The Kinh were mainly involved in administration, tourism, and education and settled in the district’s capital, while selleckchem most of the other ethnic groups practiced different types of subsistence agriculture mostly in the form of shifting

cultivation (Tugault-Lafleur, 2007). Apart from the shifting cultivation, ethnic minorities also used to cultivate opium and collect forest products for their survival (Michaud and Turner, 2000, Sowerwine, 2004b and Turner, 2012), which could have contributed to past forest clearance. Today, the ethnic groups cultivate water rice on permanent terraced paddy fields; maize and other crops on upland fields (Leisz et al., 2004 and Turner, 2011). Terraced paddy fields were first introduced by the Hmong and Yao who migrated from southern China to northern Vietnam during the late 19th and early

20th centuries (Michaud, 1997). Additionally, many households cultivate cardamom (Amomum aromaticum) under forest cover as a substitute cash crop, after the ban on opium in 1992 ( Tugault-Lafleur and Turner, 2009 and Turner, 2011). Because of its scenic landscape and presence of five ethnic groups with their traditional way of living, Sa Pa is considered as one of the most attractive tourism areas in Vietnam. The Hoang Lien Mountains MDV3100 cost comprise probably the last remnants of native forest of the northern Vietnamese highlands. It became one of the first areas recognized as a ‘special use forest’ in Vietnam, and it was converted into the Hoang Lien National Park (HLNP) in July 2002 following the Prime Minister’s Decision 90/2002/QD-TTg to protect biodiversity by preserving the subtropical and temperate forest ecosystems (Le, 2004 and Jadin et al., 2013). Already under the French Regime (1887–1940), Sa Pa district was a well-known holiday and relaxation resort (Michaud and Turner, 2006). Northern Vietnam suffered a lot under Unoprostone the first Indochina war (1945–1954). The town sunk into oblivion, as a large part of the population of Sa Pa town fled

away from the hostilities. In the early 1960s, in the framework of the New Economic Zones Policy, migration schemes were designed by the new socialist regime that stimulated the Vietnamese Kinh from the lowlands to populate the northern Vietnamese Highlands (Hardy, 2005). The decision of the national government to open Sa Pa district for international tourism in 1993 had a large impact on daily life in Sa Pa town and its surrounding communities. The number of domestic and international visitors increased exponentially from 16,100 in 1995 to 405,000 in 2009 (GSO, 1995 and GSO, 2010) (Fig. 1). Tourism is now the most important economic activity in the area, and it generated 58% of Sa Pa district’s GDP in 2010 (GSO, 2010). The poverty rate in Sa Pa district decreased gradually from 36% in 2000 to 21% in 2009 (GSO, 2000 and GSO, 2010).