Challenges in conserving ethnic culture in urban spaces: Case of Ako Dhong village (Vietnam)

Abstract Most studies of ethnic heritage in Vietnam have paid much attention to those who live in remote and mountainous areas. A little attention has been given to how indigenous people in the cities have been conserving their cultural heritage. Based on a long ethnography at Ako Dhong village, an Ede community located in Buon Ma Thuot city, Central Highlands of Vietnam, from 2010 to 2020 and utilising two conceptual frameworks of political ecology and authorities versus minorities, this article seeks to analyse complicated challenges facing the community. Unlike previous investigations focusing on external influences such as state policies, migration, or religions like Protestantism and Catholicism, this research provides a multifaceted picture of internal and external factors affecting the community’s cultural heritage. We argue that the local crony capitalism represented by collusion between the state and businesses, the state’s top-down cultural approach and community rifts threaten the community’s efforts to protect cultural heritage.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
Based on a long ethnography at Ako Dhong village, an Ede community located in Buon Ma Thuot city, Central Highlands of Vietnam and the use of political ecology and authorities versus minorities, this study uncovers some challenges facing Ako Dhong's urban ethnic group to conserve their cultural heritage. Empirical data were gathered through in-depth interviews, participant observations, group discussions, and document reviews. The research findings reveal the heritage preservation achievements of local people have been undermined by external factors such as the "handshake" between local government and businesses for forest encroachment, the lack of efficient planning measures, the top-down policy implementation, and the internal community conflicts. This paper suggests that the Buon Ma Thuot city government needs to change its viewpoint of heritage values and then implement some measures to protect the community's cultural heritage.

Introduction
In the late spring 2010, we started a customary law project funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) at Ako Dhong village, Buon Ma Thuot city, Central Highlands region of Vietnam. This region is a plateau bordering the lower parts of Laos and the northeast of Cambodia, so it plays a strategically military, economic, and political role in Vietnam. In the late 1950s, Ede or Rade people reclaimed abandoned land to form Ako Dhong village, followed by the arrival of Kinh people. Whist the Kinh are the largest ethnic group at just over 80% of the total population, the Ede group comprises less than 1% of Vietnamese population in Vietnam. In the Central Highlands of Vietnam, the Ede are the second largest indigenous group, behind the Jarai people, having approximately 400,000 people (General Statistics Office, 2019). The culture of the Ede people is primarily characterised by the Ede language as part of the Chamic languages, and matriarchal society (Dang, 2019a). While walking along the village, local scenery and landscape took us by surprise. Plenty of beautiful gardens have relatively identical shapes like balanced and square fenced with green plants, spacious yards, and flowers. Many stilt houses stand out since they are built to symbolise the Ede's matriarchal society. In terms of housing layout, the stilt house is in front of the garden, and the other modern one is behind. This kind of layout has been utilised by most of the local households. It is in stark contrast to what is going on in other areas of Buon Ma Thuot city. According to the report released by the People's Committee of Buon Ma Thuot, most Ede families sold their stilt houses and then built concrete ones (2010). Additionally, Ako Dhong has a wide and wet valley in which the hustle and bustle of city life gives way to the sound of flowing streams, birdsongs, and the shade of old forest trees. This is so impressive since most the villages in the Central highlands of Vietnam have had no forest due to the Vietnamese nationalisation of the forest land since 1975 (Dang, 2019b). Worse, this region is also one of the deforestation hotspots in Vietnam, so the Vietnamese Prime Minister ordered the closure of natural forests (Tuan, 2016).
Once the customary law project ended, we went back and forth between Hanoi and Buon Ma Thuot during 2011-2020 to understand how Ako Dhong and two other Ede villages changed under the impacts of substantial urbanisation (Dang, 2019a). Notably, these field trips allowed us to observe Ako Dhong's significant changes such as the popularity of concrete and modern houses, the degradation of community forest, and the rise of crimes, thus posing serious issues for Ako Dhong's cultural heritage management. As a result, several key questions can be made like what challenges the Ako Dhong community faces to protect their culture and how these challenges affect Ako Dhong people's cultural assets.
Studies on challenges to preserving ethnic cultures worldwide can be divided into three groups. The first group criticises development policies and programs related to states and international organisations since they pose negative impacts on local communities' socio-cultural life in the Southern Hemisphere countries (Biersack et al., 2006;Blaikie et al., 2015;Clarke, 2001;Paulson et al., 2003;Peet et al., 2010;Perreault et al., 2015;Robbins, 2019). The second group considers discourse and development practices as profoundly influencing the lives of third-world ethnic communities (Duncan, 2008;Escobar, 2011;Ferguson, 1994;Pigg, 1992). The third group focuses on the change of mentality and cultural practices in indigenous communities and religious conversion (Hiebert, 2008;Robbins, 2004;Schiller, 1997;Thong et al., 2023).
