| Biodiversity can provide human beings with supply, assistance, adaptation, and cultural services, and maintain the survival and development of mankind. However, with the rapid development of industrialization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization process, biodiversity has been in an unprecedented crisis. Western tradition believes of nature and its technology applications are the root of this crisis. The crisis address needs to change the traditional Western belief and establish ethics of respect for nature, harmonious environment of man and nature. In this process, different civilization provides a source of ideas and knowledge power.Yi is the sixth largest minority nationality, mainly distributed in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Guangxi provinces. Yi’s clan mainly derived from a nomadic Qiang people and the ethnic group to be formed in a wide range of national exchanges differentiation. Acquisition, hunt, agricultural and animal husbandry has become the main mode of production. Yi people mainly live in both north sides and south sides of Jinsha River, with north latitude22°-29°, east longitude98°-108°, and between1500-3000meters above sea level. The localities have the extensive environmental diversity, plant diversity and animal diversity. Depending on the life of nature, Yi formed its unique natural concept and mode of agricultural production. By this way, Yi people have maintained their living environmental biodiversity.Living in the tree flourishing environment for a long time, Yi deeply felt the importance of forest for humans, animals, nature, and realized tree is the foundation of human survival. In Yi’s natural sense, everything originated in the tree’s change, a "Thoreau tree" is the source of everything in the universe. All things were born by "Thoreau tree", endowed the prominent characteristics of life cycle such as sowing, germination, blossom and bear fruit, and controlled by the "Thoreau tree". In Yi’s sense, trees play the role of "Thoreau tree", the soul of beings is from it. Because of the importance of trees to the soul, and the survival of all things is inseparable from the tree. All kinds of vegetation is not only the source of all things in the universe, but also the basis of human production and life. God’s dominance of the world and the role of trees are unified. People’s respects and expectations to God directly show tree worship and sacrifice. Tree became the various incarnations and symbol of God.Because of the existence of many kinds of animals in their enviroment, thus in the Yi’s sense, all sorts of natural things have not only the characteristics of trees, also the characteristics of animals, have not only the same physical structure as animals, also its male and female phase and characteristics of growth and development. Matching is the instinct of things’ growth and development, all kinds of things in natural world needs to match or to get married, but match is not limited to the same things. Yi thinks different kinds of things are also able, and need to match. Matching of different things leads to their interdependence, which provides conditions for other things’ reproduction and development. Reproduction and development of all things in nature depend on the coexistence and symbiosis of biodiversity. Matching can realize complementary and synergy between different things, thus more conducive to the survival of both sides matched. Therefore, matching makes the nature existence stable, through matching male and female of the same and different kinds of things. All things in the natural world are integrated into an unified organic whole, in which every unique thing is in his proper place, and is orderly and stable.A stable world is a world of balanced diversity, and the balance is not absolute uniform, but maximum coexistence of diversity. Based on the control of reasonable quantity and proportion of existing natural things, the survival security for all kinds of things is the requirement of the natural balance. In the Yi’s sense, the differences of size, shape, orientation, weight, function of natural things are needed to restrict each other. Some useful things, even some harmful things for human beings, such as the fierce animals, are also indispensable in holding a natural balance and stability. To maintain the balance between things, Gods’ and natural things’ survival scope and activities need limited. Everything with its right has its limitation. Human’s development is a natural balance process of man and man, and man and nature. In this process, diversity of living environment cognized and utilized, which is a results of balance between Yi and nature. Under guidance of the natural concept of biological diversity, Yi formed its unique agricultural production activities based on the notion of "tree". The cooperative mode of production and the diversity of production technology are the characteristics of agricultural production.In the Yi’s perspective, the concept of "food" is not limited to crops and livestock breeding products. Wild plants and wild animals are also an important component of the "food". The forest resources either as a food demand or economic source of income, still play an important role. Through wildlife’s dependence on food, cattle, sheep, horses, pigs in forest were acclimatized, Yi’s the animal husbandry and aquaculture were developed, and rich vegetation in hills made field stocking the main way of Yi’s livestock and poultry breeding."Tree" as the symbol of