Negotiating community : local adaptation strategies in state forest policy in Northern Thailand

Abstract

Since the 1980s, local communities in northern Thailand have argued for community participation in forest management to secure communal use rights of natural resources. They eagerly sought the legalisation of participatory forest management in the constitution and its related laws sometimes by forming farmers' mass rallies in cities. Because most of the land in northern Thailand is covered by forest, state forest policy has a high impact on livelihoods in rural villages.

A lot of the literature analysing Thai forest management issues has focused on the aspect of confrontation between the state and villagers in claiming control of the natural resources. However, increasing opportunities for community participation in Thai forest management have gradually changed the socio-economic and political balance among state agencies, rural villagers, urban citizens and non-government organisations (NGOs). Based on this recent studies and observations from the field, this study proposes to change the analytical perspective from confrontation to negotiation of a flexible adaptation of state forest policy in village life. This study examines the practical and ideological negotiation of village leaders and villagers with state agencies, NGOs and neighbouring upland communities.

The study found that, in community participatory forest management In Thailand, villagers are strategically negotiating with stakeholders to secure their livelihoods and political advantage by adhering to the state nature conservation policy. The actual practice of participatory forest management is managed by compromises between villagers and local agencies at the local level. On one hand, state agencies allied with village leaders in an institution of participatory forest management to achieve territorialisation of the forest resources and monitor villagers' behaviours in the forest. Through the village leaders, the state agencies can utilise the village local system and gain legitimacy as governors of the forest in the eyes of local villagers and the public.

On the other hand, villagers have already recognised the multiple values of forests in Thai environmental politics. They have also sought livelihood security and political advantage in exchange for their contribution to state forest conservation policy. Village leaders work as negotiators between the external agencies and local villagers, with their understanding of the political context in the local community. The village leaders make efforts to keep alliances with the state agencies as good partners of the state to gain support for things like securing forest use rights, and to gain an eco-friendly reputation, to show loyalty to the state or to ask for political support against the pressure of upland ethnic minorities. For these multiple purposes on forest conservation, village leaders demonstrate their contribution to the public by attending natural conservation events and organising their religious rituals to create eco-friendly images. Overall the study illustrates local villagers' flexible adaptation strategies in reorganising their livelihood styles and identities to fit the modern environmentalism the state promotes.

This research was carried out over one year and two months from May 2007 to June 2008 in a Thai lowlanders' village surrounded by conservation forest in Northern Thailand. My research site, Ban Mae Luang village, is located in a district in Chiang Mai Province. This village has practised a pilot participatory forest management system with the state agency for three decades. In 2007, Ban Mae Luang village had 302 households and 1,103 people, who mainly cultivated glutinous rice and cash crops, which were mostly maize and peanuts. This study employed participant observation techniques and interviews with the villagers. Show more