Similarly, these three approaches mentioned above are seen in various studies on Vietnam's ethnic culture. For the first group, a study "The Development Crisis in the Uplands of Vietnam" conducted by Jamieson and colleagues in 1998 claims that the government's mountainous development programs caused four major challenges for mountainous areas including: (1) poverty; (2) population pressure; (3) degraded environment and (4) dependence of ethnic minorities on external systems and the "marginalisation" of the ethnic minorities' economy (Jamieson et al., 1998, p. 15). Other authors argue that under the influence of development policies of the state, the village space of indigenous communities is disrupted, and traditional cultural practices being broken (Mai, 2011;Nguyen, 2008;Salemink, 2000), so the locals have to look to external religions as a new spiritual fulcrum (Salemink, 2003). The reasons stem from the lack of understanding, and the misunderstanding about mountainous regions (Jamieson et al., 1998;Nguyen, 2008), knowledge based on Kinh people's perspectives (Evans, 2018;Hoang & Pham, 2012), the ignorance of local community's cultural contexts (Dang, 2014;Le, 2019;Mai, 2011), and the "heritagisation" of culture by state (Bui & Lee, 2015;Salemink, 2016). In addition, examining the impact of discourse and development practices on ethnic minorities is presented through studies undertaken by Jamieson et al. (1998), Hoang and Pham (2012) and Hoang (2018. Finally, the link between religious conversion and ethnic cultural change is shown in Nguyen's study (Nguyen, 2004), Ngo (2015Ngo ( , 2016, and Nguyen and Pham (2013).
In the Vietnamese context, as Peters and Andersen commented that most of studies on ethnic cultural preservation focus on communities in remote areas (Peters & Andersen, 2013). A few studies touch upon minorities in urban spaces by highlighting social relations and social networks (Nguyen & Tran, 2021), the transformation of village space (Dang, 2015(Dang, , 2019b, and social security (Pham, 2010), particularly challenges to the cultural conservation of H'Mong villages at Sapa in the context of growing tourism and urbanization (Dao, 2016;Quan, 2022;Srikham, 2019;Tran, 2006). Overall, three subjects including the state, global institutions, and the community have been substantially studied. Notably, none have regarded the link between the state and local enterprises and its impacts on communities' effort in protecting cultural heritage. These studies have analysed the external factors but ignore the internal reasons like individualism or community rifts.
Since the debates over the preservation of ethnic heritage in the urban setting have been scarcely documented, this paper aspires to explore the challenges to preserving the ethnic culture of an indigenous community in Buon Ma Thuot. To achieve this, conceptual frameworks of political ecology and authorities versus minorities are utilised. The subsequent section introduces the brief history and heritage conservation achievements made by Ako Dhong people, followed by research method part. Next, the paper presents the main research findings by highlighting the challenges facing Ako Dhong's heritage. The discussion section puts Ako Dhong into a broader context, before wrapping this study. This article reveals a complicated relationship among actors in heritage management and conservation and explains the difficulty in preserving ethnic cultural heritage in the highland city of Vietnam.

Political ecology
In the 1970s, dissatisfied with cultural ecology that focused on interactions between humans and the ecological environment at the local level, anthropology and Relevant disciplines researchers started examining the cultural and environmental change of communities in developing countries within a broader socio-economic and political context. This approach is called political ecology. In Bryan's words, political ecology raises concerns over the interaction of diverse socio-economic and political forces with ecological change (Bryant, 1992, p. 14). Meanwhile, Roberts (2020) suggests that political ecology highlights the role of economic and state forces in the appropriation and disruption of the local environment. For example, through Political Ecology of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries (Blaikie, 2016) and Land Degradation and Society (Blaikie & Brookfield, 1987), the authors argue that land degradation is not a result of poverty, ignorance, overpopulation, and irrational livelihood practices of local people, but socio-economic-political pressures from the outside which forces farmers to exploit the land against their will. In addition, researchers expressed concerns about ecological consequences caused by the state development programs and ecological consequences of conflicts between indigenous communities and resource management government agencies within the "internal territorialisation" context (Rasmussen & Lund, 2018;Vandergeest & Peluso, 1995;Wadley, 2003). Some researchers also examined multi-dimensional relationships between the government, the people, and social classes in rural areas in natural resource competitions. For instance, through The political ecology of forestry in Burma, 1824-1994(Bryant, 1997 and Rich forests, poor people: resource control and resistance in Java (Peluso, 1992), the authors investigated the resources competitions between people and colonial and postcolonial states in Indonesia and Burma. Escobar adopted a new approach to political ecology when he considered discourse a factor in shaping knowledge and conflicts related to nature (Peet & Watts, 1996). In the political-cultural context of third-world countries, in Escobar's view, conflicts over resources are not merely competition in the production field, but also reflect the conflict of symbols and cultural meanings between different subjects (Hoang & Pham, 2012). This framework provides a lens to understand how the local authority's policy towards community forests has posed barriers to Ako Dhong's efforts to conserve their cultural heritage.

