Biodiversity and Conservation **: *** ***, ****.

**** ****** ******** **********. ******* in the Netherlands.

Practice of conserving plant diversity through

traditional beliefs: a case study in Xishuangbanna,

southwest China

LIU HONGMAO, XU ZAIFU, XU YOUKAI and WANG JINXIU

Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla,

Yunnan 666303, People s Republic of China; *Author for correspondence (fax: +86-871-*******;

e-mail: abpqaz@r.postjobfree.com)

Received 16 October 2000; accepted in revised form 2 May 2001

Abstract. Developing various strategies for the global biodiversity conservation is important for today s

critically degraded environment, and there is a growing recognition that the effective conservation of bio-

diversity will depend on the long-term participation and understanding of local communities. In order to

establish the connection between traditional beliefs and the conservation of biodiversity, a case study was

undertaken in Xishuangbanna, one of the richest areas in biodiversity in China. The Dai nationality, a

dominant ethnic group in Xishuangbanna, has both Polytheistic and Buddhist beliefs, which have close

relationships with plant diversity. This paper recommends the following approaches to conserve plant

diversity by the application of traditional beliefs: (1) depending on the religious belief system, establishing

an Association of Religious Plant Conservation to organize local people to participate in the conservation

by means of religious activities, to document the indigenous botanical knowledge and to train local people;

(2) training local people to different levels to improve their capacity in conservation of plant diversity with

science and religion working together; (3) demonstrating the conservation of plant diversity through the

recovering of holy hill forests and plants in temple gardens.

Key words: Dai people, holy hill forest, plant diversity conservation, temple garden, traditional beliefs,

Xishuangbanna

Introduction

Exponential human population growth in the last few centuries has affected the nat-

ural world to the extent that massive alteration of habitats and associated biological

changes threaten the existence of millions of species and basic ecosystem processes.

Developing various strategies for the global biodiversity conservation is important

for today s critically degraded environment. Cultural diversity has a close relation-

ship with biodiversity and its importance in biodiversity conservation has received

increasing attention (Gadgil et al. 1993; Berkes 1995; Dasman 1995; McNeely 1995;

Arizpe 1996; Furze et al. 1996; Liu 1996; Sinha 1996; Augustine 1999). For ex-

ample, the Convention on Biological Diversity calls on parties to respect, preserve,

and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local com-

munities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for conservation and sustainable

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use of biological diversity, and promote their wider application with the approval

and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices, and

encourage the equitable sharing of the bene ts arising from the utilization of such

knowledge, innovations and practices (article 8j). Religious beliefs are the impor-

tant components of culture. And all of the world s major religions are sensitive to

the importance of biodiversity and nature environment (Hamilton 1993; Puspa 1996;

David and Joy 1998; McNeely 2000). This paper reports the approach of conserving

plant diversity through traditional beliefs in Xishuangbanna, southwest China based

on the research of the relationship between the Dai people s traditional beliefs and

plant diversity from 1993 to 1999.

Xishuangbanna is located in the south of Yunnan Province, in southwest China

10 22 40 N, 99 55 101 50 E). It borders Laos in the south and southeast and

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Burma in the southwest (Figure 1). The total area is 19220 km2, of which approxi-

mately 94% is covered by mountains and hill terrain. The altitude varies greatly from

430 to 2300 m. The annual rainfall varies from 1200 to 1700 mm, 80% of which

occurs during the rainy season from May to October. The average temperature is

about 21.5 C and the relative humidity is around 80%. Bene ting from the special

location with diverse climates, the area is rich in plant diversity. There are about 5000

species of vascular plants (about 18% of China s ora), although the area covers only

0.2% of the total land of China. However, with the expansion of the population and the

development of economic plants such as rubber, tea and tropical fruits, the coverage

of the tropical forest has been reduced from 60% in the 1950s to around 30% in the

1990s, resulting in the loss of about 600 species of plant (Xu 1988). Great attention

has been paid to the conservation of biodiversity in the area, such as the establishment

Figure 1. Location map of Xishuangbanna.

