Résumé
Yunnan Province, the ancestral home of Pu'er tea (Camellia sinensis var. assamica) and a vital node in China's tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) heritage, faces multifaceted sustainability challenges amid expanding national tea inventories and evolving global market dynamics. This review critically synthesizes recent advances and persistent bottlenecks affecting Yunnan's tea sector, encompassing ecological degradation, socio-economic inequities, cultural preservation, and supply-demand imbalances. Rapid land-use shifts, especially monoculture expansion in biodiversity hotspots like Xishuangbanna, exacerbate deforestation, soil erosion, and biodiversity loss, compounded by climate-induced stressors such as drought and temperature volatility. The tea sector faces challenges such as market saturation, price volatility, and rising production costs, which threaten the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and rural communities dependent on tea production. Simultaneously, inventory surpluses and post-pandemic consumption shifts drive price volatility and market saturation, destabilizing profitability and supply chain resilience. The review highlights integrative strategies, agroecological innovations (IPM, agroforestry, regenerative agriculture), digital commerce platforms, blockchain traceability, and climate-resilient breeding technologies (genomics, CRISPR) as pivotal for sustainable transformation. Comparative lessons from global tea-producing regions and frameworks like Rainforest Alliance certification inform potential pathways toward environmental stewardship, socio-economic equity, and enhanced global competitiveness. Circular economy principles that add value to tea by-products and support low-carbon logistics further underpin sustainability credentials. Policy imperatives, including infrastructure development, green subsidies, and legal protections for cultural heritage, are essential to reinforce these measures. By bridging interdisciplinary research, policy, and industry perspectives, this review offers a holistic blueprint to realign Yunnan's tea industry with sustainable development goals and secure its longterm ecological, economic, and cultural viability.