Authorities versus minorities
Minority groups are considered "metaphors and reminders of the betrayal of the classical national project. This betrayal, which was rooted in the failure of the nation-state to preserve its promise to be the guarantor of national sovereignty, underwrites the worldwide impulse to extrude or eliminate minorities" (Appadurai, 2006, p. 43). Regardless of the size and the high level of cultural difference, the cultural gap between the minority and the majority might cause friction resulting in ethnic violence, even ethnic cleansing. Many countries are composed of various ethnic, racial, and cultural groups (Harrison, 2010). The study conducted by Silverman and Ruggles (2007) contend that conflicts can occur over matters of indigenous land and cultural property rights to manage and conserve cultural heritage of the minority. Central to this is the question of who defines and takes control of cultural heritage. Therefore, various heritage scholars and researchers have sought to acknowledge the motives behind heritage interventions versus political goals and identity (Logan, 2012). For instance, the stewardship over heritage in Tibet is inextricably linked to China's invasion of Tibet after the 1949 revolution. In the case of Indonesia, the growth of cultural heritage for tourism is regarded prominently on the national agenda, prioritising national unity over cultural pluralism (Silverman & Ruggles, 2007). This theory contributes to explaining the opposition between the local government and the people of Ako Dhong in the way of ethnic culture preservation, which is reflected in the inadequacies of the local government's policy towards this community.

Ako Dhong: a typical case study
Ako Dhong is one of the 33 Ede villages in Buon Ma Thuot city. In the Ede language, Ako Dhong means watershed because it is located at the upper part of the Ea Nuol stream, the largest stream in Buon Ma Thuot. Two European nuns named Colomban and Boniface set foot on Buon Ma Thuot in 1954. Two years later, they were given a 45-hectare wasteland by the local government for coffee cultivation. In the coffee plantations, Y-Diem Niê (Ama H'Rin) was considered a leader among indigenous workers because of his hard work and intelligence. In 1966, both nuns relocated to live with the locals on the plantation from the Buon Ma Thuot Diocese. After 1975, the Vietnamese government issued various policies for the Central Highlands provinces, including nationalising forest land resources, collecting of agricultural land, migration, and sedentarisation. Indigenous people, therefore, lost their ownership and access to forest resources, and their farms were also placed under the management of agricultural cooperatives. There were also waves of migration from Kinh and other ethnic groups into the Central Highlands, thus disrupting Ede's traditional farming practices and lifestyle (Dang, 2014). Fortunately, Ako Dhong residents have been persistently protecting their cultural heritage under the village elders' leadership, particularly Ama H'Rin.
In a group discussion with some Ako Dhong villagers, locals were asked to share their thoughts about Ako Dhong's cultural heritage. Two key features were identified from these discussions including typical values and assets given by previous generations. Specifically, some crucial elements are considered cultural heritage like land, long stilt houses and forests. Land including residential and farm land is supposed to supply people with daily food and a place of residence. Ancestors also bestow it, so it is recognised as "the back of the ancestors". Long stilt house not only helps provide the locals with a place to live, but also is a place for religious practices and social activities between Ede people. Finally, the forest has been an indispensable part of Ede culture since they are believed to be born and die in the forest. The forest also provides a space for cultivating rice and vegetables, some materials for long stilt house construction and firewood and a venue for agricultural rituals.
Based on the Ako Dhong villagers' awareness as mentioned earlier, various measures have been in place to protect their cultural heritage. Every household in Ako Dhong village has both residential and farm land. Once the price of property increased significantly in the 2000s, many residents converted farm land areas into residential ones and then sold them at high prices. The money was used to buy farms in rural districts at a reasonable price, to fix or reconstruct stilt houses, and to collect some Ede traditional objects kpan benches, gongs, and jars. In addition, all Ako Dhong households have stilt and concrete house. The concrete house is utilised for modern and daily uses at the back of the garden, so the façade is maintained for the stilt house. Crucially, while the number of stilt houses dropped significantly in many Ede villages, the opposite has been seen at Ako Dhong. During the survey, the number of Ako Dhong's stilt houses was 24 (2014) and has increased to 30. Traditional practices such as can drinking, gong beating gongs, khan telling, and folk songs have been well maintained in various communal events (funerals, weddings, and church services). Besides, Ako Dhong is known to be the only village in the Central Highland with a community forest, which is approximately one hectare. Nowadays, the forest has been utilised as a common space for walking, running, and playing for many Ako Dhong residents. It is a space for young people to share and learn traditional gong songs. Also, the late village elder Ama H'Rin came to the forest and encouraged young people to protect it while he was alive.

