Abstract: Taking insect species in families of Formicidae, Acridoidea and Coccinellidae that usually live on the ground surface as the major objects, the Margalef richness index (R), the Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H) and Pielou evenness index (J) were analyzed on insect diversity for the non-timber production plantations converted from the farmland or waste land in the Jinshajiang River Gorge area in northwest of Yunnan Province. It was showed by the results that there were 33 families belonging to 10 orders of insects found in plot A; 26 families out of 6 orders in plot B; 23 families of 6 orders in plot C; 26 families of 7 orders in plot D. More insect species belonging to families of Carabidae, Coccinellidae, Chrysomelidae, Pentatomidae, Lygaeidae, Cydnidae and Catantopidae were found in the plantations freshly converted from the farmland. The highest Margalef index value was found in the mango stand planted in 2001 (R=3.413 4). The highest Shannon-Wiener index (H=2.090 1) was found in the green plum stand grown in 2000. The biggest Pielou index (J=0.999 6) appeared in the stands converted from the deserted hillside land in 2001. According to the insect diversity, it was believed that undertaking the national project of "Converting the farmland to forest or grassland" was beneficial to the ecological restoration in the Jinshajiang River Gorge area.