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of a national nature reserve with an area of 240 km2, occupying 12% of the total area

(Xu and Jiang 1985).

Xishuangbanna is a Dai autonomous region although there are 13 nationalities in-

habiting the area, including Dai, Hani, Jinuo, Yao and so on, and the population of the

Dai people is 2.8 105, 1/3 of the total population of the area. The Dai nationality has

the same origin and historical background as the other nationalities in nearby coun-

tries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Burma (Gao 1992). The populations of the

nationalities in these countries are over 2 106, 8.9 105, 1.8 106 and 2.5 106,

respectively (Wang 1990).

The relationship between the Dai s religious beliefs and plant diversity

The Dai people in Xishuangbanna have both Polytheistic and Buddhist beliefs, which

have blended and borrowed traditions from each other. Polytheistic religion was prac-

ticed by the ancestors of the Dai people before Buddhist religion was introduced to

the area. Buddhism has been practiced by the Dai people in Xishuangbanna since the

middle of the Tang dynasty (Dao 1992). It is the predominant belief in the Dai society

and there is a Buddhism system in the area. Both have a close relationship with plant

diversity and have played an important role in the conservation of plant diversity (Pei

1985; Liu et al. 1992, 1996; Xu and Liu 1995).

The role of holy hill forest in the conservation of plant diversity

Holy hill forest is the trace of the Dai s polytheistic beliefs. In the Dai people s

thoughts, a holy hill is the place where gods live, and all plants and animals in the for-

est are considered to be protected by the gods. Any violence and disturbance for plants

and animals in the forest will be punished by the gods. Therefore, hunting, gathering

and cutting are strictly prohibited in the holy hill forest. Traditionally, each village had

a holy hill forest. Currently, there are about 250 holy hills in Xishuangbanna, occu-

pying about 1000 1500 ha. Twenty-eight holy hill forests were investigated. In each

holy hill forest, all plant species were investigated and identi ed. And four samples

(the area of each sample is 50 50 m) were established in four holy hill forests within

which ve quadrates of 10 10 m were selected at random. All individuals 5 cm

DBH of tree species and shrub species were investigated in the sample and quadrates,

respectively. The Shannon Wiener index was used for comparisons of plant species

diversity. The results show that most of the holy hills are distributed in the regions

below 900 m above sea level, where the vegetation types are mainly dry evergreen

seasonal rainforest and semi-evergreen seasonal rainforest. Now there are hardly

any of these kinds of vegetation in other places even in the national nature reserves

because of the expansion of economic plantations (Xu and Jiang 1985; Wu 1987).

There are 268 plant species belonging to 92 families in the 28 investigated holy hill

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Table 1. Comparison of plant diversity in holy hills and

nature reserve.

Index of species diversity

Before the project After the project

Holy hill 1 3.78 4.16

Holy hill 2 4.12 4.29

Holy hill 3 3.56 4.12

Holy hill 4 4.01 4.22

Nature reserve 4.63

forests. Fifteen plant species are protected species listed in the Plant Red Data List

of China as Magnolia henryi, Homalium laoticum, Antiaris toxicaria, which is 30%

of the total protected plant species. The indexes of plant species diversity in holy

hills are very near that in the nature reserve (see Table 1). Therefore, the holy hills

can be considered as some small nature reserves established by the Dai traditional

beliefs.

Buddhism and conservation of plant diversity

Buddhism was introduced into Xishuangbanna in the Tang Dynasty. A temple is a

place for practicing religious activities. The canons of Buddhism specify that the

following four requirements must be met before a temple can be established they

are: a portrait of Sakyamuni, a pagoda, over ve monks and some plants related

to Buddhism. A village must have a temple, and currently, there are 558 temples

in Xishuangbanna. Plant species in 51 temple gardens in Xishuangbanna were sur-

veyed by means of participating rapid assessment (PRA) in cooperation with the

local people including religionists, older farmers, and the use of these plants in

religion were investigated too. Meanwhile, some religious documents have been

collected for checking the use of plants in religion. The results show that over 100

plant species were cultivated in temple gardens, which can be divided into three

groups (Pei 1985, Xu and Liu 1995): ritual plants including the Buddha trees and

other plants related to Buddhism, such as Alstonia scholaris, Ficus racemosa, F.

