In Southwest China, high biodiversity overlaps with cultural and ethnic diversities. Up to 43 distinct ethnic groups have been adapting to distinct microclimates and elevations through a diverse range of livelihood from hunting and gathering, swidden agriculture, to cultivating various trees and plants (Sturgeon 2012; Shen et al. 2021). For instance, the population proportion of Dai, Hani, Lahu, and Blang is found to correlate to the richness of rice varieties in the region (Shen et al. 2021). As the earliest cultivators of rice in China, the religious traditions of these ethnic groups feature the conservation of rice varieties and exchange of rice seeds (ibid.). The sociocultural institutions of the Hani have been found to be linked to soil management, fire control, and watershed protection, ensuring long-term land-use management (Xu et al. 2009). Nonetheless, the rural-urban migration, land-use policy, market dynamics, and the over-commercialization of ethnic culture are leading to a gradual erasure of traditional ecological knowledge and disintegration of traditional neighboring relationships (Shen et al. 2021). Biodiversity is decreasing with the simplification of local livelihood and landscapes (Xu et al. 2009). Study has found that 71.8% of regional crop varieties in Southwest China has been lost from 1956 to 2014, and the new Seed Law in 2022 is failing to protect landraces and farmers’ seed sovereignty (MARA 2022).