God maintains the Yi’s animal husbandry, aquaculture and the balance of nature. The prosperity of animal husbandry and aquaculture is a results of the protection from Shepherd God or Mountains God as the representation of trees, but also Yi grazing activities on vegetation growth. Due to trees as a base of life existence, ensuring the smooth conduction of crop production from farming, growth, harvest to the prevention and control of plant diseases and insect pests is inseparable from the action of trees. The management of forest resources and the utilization of farming are the production security.Natural resources is the base and condition of Yi’s agricultural production. But in the utilization of natural environment, Yi not only profits from the natural, farming production also plays a role to the reproduction and development of natural plant and animal. Yi’s hunter-gatherer, crop production, animal husbandry and aquaculture have formed the natural coordinated unification, achieved natural coexistence and mutual benefit. With the natural synergy, Yi’s crop production, animal husbandry and aquaculture become the organic composition of natural plant production and animal production, and both livestock breeding and farming production in production activities with the natural environment interact with each other, jointly developing. Animal husbandry production is not only the composition of food production, but also the necessary condition of development of farming production. In Yi’s agricultural production, both the coordination of crop production, livestock breeding, and the coordination between people, which is not only a reasonable distribution of labor force, an important way improving agricultural productivity, also the requirement of various kinds of resource utilization in agricultural production. The coordination exists widely in men and women, family, village, regional and ethnic groups. The special mountainous environment of diversity results in the diversity of Yi’s agricultural production structure. In farming production, through the synergy of environment and production, planting and breeding, both crop varieties and production technology have biological diversity in Yi region. The diversity of farming production leads to the diversity of animal husbandry and aquaculture. Yi’s animal production includes both buffalo, cattle, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses, mules and rabbits grazing on sloping field, also the pig, dog, chicken, duck, cats, etc. and various kinds of wild animal breeding. The mixed animal husbandry according to group management is Yi’s characteristics of poultry birds breeding. The diversity of Hunter-gatherer, planting and breeding makes Yi’s production tools diverse, demonstrating the manufacturing and use of diverse production tools.Yi’s natural concept and agricultural production mode originating from the understanding and utilization of the environment in which they live, along with the development of modern agricultural sci-tech and market gradually showed its values on the development of environmental and biological diversity protection and economy.Being different from the western ethical value of sci-tech and natural dualism of subject-object, the tree as natural things of the present, its growth and recovery is a life survival of requirements. All things are regarded as the same life existence as human. Natural reproduction is the basis of human reproduction natural control, human rights restrictions, maintenance of the diversity of life, both human survival requirements, but also the responsibility of human nature. This value constitutes the basis of the Yi regional biodiversity maintenance. Agricultural production is always inevitably the natural transformation in order to adapt to the needs of human beings, but because of the restraint in the use of natural resources, Yi agricultural production tries to avoid the over-exploitation of nature. Biodiversity agricultural production structure of Yi benefits the economic development while safeguarding the biodiversity environment. With the concept of traditional nature notion diminishing, the Yi areas of agricultural production has undergone significant change, such as deforestation, single large-scale cultivation of the crop in agricultural production, changes in farming practices, the widespread use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The commercialized farming has brought frequent disastrous climate, soil erosion, loss of wildlife, livestock and poultry species, degradation and improvement of agricultural production costs. This generated the Yi region’s poverty. In the survival and cultural heritage, the value of the traditional Yi biodiversity wisdom and its agricultural production on Yi regional economic development is becoming apparent. Under the guidance of biodiversity values, it will be the befitting choice for Yi regional biodiverstiy protection and socio-economic development that the restoration of biodiversity based traditional religious activities, the exploration of forest products, the development of the forest planting and breeding, the establishment of harmonious cycles of forestry fanning, farming-animal husbandry and agricultural-industrial benign, exploration of the commercial value of the traditional buckwheat and other wild relatives and the use of traditional cooperation between the establishment of new agricultural cooperative sharing and the scale of operations. |
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