The objective of the Southeast Asia Sustainable Forest Management Network is to study degraded natural forests where community management may be a viable strategy in establishing access controls and thereby stabilizing forest use. The Network is comprised of a small, select coalition of Asian colleagues, many of whom have collaborated together for years, both with each other and with Network facilitators. The solidarity of the Network members is based on a common commitment and well-defined focus on exploring alternative management strategies for Asia's disturbed natural forest lands. The Network's strategy has been to move away from conventional, academic research toward more applied, interdisciplinary studies which have both practical and policy relevance. Through case diagnostic studies, the work attempts to capture the voices and needs of forest communities and to communicate their indigenous knowledge and perspectives on the human-forest relationship. To that end, the national teams in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines are developing long-term working relationships with community members to learn more about their forest management issues, resource-use systems, and problem-solving strategies. The emphasis of the Network's research includes the ecology of natural regeneration, the economics of non-timber forest product systems, and the community organizations and institutional arrangements which support participatory management. The lessons stemming from the research aim to inform field implementation procedures, reorient training, and guide policy reform.
For more information about the Network and its publications, please contact Dr. Mark Poffenberger and Betsy McGean at the address below.
Center for Southeast Asia Studies
University of California
2223 Fulton, #617
Berkeley, California 94720
Tel: 510-642-3609
FAX: 510-643-7062
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THIS WORK WAS SUPPORTED BY TWO GRANTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, THROUGH FUNDS PROVIDED BY THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION AND THE BIODIVERSITY SUPPORT PROGRAM, A USAID-FUNDED JOINT VENTURE OF WORLD WILDLIFE FUND, THE NATURE CONSERVANCY, AND WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE. THE CONTENTS HEREIN DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF THE DONORS. |
©1993
Front cover photo: Uncle Chan, a Karen hill tribe farmer, cultivates rattan in the understory of the regenerating evergreen forest of Nam Sa.
Back cover photo: Community-protected Lisu spirit forest conserves Nam Sa's upper watershed, while also serving as a religious sanctuary and source of important non-timber forest products.
Country Team Coordinators.
Lert Chuntanaparb, Kasetsart University (KU) and
Chatt Chamehong, KU
Wuthipol Hoamuangkaew, KU
Preecha Ongprasert, KU
Samer Limchoowong, Royal Forest Department (RFD)
Buared Prachaiyo, RFD
Komon Pragtong, RFD
Wanida Subansenee, RFD
Wisoot Yukong, RFD
Uraiwan Tan-Kim-Yong, Chiang Mai University
Edited by
Mark Poffenberger
and
Betsy McGean
Center for Southeast Asia Studies
University of California, Berkeley
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List of Figures |
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BIG FOREST: THE CASE OF DONG YAI |
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NO CHAINSAWS IN NAM SA |
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Notes |
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1. |
Patterns of Deforestation in Thailand, 1900-1991 |
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2. |
Community Forest Management Research Sites in Thailand |
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3. |
Dong Yai Community Managed Forest |
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Changing Land Use Patterns in Dong Yai, Northeast Thailand |
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Dong Yai Community Forest: Institutional Structure for Collaborative Management |
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Seasonal Calendar of Forest Products in Dong Yai |
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Sources of Forest Products in Dry Dipterocarp Forest |
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Mushroom Marketing Channels in Dong Yai |
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Forest Ecosystem Transect, Northwest Thailand |
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Differences in Shifting Cultivation Strategies, North Thailand |
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Community Management by Watershed Development Unit, Sam Mun Mountains, North Thailand |
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Community Managed Microwatersheds in Nam Sa |
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Thailand Upland Social Forestry Pilot Project: Working Group Structure |
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Management Issues in Nam Sa |
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Changes in Land Use Practices in Nam Sa, North Thailand |
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Rules and Regulations-Pong Sa Land Use Committee Community Managed Microwatershed Forest |
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As active members of the Southeast Asia Sustainable Forest Management Network, the Thailand research teams have been engaged in diagnostic field research at several sites for the past two years. This report provides a preliminary discussion of their research findings concerning community forest management, highlighting case studies in Dong Yai, located in Ubon Ratchathani Province in the Northeast, and Nam Sa subwatershed in northern Chiang Mai Province. The information and the recommendations provided should be viewed as tentative, requiring further study, analysis, and field verification. The study teams appreciate the grants they have received from the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, which funded the field research from which this monograph evolved. The teams would also like to acknowledge the encouragement and cooperation from the Royal Forest Department (RFD) and its regional offices. Finally, the researchers extend their gratitude to the villagers of Dong Yai and Nam Sa for sharing their knowledge and experiences with us.
