| 概要 |
The indigenous Lepcha people have lived in Sikkim, a world biodiversity-hotspot, for more than eight centuries. Their traditional agricultural practices, hunting and gathering, enabled
them to be self-sustaining in the biodiverse forest. In the 1970s, the cultivation of commercial cardamom expanded, but collapsed in 2000 due to disease. This research used both qualitative and quantitative methods to understand their relationships with the natural environment, how they have changed due to outside contact with the global economic system, and the components of age-old and quickly disappearing indigenous livelihood strategies. This involves case studies at three scales on land use changes in the Lepcha territory following the expansion of cardamom. Using spatial analysis and on-the-ground observation and interviews, I found a decline in crop diversity in the area devoted to the monocultural cardamom cash crop system, which is cultivated in the forest understory.
After the cardamom crop failure, the forest cover increased. This study documented 36 traditional food plants, including 16 traditional cultivated crops and 20 gathered plants, representing 14 different plant families. Few of them are found as global species, and 32 of the 36 plants are regional species only. While the research identifying these food plants was a first step towards saving them and supporting healthy local diets, further research could be undertaken to identify strategies of using the food plants to help communities become more stable and resilient in the face of the fluctuations of the global economic system and climate change. |