The total area of the natural forest of the village is 750 Chinese mu. The natural forest, which is more than one kilometer far away from the village, distributes at the altitute range from 1250m to 1310m.

There is nothing but 40 Chinese mu economic forest, which is planted recently, mainly formed by orange, pomelo, longan and lychee. There is not timber forest in the area.

Each family has tap water in the village. The water is drawn into the village with plastic waterpipe from the mountain spring, which is 1.5 kilometer far away from the village.

The total area of fish farm of the village is 4 Chinese mu now. There are grass carp, blunt-snout, and loach, etc. A part of villagers make full use of the unused fields in winter to raise fish. The total fish production is about 13 tons per year including 2.6 ton fish production provided by unused fields in winter.

Now, because villagers use tractors to plough the field, few people raise buffaloes.

The total area of rotational tillage land is 30 Chinese mu. They are located in the hillside. The villagers plant upland rice and corn on it.

The total area of the paddy field is 1125 Chinese mu. It lies in the east of the flat area, which is known as the best land. About 148 Chinese mu paddy field is used to plant hybrid rice. And the total yield of the rice is 8168000 kilograms per year.

The tillage area of corn is 65 Chinese mu with a total production of 65800 kilograms;

The tillage area of potato is 10 Chinese mu with a total production of 67000 kilograms;

The tillage area of peanut is 26 Chinese mu, and the total production of the peanut is 130000 kilograms;

The tillage area of tea is 375 Chinese mu with a total production of 11000 kilograms.

The tillage area of bannana is 46.1 Chinese mu with a total production of 32270 kilograms;

The tillage area of other fruit is 2.4 Chinese mu with a total production of 720 kilograms.

Now, villagers are signing the second round of the land contract dating thirty years with government. On the fixed cultivated land, villagers can decide when and what kind of crops they plant. Without the management of Nature reserve permitting, villagers can not cut any tree except fruit tree planted by them. Since the implement of the protection project of the natural forest, the villagers don't be permitted to cut any living tree. They have to collect deadwood as firewood. So it is difficult to collect firewood.

Now, the range of the land degradation is bigger. Land degradation is most seriously given expression to sugarcane land, which is generally located in the hillside. With a long run cultivation, the lack of fertilizer and the shortage of protection measures for soil erosion, the soil gradually change into barren resulting in sugarcane growth and production poor. In addition, tea fields suffer land degradation, too. Tea grows together with forest along the hillside without terrace. Reclamation results in land degradation every year. Not applying fertilizer is another important reason of land degradation.

Because natural forest is managed and used by the nature reserve, the villagers can just gather deadwood as firewood from it and they have no rights to use these resources. The villagers use improperly the fixed tillage land and tea field leads to land degradation and worse continuity.

Paddy field is located in the flat area where soil erosion is not very serious and the continuity is better.

Up to now, there is not new development plan in the village

Up to 1998, there are 71 families and 370 persons in the village. All villagers are Dai Nationality people. Among them, there are 182 male and 188 female. The rate of illiteracy is one third. While in 1982, there were 47 families and 299 persons in the village. We can know from this that population has increased twenty percent in the past 17 years, the rate of population growth is 1.4%.

There is no sexual distinction in the tradition of Dai nationality. Men and women have equal status. Two children are born in each family. as far as social division of labor is concerned, men lay particular stress on physical labor while women on household chores. Meanwhile, they do other farming work together. Dai nationality professes Buddhism, so boys must go into Buddhism temple to be a monk temporarily and learn Dai nationality culture when they are seven or eight years old.

The Dai people consider human beings and their environment as a whole formed by natural component and artificial component. Among all these components, forest is the most important, for example, there is original forest called "longshan" -- a saint hill, where any life should be protected rigidly and can't be invaded. All families develop the habit of planting firewood forest near the village.

When they plant paddy rice, Dai nationality villagers never use fertilizer and pesticide resulting in the low yield.

Now, the Dai villagers continue the traditional customs, which is the important reason of low average income.

Manshaoxiu village has an uncompleted primary school with two classes and 46 pupils. After graduated from Grade 4, the pupils have to go to the completed primary school of Mangao Administrational Village. Then, they enter the middle school of Menghai Township, which is 15 kilometers far away from the village.

The villagers who are over 40 years old are general illiteracy. Nobody owns the junior degree in the village. Children often leave off their study after finishing Grade 4 of primary school. However, boys must go into temple to study Dai culture (including Dai language), after they leave the primary school.

With the Xishuanganna Autonomy prefecture government attaching importance to the education, villagers' consciousness of paying attention to education has changed a lot. In the future, the situation of children's education will become better.

The village is situated at the flat area of the foot of the hill, beside a stream. The whole village is charged with electricity and tap water. Villagers often live in a two-story tile-roofed wooden house, which occupies a total area of 150square meter. The second story is supplied to people to live in, while the first floor is used to raise livestock and poultry or to pile up firewood and stack various household supplies. Round the house, wood or bamboo fence builds a small yard.

Each family has a TV set. There is less furniture in the house and simple equipment in the kitchen. Villagers still use "huotang", which means a pile of dry wood burn on the floor, to cook food.

