Institutional development for community-based natural resource management in upland areas : land and forest in Sopsai Watershed, Nan Province, Northern Thailand | |
| Author | Nitaya Kijtewachakul |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.AS-04-04 |
| Subject(s) | Natural resources management areas--Thailand Resource-based communities--Thailand Forestry and community--Thailand |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Technical Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. AS-04-04 |
| Abstract | This dissertation is based on field research in seven communities in the Sopsai watershed, Thawangpa District, Nan Province. The central focus is to determine the effects of both community-initiated institutions and external interventions on institutional development for effective Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) in the upland areas of northern Thailand, particularly in relation to historical and contemporary dynamics and their interactions with local institutions and people’s means of livelihood. The study was undertaken through an ethnographic methodology applying the conceptual frameworks of ‘environmental entitlement’ and ‘institutional analysis and development’. Various rapid assessment tools were applied in the early stage of field research, followed by the application of household surveys, and in-depth ethnographic interviews to understand people’s behaviors and views regarding CBNRM. As a result of fieldwork, carried out during 2001, I argue that community-initiated institutions for natural resource management are both an outcome and a mechanism of local people’s adaptation to changing local circumstances in a collective effort to maintain or increase their livelihood security. This goes against the common perception of urban people and state agencies that most upland communities cause forest destruction and are incapable of managing natural resources sustainably. As demonstrated by the forest conditions under community-based management, under community-designed objectives, forest can be managed to be more productive in terms of increasing the density and basal area of locally preferred species while maintaining biodiversity and accelerating natural regeneration. CBNRM can be developed both by people’s initiatives in responding to their changing livelihoods and by the collective responses of a community to external pressures, including the perceptions of outsiders and the objectives of various actors with multiple interests. Although the initial setting of rules and management objectives sometimes does not totally correspond to collective behavior, CBNRM under ‘social practices’ and negotiated power can evolve in response to the long-term needs of the communities in managing forest and land resources. Local property rights systems, which are outcomes of livelihood dynamism and negotiation are more complex than those defined by statutory laws. Exclusive rights are bundled into broader rights of multiple users and vary according to the use of land, labor investment, and continuity of use and cultivation. Excludability is not only a right of individual rights-holders as, increasingly, local organizations have collective-choice rights of exclusion. The recognition and understanding of these complexities can be fundamental to interventions for CBNRM. However, community-initiated management systems are often led and decisions are made by a few powerful leaders in a village with little consultation with their village members and are limited to maintaining or restoring forest conditions in the vicinity of village settlements. If there is willingness to implement CBNRM at the landscape scale or at the watershed level, there is a need to develop effective management institutions beyond village matters and to empower communities (with diverse interests) to gain more control over their access to resources. However, this cannot be achieved only by establishing new groups or promoting voluntary forest protection activities, but through working with the diverse interests and complexity of local communities. The Upper Nan Watershed Management Project (UNWMP) has placed much emphasis on supplementary income generation activities and the establishment and structuring of an inter-village organization. However, very limited understanding of local institutional mechanisms and community complexity amongst UNWMP staff, and their pre-determined conceptions of ‘participation', have proven to be major obstacles to achieving the project's objectives. |
| Year | 2004 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. AS-04-04 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (Former title: Department of Food Agriculture, and BioResources (DFAB)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Agricultural and Aquatic Systems(AS) |
| Chairperson(s) | Shivakoti, Ganesh P.;Zoebisch, Michael A.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Webb, Edward L.;Fisher, Robert J.;Messerschmidt, Don; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | DANIDA; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2004 |