1、084VOLUME 10/ISSUE 4/AUGUST 2022Rebranding Terroir:Ethnoecology and Tea Agro-Ecosystem Management in Response to Increased Market Integration in Southern Yunnan,ChinaSammi Wae Ki WONG*Faculty of Architecture,The University of Hong Kong,Hong Kong 999077,China*CORRESPONDING AUTHORAddress:Knowles Build
2、ing,The University of Hong Kong,Pokfulam Road,Hong Kong,999077,ChinaEmail:wsammi2connect.hku.hkhttps:/doi.org/10.15302/J-LAF-1-050049EDITED BY Tina TIANABSTRACT Prompted by increased domestic and transnational demand for Puer tea,an emergence of agro-ecosystem intensification in Southern Yunnan,Chin
3、a has resulted in various agro-ecosystems including tea forests,mixed crop systems,and monocultural terrace tea gardens,in the tea production system.Plants of Camellia sinensis assamica often grow as trees in forests whilst C.sinensis sinensis grow as shrubs in terrace tea gardens.Inspired by the wi
4、ne industry,the concept“Terroir”acts as a framework that analyzes both environmental and human factors yielding varying botanic profiles,and hence quantifies values created by the cultivation process.The approach allows economic opportunities of place-based tea products to be driven by the origin in
5、 lieu of extrinsic qualities,which has resulted in to the fabricated reputation of terroir.In response to a common gap in terms of botanical and cultural values between tea cultivation and marketing trends,this article investigates an alternative scenario in which tea production and promotion model
6、could minimize its environmental impacts and utilize its economic weight to advance land conservation efforts specific to cultural complexity at community scales.HIGHLIGHTSContrasts scale and speed of two cultivation practicesTea Forest and Tea GardenArgues that there is a widening gap of botanical
7、value between tea cultivation and marketing trendsEnvisions community forests that secure villagers control over the landscape from outsidersProposes economic opportunities driven by terroir from a landscape architectural perspective1 The Value of Puer Tea in China and Transnational InterestsTea pro
8、duction in Southern Yunnan,China since Tang Dynasty(618907)has become an asset with international commercial appeal,playing a critical role in the commodification of a border with neighboring territories via the Ancient Tea-Horse Road1.In the late 1950s,under a state directive the Chinese government
9、 seized an opportunity to boost the local market economy by large-scale replacement of traditional tea forests with monocultural KEYWORDS Puer Tea Cultivation;Terroir;Ethnoecology;Agro-ecosystem Management;Ethnography;Botanic Quality;Product Authenticity RECEIVED DATE 2022-09-20LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTUR
10、E FRONTIERS/EXPERIMENTS&PROCESSES085terrace tea gardens for a more productive economic system2.In the market of“modern”tea,the notion of value creation started with the process of marketing and developing the brand value of Puer tea.However,nowadays the territory of production,Puer per se,has mere c
11、ontrol over the marketing of the celebrated brand3,meaning that botanic profiles and qualities have little relevance to the product values in monetary terms.Despite the attempt to create a more inclusive labor force in the tea production line,current division of labor leads to increasing tension amo
12、ng upland residents,local intermediaries and ecdemic tea merchants,given that its initial goal was to help alleviate local poverty4.2 Branding TerroirDerived from“terre”or“land”in French,“terroir”is developed as a core concept of place-making during the production and consumption of wine and cheese.
13、The term is useful in understanding the production of high-quality botanicals through an emphasis on the complex interactions of environmental and cultural factors that shape agricultural products,yet seldom applied in the Chinese tea industry.Terroir highlights the crucial role of human-environment
14、 interactions in imparting distinct sensory characteristics and health properties to botanicals5.In the context of Puer tea itself,the quality of botanicals is majorly driven by a number of ecological and management factors,before other value-added stages such as processing and marketing.The former
15、factors,comprising of tea plant species,biotic and abiotic conditions of the two corresponding growing habitats like temperature,moisture,light,and soil quality,characterize value created by plant-environment interactions6.The latter factors include the quantity and quality of labor(upland tea farme
16、rs)in the management of agro-ecosystems,and processing techniques,emphasizing human-environment interactions.A review of impacts of both factors on botanic profiles under the two agro-ecosystemsTea Forest and Tea Gardentherefore help perceive the role of terroir as a whole in the creation of product value from the perspective of producers.2.1 Mainstream Representation of TerroirContrary to tea forests,Puer with standardized botanical qualities is produced by intensive cultivation using chemical