In each family, there is a sewing machine. The whole village has one TV set, fourteen recorders and three bikes.

The common aspiration of villagers is that they can build two-story brick house to improve housing conditions after they become rich.

There isn't any health worker in the village. If they were sick seriously, the villagers had to see the doctor in the hospital of Menghai County, which is 17 kilometers away from the village. If the illness isn't serious, they treat it themselves with herbal medicine.

There is a veterinary in the administrational village. He injects bacterin once a year for all livestock. In five years recently, no epidemic disease has taken place.

Because of traditional customs, no toilet is in the village that threatens villagers' health in rainy season.

Polished glutinous rice is villagers' staple food. They eat little meat and the diet isn't very rational, which is harmful to children's growth.

With the guide of the government and the improvement of living standard, villagers will abandon their bad traditional customs, improve medicine and health situation and enhance everybody's quality.

Mangshaoxiu Village, Menghai Township, Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture

Located inside the experimental zone of the Mangao Natural Reserve. 17 kilometers away from the capital town of Menghai County, about 10 kilometers is rough road, the neChinese mut market is the capital town of Menghai County and the Mengzhe township (about 12 kilometers, rough road)

2 kilometers away from the Mangao administrational village

No. of families (with approximate ethnic breakdown), no. of people including male/female, age groups breakdown, and the number of immigration and out if available to get the trend of population

Population: 370, families: 71, all Dai people, male: 182, female: 188; (the data of 1998) 299 persons, 47 households

Immigration in: 4, immigration out: none

Birth: 9, death: 5

Settlement: Too long, can’t remember. Before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, more than 200 hundred years.

Culture: The Dai Nationality has its own language and letter, the boy or young people will go to the temple to learn the language. But they married younger than other nationalities; most of the couple only wants two children. Each village has a certain area of "longshan", which means saint hill where they burn the body of death people. It is a saint place for the Dai nationality, and it is forbidden to cut the timber or firewood in the ‘longshan’.

Belief: Buddhism

Irrigated: 1125 Chinese mu (at the east of village), rainfed: 2 Chinese mu (at the opposition hills of the village, at the south-west of village, about 3 kilometers)

Hilly land: 750 Chinese mu (at the east of village, 1 or 2 kilometers)

Shifting cultivation field: 30 Chinese mu

Total area of agriculture land: 1907 Chinese mu

Natural forestland: 750 Chinese mu

30 years ago: about 1500 Chinese mu

‘Longshan’: 93 Chinese mu

One forest ranger employed by the natural reserve, his salary is 90 CNY per month.

Tea yard: 375 Chinese mu; Fruit yard: 40 Chinese mu

None

Drinking and bathing water: mountain spring water, purified simply and channeled into village

Water for irrigation: rain; a dam was built in 40 years ago, but it has been damaged and can’t retain water to irrigate the paddy field now. It is difficult to irrigate in dry season.

Domestic fish: raise the fish in the paddy field, about 10 Chinese mu. It is still stay at the experimental phase.

Buffaloes: none

Cattle: none

Pigs: 230

Chicken: difficult to do the statistics

The murrain was found in 1993, the death number of the livestock was few. After then, all of the livestock and poultry are injected kinds of bacterin to prevent from the murrain

The villagers tillage their paddy and dry field with tractors replacing the cattle or buffaloes.

750 mu of forest collective owned, none forest household owned

Planting plum. An agricultural technician planted 4-Chinese-mu plum ten years ago, and he has got about 10 thousand-yuan RMB.

Enlargement the area of planting plum

There is state-owned forest nearby, and it is forbidden them to lumber in the forest. The villagers can collect deadwood and a few of herbal medicines.

A lot of deforestation while forest ownership not been identification

No clinic rooms in the village, one health workers. There is one toilet in the primary school only, none in the village.

A primary school in the village, there are only two grades (Grade One and Grade Two), using ‘putonghua’ (standard Chinese pronunciation) in class.

There is a temple in the village, where the children can learn Dai language and letter.

There is One veterinarian in administrational village, none in natural village.

The villagers purchase the bacterin to inject the livestock or poultry themselves under the direction of the veterinarian.

There is one agricultural technician, two assistance of planting sugarcane in administrational village.

There are 7 times of agricultural technique training organized by the agricultural extension station in the Mangao administrational village each year, including 3 times of training about cultivating rice, 2 times of tea and two times of sugarcane. The technique of raising fish in paddy is popularized in the village at present.

None

Normal

One female clerk in the administrational village, one clerk of women affairs in the village, her task is propagandizing the policy of family birth control and handling with the conflicts involving with the woman in the village.

Nearly equal, but the women is more toilsome than the man.

Mainly by man.

Decided by man.

The paddy and hill fields are difficult to irrigated in dry season.

The science and technology knowledge of the villagers is little, and the educational degree is low.

The firewood lack in the future.

Built a reservoir or a dam near the village on the base of the damaged dam to promote the water supply condition. If so, not only this village, but also only the near villages can benefit from the dam or reservoir.

Plant the firewood forest suited to the local environment.

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