The relationship status on asset management and land use in Akha villages has reflected the different results of state-led forest management in minority group communities. In China, second class ethnic or minority groups, who practice the slash-and-burn farming method, are automatically citizens. In general, they are grouped in the policies that may affect farmers in other regions, including guidelines for collecting and distributing agricultural produce based on economic and political policies on forest management for villages and households. Slash-and-burn farming practices were allowed in designated areas and household settlements were demographically based for 15 years. Later on, programs to promote highland paddy cultivation were changed to promote orchards, tea and other cash crops.
Although the Akha in the forest hold national identity cards, they still have no rights of landownership, whereas state agencies have occupied their cultivated areas for forest rehabilitation. This has obliged young Akha to seek jobs elsewhere. Some of them are involved in the narcotics trade or in prostitution. When legal labor yields less than that for the Thais, the Akha remain marginalized to the extent that it seems that the state does not care much.