Local Soil Knowledge in Southeast Asias Mountainous Regions

Local soil knowledge, or ethnopedology, combines elements of natural and social sciences in a holistic way. Considering local peoples opinions, it is seen as a key factor to develop and implement sustainable agriculture - especially in countries where its application failed due to top-down decisions by the government. This book combines the studies on local soil knowledge conducted within the framework of the German-Thai-Vietnamese research project SFB 564, also known as The Uplands Program. It analyzes the local soil knowledge of the main hill tribes in the SFBs study regions in Thailand and Vietnam. Ethnopedological results are compared to pedological data to evaluate the depth of local knowledge