ABSTRACT
Rural livelihoods in the Sino-Vietnamese borderlands are in a state of flux. While some upland societies have been cautious about altering long-standing practices, others have embraced new prospects offered by agrarian transformations, far-reaching commodity markets, and commercial intensification. The dilemmas created by such opportunities are especially palpable in the case of one upland nontimber forest product, black cardamom, now increasingly commoditized across these borderlands. Demand for this high-value spice has risen steadily over the last two decades, and many ethnic minority farmers have seized the opportunity to cultivate cardamom under the forest canopy. Yet this trade includes complex webs of social relationships, uneven power structures, and very different economic returns for different actors competing to access key resources.