religiosa and so on are Buddha trees, the leaves of the Corypha umbraculifera

were used for carving Buddhist Sutras, and there are over 50000 volumes of such

Buddhist Sutras that are protected in Xishuangbanna. The woods of the Tectona

grandis, Artocarpus heterophylla and Gmelina arborea were used for making the

statues. The oil extracted from the seeds of Mesua ferrea and Aleurites moluc-

cana were used for lighting the temple. Offering plants including owering plants

such as Nympaea lotus, Hedychium chrysoleucum, Crinum asiaticum and tropical

fruits such as Anona reticulata, Citrus grandis, Mangiera indica etc. are normally

used as offerings at Buddhist ceremonies and are also served as daily food for

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monks at the temple. Ornamental plants such as Butea monosperma, Cassia stula,

Michelia alba play a role in beautifying the temple and the village. All plants

mentioned above are protected by religious regulations. Similar to the botanical

garden, temple gardens have played a significant role in the ex situ conservation

of plant species. Moreover, many species planted in the villages were obtained

from the temple gardens (Yu 1985). Therefore, temple gardens could be called

Temple Botanical Gardens .

Approaches to conserve plant diversity through traditional beliefs

Establishing the association of religious plant conservation

As discussed above, the Dai people both in Polytheism and their traditional beliefs

have a very close relationship with plant diversity. Religious beliefs are powerful, and

the religious system is strongly developed in the area. However, there is no organiza-

tion to integrate the traditional knowledge with plant diversity management. In order

to enhance the role of traditional beliefs in conservation of plant diversity, the as-

sociation of religious plant conservation was established, which is a non-government

organization and is attached to the Religious Association of Xishuangbanna. The task

of the association is: to document the traditional botanical knowledge, to train and

educate people, especially the young generation, to understand the importance of

traditional knowledge, and to encourage local people to use their traditional knowl-

edge in the conservation of biodiversity and environment. All people who respect

the traditional beliefs and like to conserve plant diversity and environment can be

members of the association. The association has a headquarters including a docu-

mentation section, education section and three branches, which are located in the

general temple of Xishuangbanna and regional temples, respectively. The association

has played an important role in training and organizing local people to participate in

the conservation of plant diversity.

Training local people in multi-levels through religious system

The temple is not only the place where people practice religious activities, but also

the school for learning traditional knowledge. Traditionally, young men of the Dai

nationality must stay in the temple for some years to learn the traditional knowledge.

Now there are 558 temples in Xishuangbanna and about 5500 young men are studying

there. In cooperation with the botanists, 32 training courses have been run since the

establishment of the association in 1998. They can be divided into three levels: the

rst level courses were held in the Xishuangbanna general temple to train the students

of the Buddhism College and the heads of regional religionists and farmers, the

second level courses were held in regional temples to train the heads of village

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Table 2. Ritual plants in temple gardens.

