Abstract
Community participation in forest management has evolved as the new paradigm of natural resource governance in recent decades. Focusing on community participation in local forest resource management, this article examines the evolution and working of community forestry in Thailand from a socio-historical perspective. It narrates the social history of forest governance practices in Thailand and explores the community’s response towards deforestation, resource degradation and rising livelihood insecurity. Drawing insights from three case studies of community participation in forest governance from the provinces of Lampang, Lamphun and Kanchanaburi, this article highlights the potentials of community forestry in evolving as an alternative institution for sustainable livelihood security and forest governance. The article maps out the social history of forest governance practices in Thailand by identifying three successive stages: (a) influence of early European colonial rule in the neighbouring territories, (b) the American influence of 1960s, and (c) social uprisings and a visible ‘community’ in forest management practice.
Highlights
In developing societies of South and South-east Asia, forests have been the sites of contestation and social conflict to define, negotiate and reconstruct the meaning and practice of democracy, social justice and citizenship.[1]
Having discussed the forest governance practices of Thailand and the evolution of community forestry from a socio-historical perspective, this section unfolds the three case studies, which form the core material for the present research. These three cases of community forestry are chosen from three different locations in Thailand
Community Forestry in Thailand: Unfolding the Case Studies Case Study 1: Ban Wan Sing Community Forest, Kanchanaburi The Ban Wan Sing village is situated in the Sai Yokdistrict(Amphoe)of the Kanchanaburi province of Thailand
Summary
In developing societies of South and South-east Asia, forests have been the sites of contestation and social conflict to define, negotiate and reconstruct the meaning and practice of democracy, social justice and citizenship.[1] The social history of forest management in Thailand mirrors a similar kind of conflict in the woods between the forest dependent upland minority ethnic groups and the aristocracy of Siam, replaced by the modern Thailand government in the later years. In the midst of suchconflicts over forest and the modern Thailand’s attempt to establish state control over the country’s vast natural resources, Thailand has witnessedcommunity participation in forest management practices since 1980s.
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