The Southeast Asia Sustainable Forest Management Network Secretariat, based at the Center for Southeast Asia Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, would also like to acknowledge its cast of supporters and contributors. We are most grateful to John O'Toole at the Rockefeller Foundation for his continued interest in the subject of community forest management and his commitment to support of the Network's activities over the past two years. We would like to specifically thank Molly Kux and Toby Pierce of USAID for their intellectual guidance to the Network, as well as Janis Alcorn, Stephen Kelleher, and Richard Richina with the USAID-supported World Wildlife Fund's Biodiversity Support Program for providing ideas and financial assistance for the production and publication of this study. At the University of California at Berkeley we owe thanks for the excellent work of cartographer Jane Sturzinger, artist Anne Higgins, editors Bojana Ristich and Stephen Pitcher, and the administrative support of Karin Beros, Linda Rutkowski, and Jeri Foushee. The facilitators of the Network are indebted to Robert Reed, Eric Crystal, and Cynthia Josayma at the Center for their consistent cooperation and overall institutional support. Finally, the Secretariat would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to all the member scientists of the Southeast Asia Network, whom we greatly value as friends and colleagues, for their hospitality during our field visits, and for their commitment to this important research.
Thailand has experienced rapid deforestation over the past three decades, reducing its forest cover in half Despite the current lack of a formal national policy framework which specifically acknowledges community rights and responsibilities in co-managing public forest lands, widespread, often spontaneous grass-roots initiatives have been taken by local communities to protect and manage their surrounding forests. A national inventory conducted by the Royal Forest Department (RFD) documents over 12,000 rural community groups protecting forest patches ranging in size from 1 to 4,000 hectares for a variety of religious, ecological, and economic purposes. Many of these activities are operating informally, some under pilot programs and others through local agreements between the Tambon (subdistrict) Council and the RFD.
To increase understanding of locally appropriate systems of community forest management as an alternative to custodial, bureaucratic forest controls -- which have generally failed in controlling access-applied, diagnostic research undertaken over the past two years has attempted to document the lessons emanating from selected field experiences. This monograph describes two different systems of community forest management, Dong Yai in the Northeast and Nam Sa in the North. In both cases, rural communities and the RFD are breaking new ground by working together to regulate access and regenerate degraded natural forests.
In Dong Yai, former kenaf fields now under community protection have naturally regenerated into the largest remaining lowland stand of dry dipterocarp forest in the region. The case illustrates the persistent threats on the resource as it accrues value; the strong forest dependencies of Dong Yai's twelve communities, especially on non-timber forest products; and hence the villagers' strong motivation in ensuring the sustainability of forest benefit flows into the future. The support and leadership provided by the Tambon Council, RFD's regional forestry office, and researchers at Kasetsart University coalesced to create a climate in which communities led by village elders were empowered to organize into local forest protection committees and establish their own use rules and responsibilities for Dong Yai.
In the northern subwatershed of Nam Sa, conflicts between midland and upland hill tribes based on unsustainable land-use practices were leading to rapid forest and environmental deterioration. The case highlights the incremental strategy of reducing social conflict by organizing microwatershed land-use committees and networking resident community groups through a coordinating forum. Tools such as ecological information and three-dimensional maps improved villagers' understanding of the importance of upstream-downstream watershed linkages. With the technical assistance of the RFD and the cooperation of the midland Karen people, Hmong and Lisu tribes are in the process of abandoning their steep-slope swidden practices and replacing them with upland forest protection and lowland, irrigated paddy cultivation. Decentralized controls over clearly defined microwatershed areas by organized local hamlets have reduced threats of fire, illegal logging, and upland erosion and are resulting in impressive natural forest regeneration.
The communities of Dong Yai and Nam Sa are pioneers in a new age of participatory forest management. They are proving that their intimate involvement as allies, collaborators, and partners with the RFD forms what may well be the only sustainable foundation for the future protection and management of Thailand's natural forests.