Scientific name Use in Buddhism

Alstonia scholaris Buddha tree

Termienalia brlliriica Buddha tree

Dolichandrone caudafelia Buddha tree

Securinega virosa Buddha tree

Ficus racemosa Buddha tree

F. altissima Buddha tree

F. religiosa Buddha tree

Mallotus barbatus Buddha tree

Oroxylum indicum Buddha tree

Cinamomum sp. Buddha tree

Bambusa ainospinosa Buddha tree

Tectona grandis Buddha tree

Michelia champaca Buddha tree

Gmelina arborea Buddha tree

Celtis cinnimomum Buddha tree

Dialium ovoides Buddha tree

Dolichandrone caudafelina Buddha tree

Musella lasiocarpa Buddha tree

Macaranga denticulate Buddha tree

Mesua ferrea Buddha tree and the seed oil used for lighting

the temple

Gossampinus malarica Buddha tree

Saraca dives Memorial tree for Sykamuni s birth

Shorea assamica Memorial tree for Sykamuni s death

Corypha umbraclifera The leave used for carving Buddha Sutra

Chukrassia tabularis Wood used for construction of temple

Paramichelia bailonii Wood used for construction of temple

Artocarpus heterophylla Wood used for carving Buddha statuary

Aleurites moluccana Seed oil used for lighting the temple

Cinnamomum comphora Cooked water with the wood used for

washing Buddha statuary

C. ponectum Cooked water with the wood used for

washing Buddha statuary

C. glanduliferum Cooked water with the wood used

for washing Buddha statuary

Syzygium jambos Cooked water with the parts of the plant used

for washing monks when he is promoted

Acacia pennata Cooked water with the parts of the plant used for

washing monks when he is promoted

Bixa orellana Used for dying the offering foods

Morinda angustifolia Used for dying monks clothes

Gardenia jasminoides Used for dying monks clothes

Nymphaea tetragona Offering ower

Cirnum asiaticum Offering ower

Hedychium coronerrium Offering ower

Plumeria rubra Offering ower

religionists and farmers, and the third level courses were held in the village

temple to train local religionists and farmers. There are 1320 people including

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religionists, farmers and local of cers who have been trained. The training contents

include: relationship between traditional beliefs and plant diversity, and the technique

of identifying and managing plants related to traditional beliefs.

Recovering plant diversity in holy hills and temple gardens

Traditionally, holy hill forests and plants in temple gardens were protected well. How-

ever, in the 1960s and 1970s, many holy hill forests and temples were destroyed.

Even the maintained holy hills and temple gardens were partly occupied by economic

plants. From the 1980s, many temples and holy hills have been rebuilt, but the plants

there have not been recovered. Based on the training and education, four holy hills

and six temple gardens distributed in different regions were chosen as the demon-

stration sites for recovering plant diversity. Organized by the association of religious

plant conservation, more than 500 people have participated in the demonstration ac-

tivities and plant diversity in the holy hills and temple gardens have recovered well

(Table 1).

The number of plant species in six temple gardens has been increased to 91 species

and most ritual plants have been recovered (Table 2).

The recovery of plant diversity not only helps the conservation of traditional

culture but also beauti es the environment, which is helpful in the development

of ethnic ecotourism. Besides the demonstration sites, many other villagers have

learned the technique of recovering the plant diversity in their holy hills and temple

gardens.

Conclusion

Human cultural diversity has a close relationship with biodiversity and environment.

Traditional societies have often protected parts of the natural landscape they occupy,

or left untouched some of its elements. Most such societies, for instance, have consid-

ered certain sites as sacred, where most or all human activities are prohibited. As there

is rich biodiversity in Xishuangbanna, southwest China, the local communities have

developed their own traditional culture which is based on the rich biodiversity, and the

traditional culture has also played an important role in the conservation of biodiversi-

ty. The holy hill forest and religious plants are good examples. However, establishing

a connection between specific cultural practices and conservation or enhancement of

biodiversity is by no means a simple matter. This paper reported the approaches of

conserving plant diversity through traditional beliefs in Xishuangbanna, southwest

China, and the results show that the approach of conserving biodiversity based on

cultural and religious values are often much more sustainable than those based only

on legislation or regulation. Indigenous people are often very knowledgeable about

biodiversity (Redford and Padoch 1992), but the indigenous knowledge was created

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in the conditions with a smaller population, large forest coverage and richer biodi-

versity. When confronted with market pressures, higher densities, new technologies

and increased opportunities, there is a long way to go for promoting the wide use of

indigenous knowledge in the conservation of biodiversity.

Acknowledgement

Thanks are due to the For Foundation for its support of the project and to Mr. Duan

Qiwu, Cui Jinyun, Gao Lei, Hu Huabin in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden

for their eld work and kind help.

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