Research Method
A qualitative case study approach was employed, beginning with the first field trips to Ako Dhong in 2010 and ending in 2020 (Yin, 2018). We visited Ako Dhong one time per year, the longest trip occurred within three weeks and the shortest occurred in a week. Empirical data were gathered through in-depth interviews, participant observations, group discussions and document review. We conducted fifty in-depth interviews with various stakeholders, including men and women of various ages and social backgrounds ( Figure 1). We had first meetings with some village elders before reaching out to locals and others. We conducted ten in-depth interviews with five officials (Official 1 to 5) of Buon Ma Thuot city's People Committee. Those interviewees work for Departments of Culture and Information, Department of Resource and Environment, Department of Urban Management, and Department of Internal Affairs. Through interviews, we could understand the Buon Ma Thuot city's planning and cultural preservation policies and conflicts between different agencies. Thirty-seven interviews with local people were conducted, including eight times with two village elders (Village Elder 1 and Village Elder 2) and twenty-nine times with eleven locals (from Local 1 to Local 11). The interview with an expert was conducted twice and one interview with a local businessman. The names of the informants were changed to ensure their anonymity. In general, these in-depth interviews helped us understand different perspectives between stakeholders about achievements and difficulties in cultural heritage management and conservation in Ako Dhong village.
We also participated in two community meetings at the communal house of Ako Dhong to listen to villagers' opinions about whether they should maintain the forest. We also learnt about the social cohesion and cultural diversity of Ako Dhong by attending a funeral ceremony for the late village elder Ama H'Rin in 2012. Besides, we held four group discussions to understand the Ako Dhong people's viewpoints about the government's cultural, political, and economic policies. Moreover, various reports for the period 2010 -2020 of the People's Committee of Tan Loi ward and the People's Committee of Buon Ma Thuot City were gathered to understand the socioeconomic context of the village of Ako Dhong, including planning and cultural preservation projects. Additionally, some online materials about other urban ethnic groups in Vietnam such as Cat Cat (H'Mong village) in Sapa and B'Nơr C (K'Ho village) in Lac Duong were examined; therefore, a comparison between Ako Dhong and those villages would be undertaken.

Collusion between local agencies and businesses
According to the Ede customary law, Ako Dhong's forest was owned by its community, so nobody had the right to possess it. Once the policy for nationalising forest was issued in 1975, the government has become the owner of Ako Dhong forest. However, this change was encountered with Ako Dhong residents' dissent since they considered the forest a sacred property to be maintained and protected for future generations. The local authorities were aware about the locals' attitude, so they acknowledged the Ako Dhong community as the forest custodians. In the 1990s, deforestation took place at a substantial pace throughout the Central Highlands, the late Village elder Ama H'Rin wanted the government to empower the forest management right for the Ako Dhong community. In addition, amendments in the Forestry Law of Vietnam created an ideal condition for Ako Dhong to become the forest protection agent. The Article 29 of the 2004 Law on Forest Protection and Development stipulates the assignment of forests to village communities: The conditions for assignment of forests to village communities are prescribed as follows: (1) The village communities have the same customs, practices, and traditions of close community association with forests in their production, life, culture, and belief; can manage forests; have demand and file applications for forest assignment.
(2) The assignment of forests to village communities must be in line with the approved forest protection and development plannings and plans; and match the capacity of the local forest funds.
Village population communities shall be assigned the following forests: (1) Forests which they are managing or using efficiently.
(2) Forests that hold water sources in direct service of the communities or other common communal interests cannot be assigned to organisations, households, or individuals (Vietnamese government, 2004).
The revised Law on Forest Preservation and Development in 2019 presents the regulation as mentioned above. During 2004 -2019, Ako Dhong villagers submitted multiple applications to request the Buon Ma Thuot government to recognise them as forest managers. However, the City People's Committee did not respond to the community's demand. Local 2 shared: We have asked the City People's Committee to issue the village a certificate of forest use and management rights, but they only promise. When we ask why it takes so long, they reply it is in progress. I think the Committee is delaying the procedures to favour businesses using the forest.
