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Abstract
Development in the Central Highlands of Vietnam has accelerated under the recent market liberalization, and coffee production plays a central role in this transformation. This development, however, has not changed the region's political reputation as one marked by social unrest and environmental crisis. This research studied the paradox of economic development and social conflicts through land use and social transitions of a community as it was integrated into commodity market. The research was conducted in Lam Ha district, a coffee-producing area in the Central Highlands, Vietnam.
Through in-depth interviews and participatory observation, this research found that although Lam Ha coffee market development has revitalized the local economy and improved livelihoods of the majority, it has also been accompanied by increasing socioeconomic integration, differentiation, forest loss, and resource conflicts. Coffee traders have benefited the most from the recent coffee boom, and they are the wealthiest and most powerful people. By contrast, migrant wage workers from the lowlands are the poorest and the most exploited. Exploitative relationships however, were neither readily visible, nor the major mechanisms cause of resource conflicts related to commercial coffee development in the Central Highlands. Far from being a straightforward class conflict, the frequent unrests represent a political expression of minority groups who strive to share the benefits of development through the existing socio-political structure.
Although ethnic minorities have been major players in the social unrest and resource crisis in the highlands, the roots of their discontent must be understood more broadly through an examination of the processes of economic, political, and geographic marginalization that accompany coffee boom in the central highlands. The state quick-fixed technical solutions were not likely to be effective in the long run. Instead, a sociopolitical reform to rebuild people's trust, facilitate transparency and accountability, and prevent the co-optation of minority rights is critical.
