganjanapan ( Chiang Mai University ) invites expressions of interest before January 10, 2005 from those who within the frame of the topics want to share their research and experiences with farmers, academic researchers, officials and development workers. We invite you to register for contributions either to topics or to indigenous initiatives on day 2 and day 3, or propose specific workshops. Please send your application to the secretariat stating your name, address, e-mail, age, sex, institution, title of contribution, abstract of a presentation or idea for a workshop and suggestions for the development of the IV MMSEA. We will send out a draft program on January 15 contacting further resource persons and key note speakers.

Registration Fee

Fee is 120 US $

(includes CD with papers, coffee breaks, lunch, material, bag, visa invitation letter, etc.).

Contact:

Ms. Malita Allan, Ms. Trinh Thi Khanh Chi

Administrators, IV MMSEA

8 Ngo 198, Le Trong Tan

Khuong Mai, Thanh Xuan

Ha Noi , Viet Nam

e-mail: mmsea4@vnn.vn 

Fax: 84-4-5656211

Organisation Committee

Ms Luong Thi Truong (Coordinator) Center for Sustainable Development Mountainous Areas,

Dr. Tran Van On (HPU), Prof. Dr. Le Trong Cuc (CRES), Dr. Nguyen Tat Canh (HAU), To Xuan Phuc (ZEF), Dr. Nguyen Van Huy (VME), Phan The Phuong (Peoples Committee Sapa District)

Advisor Group: Graham Adutt (Caritas Switzerland ), Sheelagh O’Reilly (FFI), Do Thi Huyen (SIDA), Marc Wetz (E&D – EMWG)

Regional Organisation Committee

Dr. Uraivan Tan-Kim-Yong (MERI), Dr. Anan Ganjanapan (RCSD-CMU), Dr. Maria A. Salas, Dr. Yang Fuquan (YASS), Dr. Yang Yongping (KIB), Ms. Qian Jie (CBIK), Sakda Saenmi (IMPECT), Dr. Hermann J. Tillmann (IKAP)