What the male Local 2 told was based on a reliable foundation. During 2009 -2010, the city government held several meetings to introduce new planning projects, through which the village's cemetery and forest would be converted into a supermarket. This project was integrated as part of "Green Stream" -an urban area project running along the Ea Nuol stream being invested by Trung Nguyen Coffee Group. Local 2 remembered: Various leaders of the province and city had some trips to the village to introduce planning and discuss with us. However, we reject it. The late Ama H'Rin village elder supposed that it is not wrong for Ako Dhong to maintain the forest legally and ethically. Fortunately, the supermarket project was cancelled, and Trung Nguyen's "Green Stream" urban area project was conducted but it does not violate the village's forest.
The locals' efforts in forest protection were confronted with some challenges five years later as the male Local 1 explained: A local official took a male stranger to my house. The stranger who, is supposed to be a director of a large construction company in Dak Lak, wants to help Ako Dhong rebuild a village road. I felt happy because the road had been seriously degraded for a long time. However, he mentioned that the roads would be fixed on the condition that if the community would sell the forest to him. I was shocked by his purpose of seizing the forest. I asked him how much did you buy it for? He replied 9 billion dongs. He also supposed that if the money is divided equally, every household could receive a big portion. I was speechless, so the two left.
Through what Local 1 shared, Buon Ma Thuot officials intentionally help businesses to bargain with the locals for the forest. The road is considered an exchange tool for the forest.
The negotiations between the businessman and the Local 1 continued to happen as the Local 1 revealed: He invited me out for a drink. I did not want to go in the first place. I then agreed as he promised to talk something new to me. He increased the price to 11 billion dongs, but I kept my mind. My decision was supported by all villagers at the communal meeting. However, I had a doubt that something bad could happen.
To gain deeper understanding of the businessman, some attempts were made to approach him. With the support of the Village Elder 2, the businessman agreed to meet us at a local café. He explained why he tried to own the Ako Dhong forest: Ako Dhong is a beautiful village. I think that the city government should support villagers to conserve their traditional culture and develop tourism. However, maintaining the silt house and performing gongs are not so enough. The forest should be converted into a commercial centre, or a luxurious residential area. In this way, villagers will have some benefits, and so do authorities and businesses. Everybody knows except for the Village Elder. I believe that authority will agree with my proposal.
The businessman's opinion was justified by a subsequent decision being released by the local authority. Accordingly, the local authority decided to adjust the current planning of Ako Dhong Valley. This area will be converted into residential land. Although this plan has not yet been approved by the People's Committee of Dak Lak province, the valley area is expected to become expensive real estate for buyers. Therefore, the Official 1 of the People's Committee of Buon Ma Thuot City claimed about the prospect: The community will lose the forest if the Ako Dhong Valley is converted into the residential land. Ako Dhong's green space will disappear. My colleague mentions that the provincial departments do not participate in since it may cause some problems and encounter the community resistance. Therefore, they are waiting for the provincial chairman's decision.
Apparently, while refusing to grant forest use and management rights to the community, the Buon Ma Thuot city government supported the local businesses to privatise the forest resources at Ako Dhong. At this stage, a question must be asked, what will Ako Dhong culture be like if the community forest will disappear? We suppose that deforestation will cause two negative impacts. First, it will undermine the local residents' momentum of cultural conservation. In fact, people find it so challenging to continue their work once the forest as the local cultural symbol lost. Second, deforestation might threaten Ako Dhong's traditional cultural practices. The Expert strengthens this point through his response to an interview: The forest is not only a resource, an "environment", and "ecology", but it is also a source of spiritual life. People may lose their roots without it. The forest is also the cultural source given the close relationship between people and the forest. If there is no forest, culture will disappear. Therefore, it is suggested that the loss of forests will mark a gradual death of Ako Dhong's traditional cultural values.

Conflicts between various local agencies
To protect the Ako Dhong village's green space, the Buon Ma Thuot Department of Planning and Urban Management started the "Architectural landscape of the Ako Dhong village" project in 2012. This project was undertaken with consultations from the village elder Ama H'Rin and some villagers. Accordingly, the minimum residential land area of households in the village is 8 m in width, and 30 m in length. A five-meter-long corridor runs from the fence to the yard for planting trees and flowers. The project, therefore, provided the legal basis for maintaining the Ako Dhong's traditional space and architecture. However, the Department of Resource and Environment Management of Buon Ma Thuot City is responsible for land management within Buon Ma Thuot city did not facilitate the project. On the contrary, this department allowed the local households to sell their garden land to outsiders as civil agreements. The Kinh people, particularly local officials were long waiting for this to enter Ako Dhong. The disagreement between these two departments was noted by the Official 2: By talking with the village elder Ama H'Rin and the villagers, we believe in the "Architectural landscape of the Ako Dhong village" project. The project is to support villagers to turn the traditional living space into a cultural highlight for Buon Ma Thuot. Regrettably, the Department of Resource and Environment Management refused to collaborate with the Department of Planning and Urban Management on this project. What they consider not to be invalid according to the law. We disagree with this, but we have no right to stop them.
