The link between smallholder bamboo shoot management, income, and livelihoods: a case study in southern China

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the links between smallholder bamboo shoot management practices, productivity, and livelihoods in a mountainous and impoverished county in southern China. The analysis was based on primary socioeconomic data from 240 households combined with farmer management surveys and biophysical plantation data. Management practices were determined to be grossly inadequate, with chronic overharvesting and an uncontrolled pest problem leading to poor yields. Given that bamboo shoots provided the main cash income source, this had a major impact on household income and livelihoods. Changes to culm management and pest control practices are recommended which could significantly increase shoot productivity and income, while improving bamboo's contribution to rural livelihoods and its role in targeted poverty alleviation. Improving smallholder bamboo management practices is, however, constrained by a general lack of relevant research and management guidelines based on scientifically proven techniques to optimize productivity.

Keywords:

• plantation
• best management practices
• productivity
• forestry
• rural development
• poverty alleviation

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the survey participants, the Tianlin County government, the Tianlin County Forestry Bureau, and the Agricultural Economics Department of Guangxi University for their cooperation and support. The fieldwork was funded and supported by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the Australian Agency for International Development, and the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (formerly the School for Environmental Research) at Charles Darwin University in Australia. The research greatly benefited from technical inputs and support from CIFOR's Poverty and Environment Network (PEN), and valuable comments from Brian Belcher, Bruce Campbell, Natasha Stacey, Hubert de Foresta, and two anonymous reviewers.

Notes

^1. The “private” forest category refers to collectively owned forest land in which the trees and forest resources are owned and managed by households or other private entities (Démurger et al. 2009).

^2. Less than 1% of both the migrant and local's bamboo income came from products other than shoots.

^3. Subsistence income was calculated as the cash-equivalent value of products or services produced, collected, or used directly by the household, or given away to friends and relatives.

^4. No optimal clump spacing and density guidelines based on systematic field trials could be found for D. latiflorus.