Community participation in coastal resources management : lessons learned from a case study of Songkhla Lake, Southern Thailand | |
| Author | Fezzardi, Davide |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no. AQ-01-31 |
| Subject(s) | Coastal zone management--Citizen participation Participation--Thailand, Southern Natural resources--Thailand, Southern |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. AQ-01-31 |
| Abstract | The recent rapid economic development in Thailand has led to intensified activities along the coastal areas, such as industry, tourism, aquaculture and fisheries. Such rapid economic development has had significant impacts on the coastal resources and environment, resulting, inter alia, in loss of mangrove forest, increase in coastal erosion, water pollution and declining fisheries. Depletion of natural resources results in losses of income for coastal communities that are dependent both directly and indirectly on fisheries and coastal habitats. To address these issues many projects and programmes have been developed and implemented by Thai Government. However, lack of community participation due to the traditional top-down Thai governance has been recognized as a critical factor for the failure of many development efforts. Thai Government is much more aware of the importance of local community participation than in the past and has initiated a process to identify the most appropriate models of co-management of coastal resources, especially after the recent change of the Constitution in 1997. Therefore, the identification of critical success factors for successful community participation would help to set up working mechanisms to realize a sustainable socio-economic development of coastal communities. This Thesis presents the results of a five-month study about community participation in developmental projects and coastal resources management. Community participation was hypothesized as a sub-set of co-management. An Institutional Analytical and Development (IAD) framework were applied to measure community participation as a means and as an end. The institutional, economic, social and physical contextual factors considered as affecting and being affected by community participation were investigated. The study included a set of five projects, namely: seabass cage aquaculture, illegal fishing gear replacement, fishery reserve area, revolving fund-saving group and mangrove replantation, developed and implemented in the last four years by both Thai Government agencies and a fishing community living around Songkhla Lake, Southern Thailand. The projects were used to measure the outcomes of participation as a means. Furthermore, criteria as Equity, Efficiency, Sustainability and Participation were employed as performance indicators to measure community participation as an end. Results show that some objectives of specific projects have not been achieved due to lack of thorough community involvement during all the project phases, besides some technical constraints. On the other hand, there was a positive trend in community participation as an end, such as increasing people's sense of ownership and responsibilities for the resources, strengthening relationship among community and State agencies and community's selfreliance and independence. Significant compliance with formal fisheries rules developed by Department of Fisheries jointly with the community was also reported. Moreover, the high level of legitimacy that people gave to new established institutions such as the Fishermen Voluntary Group represents a positive incentive to pursue the participation of people in natural resources management. Finally, it was observed that local NGOs played an important role as key facilitators in community participation and collaboration with the Government, as well as international donors. The role of the latter is fundamental in supporting and strengthening Fisher Folk organizations through enhancing appropriate knowledge, methods and technologies for restoration, conservation and sustainable utilization of the coastal zone resources. |
| Year | 2001 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. AQ-01-31 |
| Type | Thesis |
| 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 | Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management (AQ) |
| Chairperson(s) | Demaine, Harvey ;Macintosh, Donald J. ; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Shivakoti, Ganesh P. ;Bart, Amrit; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | European Commission· (DGI/B-EC)-European Union (EU) - Postgraduate Technological Studies Program (PTS) ; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2001 |