The disagreement between local agencies helped a large number of Kinh people coming and living at Ako Dhong from 2010.
According to Figure 2, the Ede group outnumbered the Kinh group from 2010 to 2012. However, from 2014 onward, the Kinh group surpassed the Ede group. In 2020, the Kinh group had more than twice that of the Ede group. Kinh people's dominance gradually disrupted Ako Dhong's homogeneity since there were cultural differences. These differences were highlighted by the Local 3: "Ma Phong bought a garden in Ako Dhong in 2009. He is believed to be the director of a forestry enterprise in Dak Lak province. The late villager elder Ama H'Rin encouraged him to build a stilt house to protect the village's traditional landscape, but he refused. He built a Kinh style villa. We felt uncomfortable, but we could not do anything because he had a right to do what he wanted". In addition to the Local 3's opinion, the Local 5 described some further impacts: Before 2014, our village was so peaceful that we do not care about thievery. We did not need to lock our doors during the nights. However, once the Kinh people become dominant, everything has changed. The village has been noisier, and garbage has been more present. Thievery has been a big issue.

Cultural imposition by the local government
The local authority was responsible for constructing the communal house, village gate, and roads. The interview with the Local 1 reveals how the village gate was built: The gate was built without the villagers' participation. The city leader went to the village and saw the gate's decoration. The decoration was so plain that he asked me to add some features like rice pounding and gongs beating in Ede culture. Nevertheless, there is not much space on the gate, how can I do it? I heard that the cost for the gate is 400 million dongs. If they would consult us, we would have recommended something for the gate. They consulted us once the gate completed in 2015. I heard that the Vietnamese government gave each Ede village 1 billion dongs. The local authority built the gate since there was nothing else to spend that sum of money.
Based on the Local 1's perspective, some issues can be withdrawn. First, the construction of the gate did not originate from the community's demand, but it was an option for the local official to utilise the allocated budget. Second, there was no discussion between villagers and local officials in the making of the gate. The gate is not so consistent with the local cultural standards having a high roof and two large columns. Some decorative elements like the Lac bird image as a popular "totem" of the Kinh people were used. Meanwhile, some symbols representing the Ede cultural tradition including the water station and the long stilt house were not used at all. The Kinh style gate in the entrance of the Ede village is not welcomed by the locals as the Local 8, a highly respected figure in Ako Dhong commented: If you only look at the gate, many people will think that Ako Dhong is a Kinh village because the gate is like the Kinh one. Why is the Ede village's gate designed in the Kinh people's style? Have you seen anything usual?
What had happened to the Ako Dhong's gate reflects a reality of Vietnamese cultural policy. The Government and local authorities often overlook local cultural values, so they tend force indigenous people to conform to the Kinh people's values. Consequently, Ako Dhong people do not feel respected and they no longer trust the government's policies. This is consistent with other studies conducted by Culas (2010), Harrell (2011), Hoang and Pham (2012), andDang (2014). Recently, households in Ako Dhong refused to participate in the Plan 130 of the Buon Ma Thuot city government (2019). Under the plan, the city government would support 2 households in Ako Dhong. Every household would receive 350 million VND to revitalise the long-stilt house space, and then participate in the city's homestay tourism program of the Buon Ma Thuot city. The woman 2 in Ako Dhong explained why the villagers were not interested in the program: If we the homestay program, we have to build a standardised long-stilt house, but we like to prefer to do it in our own way. In addition, tourists will eat and stay with the host, thereby  affecting our lives. We might lose our privacy. Also, homestay tourism requires a larger space, not just a stilt house. But we are not allowed to converse agricultural land into residential one, so how can we afford it?
Therefore, Ako Dhong residents may receive little support from the local authority, so they instead find alternative measures to protect their cultural heritage.

Community rift
In Ako Dhong village, the late village elder Ama H'Rin was a spiritual leader. However, some problems which happened in his family, impacted the Ako Dhong people's efforts to protect their culture. The male Local 5 who, is Ama H'Rin's first son-in-law, conducted forest encroachment. This activity was uncovered and informed to community once a villager uncovered it. The community did not trust him anymore. When the Local 5 was the Ako Dhong village chief, he turned public land into his family's possession with a cadastral surveyor's help. No one in Ako Dhong knew this.
