日人領臺之初,頭前溪上游地區除少數漢人入山伐樟製腦外,多為泰雅、賽夏兩族原住民從事游耕、狩獵活動的「蕃地」。 日本政府透過臺灣總督府各項施政的推展,確立了「國土利用上の經濟」的蕃地治理方策。在此蕃地經營的構想中,官廳將原住民活動的範圍限制在「蕃人所要地」,並教授定地農耕的技術,把他們定著在土地上;漢人則因專賣制度、豫約賣渡規則等法規的管制或鼓勵,轉而以「經濟的」方式從事製腦或改行經濟樹種的造林活動。總督府的蕃地政策,使得原本具有「掠奪且移動性」的游耕和製腦生業,轉變為「定著且較具永續性」的製腦或造林活動。 在原住民和漢人維生活動交互作用過程中,人文生態系統隨之發生改變,環境亦易面貌,而其變遷的趨勢則反映出日本治臺時期國土經濟利用之蕃地經營政策的特色。
The mountain regions of Taiwan had ever been the territory where aborigines engage in shifting cultivation and hunting. After 1860s, Han Chinese invaded into the aborigine-dominant area gradually and then collected, picked crude camphor in northern Taiwan. However, the mountain region in northern Taiwan has emerged diverse landscapes, such as paddy field, fixed-cultivated land and timberland during the Japanese-ruled period (1895-1945). In short, this essay tries to examine 'human ecology' of mountain regions in northern Taiwan. (The human ecology refers to interactions between human beings and environment.) And I take Thou-Chhian upstream area during the years 1860-1945 as an example. It is concluded that as the human ecology in Thou-Chhian upstream area has altered, the environment there also changed simultaneously. The pattern of the environmental change reflects the characteristics of Japanese colonial government's Aborigine-District policy.