Carry basket. Bamboo, rattan. Xtieng people; Binh Phuoc Province; before 1997. VME 54.97.07.30

Journeys in and out of the forest were once the hallmark of life in the central highlands. Highlands people hunted and gathered the resources of the forest, including bamboo, bark and rattan, for every aspect of life. They practiced a form of agriculture known as swidden, clearing fields in the forest and moving their location every year so the soil could recover before they returned.

Today, changes in the environment have limited these forest journeys. Increased populations, especially an influx of lowlanders, strain existing resources. Thin forest soils are often over-farmed. Defoliation during the Vietnam / American War left its legacy of damage, and the local and global hunger for wood and other forest products continues to take a toll. In Vietnam, as in many other parts of the world, environmentalists face grave odds as they struggle to conserve a unique and threatened landscape.