In 2014, when Ama H'Rin passed away, thing was brought to light. The Local 2 shared: I was informed that some Kinh people were cutting trees in the forest next to the Local 5's house. I immediately asked them: Why are you cutting down our trees? They said "Are you crazy? A man sold the land to us, these trees are ours. We can cut down trees to build houses." I went to see the Local 5 to ask for his land registration, but he replied that he lost it. I supposed that he had occupied about 8 sào 1 in the village, including part of the forest. Ama H'Rin's family and the community disagreed with his behaviour. Some people wanted to file lawsuits against him, but how can they sue when he had been granted the registration?" The above-mentioned behaviour leads two some issues. It stimulates businesses to ake possession of the community forest despite the legal and ethical barriers. Also, Ama H'Rin family's social stature dropped substantially, leading to the decline of people's trust in the long-recognised figure. This is consistent with what the Local 6 in Ako Dhong shared: The village is like an extended family because the households used to live in the same house before 1975. People love and show respect for one another. But the lawsuits related to the Local 5 have changed a lot. They affected the reputation of the Ama H'Rin's family. He would be so sad in the afterlife because some things happened in the family upon his death. Also, the village is no longer as united as it used to. Money has changed people. Money is considered more important than forests, stilt houses, gongs, and even people's dignity. Now it is the Local 5. But who knows for sure that there will not be another person.

Discussion
Through the case study in Ako Dhong, this article points out the challenges of ethnic culture conservation in the context of Vietnamese urbanisation. In light of theoretical foundations of political ecology and the opposition between authorities and minorities, we can see some complicated problems undermining the heritage preservation achievements of the Ako Dhong people. These challenges come not only from outside factors such as local authority, businesses, and migrants, but also from the community. Initially, it paved the way for businesses to possess this resource, thereby leading to problems. First, local leaders' benefits from converting the forest to real estate are much more important than maintaining and conserving Ako Dhong's cultural heritage. The motive for policy implementation made by the local leaders is closely linked to their profit, not for the public. Thus, it can be said that there has been a great lag in the local urban leaders' perspectives in Vietnam compared with the mainstream perspective in the world today. This is clearly stated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in (2014) that "cultural heritage plays an important role in creating a sustainable city as an important non-renewable resource of cities, a catalyst for social cohesion, as an element of identity and creativity, as an economic factor that attracts revenue from tourism and as a factor in mitigating climate change". Secondly, some studies regard companies as outside agencies that obtain profits from revitalisation by UNESCO and Vietnam's government (Salemink, 2016), this research showcases a different angle of how local businesses dispossessed the heritage of the community with the help of the authority. In other words, the case study of Ako Dhong provides a new insight into how local crony capitalism has threatened the community's cultural heritage. The literature has fundamentally studied crony capitalism in developing countries from an economic-political lens (Beresford, 2008;Ngo & Tarko, 2018;Pei, 2016;Vu & Nguyen, 2023). For example, Pei argues that the instrumental alliance between capitalists and politicians is the root cause of widespread corruption in China after the 1990s (Pei, 2016). By showing the influence of local crony capitalism in the field of ethnic cultural heritage, this research contributes to enriching the knowledge about the crony capitalism in developing countries.
The second challenge is that the Buon Ma Thuot city government lacks a proper planning to conserve Ako Dhong's residential space. This has enabled the Kinh to migrate massively to Ako Dhong in recent decades, thus turning Ede into an ethnic minority in their homeland. In the planning project for the Buon Ma Thuot city, Dak Lak province (1998), the city did not take into account the planning for the village cultural space of the Ede community, a factor contributing to the local cultural diversity and uniqueness (Dang, 2019b). Ten years later, the planning vision remained unchanged. The government's neglect of Ako Dhong-a cultural highlight of Buon Ma Thuot is a telling example showing that local leaders have not appreciated Ede villages' cultural space in the overall urban space of Buon Ma Thuot. Meanwhile, recent research conducted by Thai and Phan (2020) indicates that the cultural heritage resource is one of the vital factors increasing the Buon Ma Thuot city's tourism competitiveness. This reveals a paradox that intending to be the coffee city of the world (Nguyen, 2022), the leaders of Buon Ma Thuot city are eager to increase their locals' attraction to tourists, but they neglect the factors making its identity.
A third challenge is that the government tends to impose the Kinh based cultural values and standards on indigenous communities. This ethnocentric approach has led to serious land and culture conflicts between indigenous groups and Kinh people in the Central Highlands since 1975 (Dang, 2014;Evans, 2018;Mai, 2011;Nguyen, 2008;Salemink, 1997Salemink, , 2000Salemink, , 2003Vu et al., 2000). For example, some large demonstrations led by some Central Highland ethnic groups took place on a large scale in 2001 and 2004 (Nguyen, 2008;Salemink, 2003). What had happened to the village gate's construction unveils that the local authorities have been just maintaining their old approach with indigenous issues. It is more critical to claim that the locals' culture and value are not respected at all. On the flip side, by accessing the internet, particularly YouTube and Facebook, indigenous people have learnt about their civil rights to conserve their traditional cultures. They have actively made comments, raised questions, and critiqued the government's policies. Thus, the top-down approach of local government only pushes the indigenous villages to be closer to the church where they feel more respected (Dang, 2014;Salemink, 2003Salemink, , 2016. This is why the government has not gained the community's trust although they poured a large amount of money into the Central Highlands villages (Dang, 2019b).
