Spirit forestland, customary law and indigenous ethnic minority communities in Vietnam

This book offers an empirical approach toward understanding community spirit forestland and customary laws in dialectical relationships with the religious beliefs and livelihoods of indigenous ethnic minorities in upland Vietnam. These interactions are shaped and adjusted via the customary norms and cultural behaviors of communities which have been formed historically and inherited from generation to generation. In the market economy accompanied by strong outside influences, these values are being increasingly eroded and have become fragile, causing for upland indigenous ethnic minority communities a tragic triple crisis of economic, environmental and spiritual relations. The solution requires a proper understanding of these relationships, and policies and actions that ensure a harmonious balance between customary law and statutory law, and economic, cultural and ecological values, in the co-management of community natural resources.