The final challenge is the internal rifts in the community. The previous studies state that a community is homogeneous in terms of spatial unit, social structure history, culture, interests, and demands (Bui, 2012;Ngo, 2002;Nguyen, 2008;Nguyen & Phan, 2021;Phan, 2009). Heritage conservation is often understood as the interaction between the state and community (Malarney, 1996;. This study indicates that in the context of urbanisation, migration, and conversion, the community is no longer a homogeneous group, but it has developed into some different groups. The Local 5's acquisition of the forest presents a strong rise of individualism within a community sharing some common values and interests despite the family and community's disagreement. This issue reflects the external environment's effects on the community and the diverse and complicated nature of the community. Therefore, while implementing any community projects like natural resource or cultural resource conservation, national and local policymakers need to have a proper viewpoint of the community. This is in line with Agrawal and Gibson's research findings that policy makers should focus on the interests and actors within the community, internal and external institutions influencing the decisionmaking process (Agrawal & Gibson, 1999).
In a larger context, some urban ethnic places in Vietnam such as Cat Cat village (Sapa) and B' Nơr C village (Lac Duong) have been maintaining their cultural heritage and growing local tourism. Specifically, Cat Cat village was supported tremendously through the Cat Cat Museum Project (2010) and the Plan for Tourism Development of Lao Cai province to 20,230, vision to 2050(Lao Cai People Committee's People, 2022. Therefore, visitors have chance to understand local culture through traditional folk dances, weaving and archery. Tourism generated higher amount of income for local households up to 200 million dongs annually (equivalent to 8.600 USD) (Hoang, 2022). In term of B' Nơr C village, this place has attracted international and domestic tourists by promoting gong performance and traditional handicraft like embroidery as a form of souvenir. Therefore, every year Lac Duong district receives roughly 1.5 million visitors (Quynh, 2020). By comparing Ako Dhong with those villages, there is a sharp contrast in cultural heritage management and promotion. Unlike Ede's village, two villages mentioned earlier have received tremendous support from the local government for cultural heritage management and conservation. Meanwhile, the local authorities and businesses at Buon Ma Thuot have posed barriers and even aimed to appropriate the community's heritage for their own sake.

Conclusion
By virtue of increasing urbanisation, more and more indigenous people have become urban dwellers across Vietnam. In this context, exploring the challenges of preserving ethnic culture in urban spaces is crucial, but little study has been undertaken. The long ethnographic study at Ako Dhong village reveals the huge challenges facing this Ede community regarding heritage conservation. From the lens of political ecology, and the theory of antagonism between the government of majority group and ethnic minor groups, this study explores the external and internal challenges facing local communities in their efforts to conserve cultural heritage. Notably, the "handshake" between local government and business towards forest resources, the lack of efficient measures to curb mass migration and preserve indigenous habitats, and the top-down policy approach have been the biggest external challenges. Barrier also comes from the internal conflicts because some individuals have broken the community rules to possess forest resources, and damaged trust and community cohesion.
The research findings provide new perspectives about stakeholders involved in preserving ethnic heritage: the community, the local authority, and business. The community is not a homogeneous group, but has developed in some groups having different views, interests, and ambitions. Through the heritage conservation policies, local authorities showcase their support for private businesses in appropriating the community's assets for their benefits. This reflects two different views on ethnic cultural heritage. On the one hand, the local government and businesses view cultural heritage as a type of real estate with high commercial value. On the other hand, cultural heritage is regarded as values generated by previous generations that needs to be well protected from community's perspective. Since cultural heritage plays a vital role in creating a sustainable city, the Buon Ma Thuot city government needs to change its way of viewing of heritage values of Ako Dhong village and issue proper measures to support heritage management and conservation together with the community. Notably, two large land protests related to led by indigenous people in the Central Highlands in 2001 and 2004 demonstrated that upcoming protests may go beyond the authority's control and lead to some unexpected outcomes (Dang, 2014;Nguyen, 2008). Thus, Buon Ma Thuot authorities should not forget this lesson while managing Ako Dhong's forest. The limitation of this study is that the authors did not have the opportunity to interview more private enterprises' representatives. The future research also might compare Ako Dhong with other Ede village's efforts in preserving their culture.