| Water management through the Mae Wang Village Wisdom Institute |
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| Wednesday, 07 July 2010 | |||||||||||||||||
By Ms Worrawan Kalyanamitra
Mae Wang is a district in Chiang Mai, a province in the northern region of Thailand. The area's main watershed is Mae Wang watershed, 73 kilometers long and divided into the Upper Mae Wang watershed and the Lower Mae Wang watershed.Three indigenous groups spread out in 40 communities live in this area: the Pakakeuyor (white Karen), Hmong, and Yuan.
Water management has been a concern of these communities since the 1960s especially when the government allowed forestry and opium concessions to operate in the area. Commercial extraction of natural resources from Mae Wang watershed and the shift of livelihoods of the indigenous people from one of interdependence to independence were changes brought about by government policies.
The economic agriculture also pressured indigenous people to change from "produce for domestic consumption" to "produce for sell" and people gradually separated and abandoned the traditional way of life.
The author analyzed that there are three major related factors that brought about the conflicts in water management: the establishment of concrete dams, the promotion of longan orchards, and the subsequent abandonment of traditional land and water practices.
Concrete dams vs traditional wooden dams
As part of the government's efforts to improve water management in the Mae Wang watershed, concrete dams were established replacing the wooden dams the indigenous people previously built and which were part of the traditional water management (Mang Rai Sart) of the Hmong community.
According to the government, the concrete dams are more durable than the traditional wooden dams and have lower maintenance costs as there was no need to re-build every year. There are 11 concrete dams in the Mae Wang watershed: Non Dam, Somboon Dam, Huay Peung Dam, Kuhn Kong Dam, Nar Sai Dam, Tah Kam pa Dam, Tah Sa Dam, Don Pin Dam, Sri Boon Reung Dam, Kam Pi Lo Dam and Pu Loh Dam.
A comparative study on the positive benefits and negative impacts was undertaken that listed people's experiences of the concrete dams and the traditional dams:
Concrete dam
Traditional dam
In the social context of the Mae Wang watershed and after several decades of conflicts on water management, majority of the people realized that the negative impact of the concrete dam outweighed the benefits and agreed that the traditional dam is preferable. However, 11 concrete dams were already built and the problem of water management still remains. Longan orchard
The indigenous people and other communities in the Mae Wang watershed traditionally worked with local fruit orchards and paddy field cultivation for rice needs. Their harvests are consumed within the households and any surplus is traded. The development and maintenance of the paddy fields and local fruit orchards required community collaboration and community members and villagers would help each other to harvest and cultivate the rice and fruit.
The situation changed 40 years ago when the government promoted the plantations. Lidapan Chanpimansuk (2005), a scholar who studied the problem of water management in Mae Wang watershed analyzed:
"Several decades ago, the government promoted the policy of economic plantations and persuaded people to be interested in economic activities. After that, many people got into debt and capitalism influenced people to be materialistic. Natural resources and environment are continuously damaged without any awareness from the young generation."
At the onset of the plantation policy promotion in the northern region, the government convinced people to grow longan because it was popular in China and the Thai government expected that China would be a big market for Thai longan. Longan originated from China and there will always be a market in China. The relatively mountainous area is appropriate for longan orchard development and the northern region was the best place for the orchards. Traditional agriculture was gradually abandoned in favor of longan orchard production. However, the large incomes people expected and were promised did not happen.
There are three reasons that linked longan plantation and the change in water management in the Mae Wang watershed:
Longan orchard plantation development directly damaged the water and community structure. The increased income divided the community, with economic and money matters becoming more important for people. And because of the concrete dam's efficiency in restricting water flow, the concrete dam was a significant factor in diluting the solidarity of communities along the Mae Wang watershed.
The promotion of pesticide and chemical fertilizer usage amongst indigenous people changed their traditional agriculture to an intensive practice that relied on outside factors. For example, indigenous people had to purchase the chemical fertilizer from urban areas even if they could produce manure as an organic fertilizer. This increased farming costs and affected their environment and water.
There is growing awareness of the harmful effects of inorganic agriculture, the economic plantations, and the role of the concrete dam in the Mae Wang watershed area. However, the recovery cannot be achieved overnight. Some natural resources were already destroyed and as an example, the river mouth is shallower. It is unrealistic to expect the ecosystem to recover in a short time.
Abandonment of tradition
The concrete dam and longan orchard contributed to the tradition abandonment. People no longer have to conduct a ceremony to worship the god of water and dam when the concrete dams were built. Community members do not come together as much as before and an increasingly cash economy changed people's attitudes.
In the past, people relied on the rain and water for their agricultural fields. They believed that the god of water was responsible for distributing the water to the community and the ceremony was done to please the god. The worship ceremony ensured water abundance.
On the other hand, the ultimate goal of the ceremony was not to worship the god of water, but to develop community solidarity. Annually, a group of people worked together in several activities for the ceremony, such as preparing the tree trunks for building a new traditional dam. This allowed people to communicate, thus consolidating the community. Therefore, the worship ceremony was a strategy to community solidarity, a very important element for local community.
The promotion of economic agriculture and building of concrete dams led to a gradual abandonment of the worship ceremony. The youth and young adults do not understand anymore the importance of ceremony and see no value. This has impact on the value of the community for their environment and natural resources.
The environmental insecurity in Mae Wang watershed
Communities in the Mae Wang watershed separated into two groups: a pro-government group because they gained benefits from the concrete dam and the longan orchards and most of whom lived in the upper areas; and the anti-government group who lived at the end of the river.
Water scarcity in Mae Wang watershed followed as technocrats and government officials promoted policies without understanding the cultural context of communities. The government also viewed indigenous peoples and local communities as forest destroyers rather than protectors and the efforts to change the livelihoods affected their traditional way of life.
Water scarcity is a major factor in the conflicts amongst people in Mae Wang watershed, even though it is not a violent conflict. People in the northern region of Thailand are relatively peaceful and prefer to negotiate in situations of conflict. The situation was not violent but continuously eroded the environment security and community solidarity. It was necessary to find a solution and the "village wisdom institute" was an option.
Controversial definition
As civil society understands, environment security is the correlation between humans and environment, while the government defines environmental security as protecting the environment from humans, such as the definition of the Commonwealth of Independent States (1996): "Environmental security is the state of protection of vital interests of the individual, society, and natural environment from threats resulting from anthropogenic and natural impacts on the environment."
These contradicting definitions brought about inappropriate development policies, such as the Preservative Forest Act that prohibits indigenous peoples to use forestry products, while allowing capitalists resource access through forestry and mining concessions. Environment security for the government separates the environment from people with no consideration of the relations between people and the environment. The environment is a state treasury for which the government has complete power to control and gain advantage. Concrete dams were built as a form of environmental control. The longan orchard, pesticide and chemical fertilizer usage were activities they did not previously practice and required inputs and costs, and that provided environmental stress in their areas.
Creator or destroyer
Shifting cultivation practiced by the poor and indigenous peoples is viewed as environmentally damaging. As traditionally practiced, shifting cultivation reinvigorates the soil humus after harvesting. Indigenous people would move to cultivate on the nearby lands and then return to the previous land afterwards. The government also misunderstands "slash and burn" where indigenous people would clear areas and practiced controlled burning to stimulate the soil humus and limit the burn areas. However, the government links these practices to forest fires and disallowed indigenous people to continue these practices. These are now illegal. Forest fires often happen when Thai farmers imitate the practice of indigenous people without understanding how to limit the burn area. Some Thai citizens also dispose garbage and agricultural waste by burning, allowing the fire to expand to other places that often develop as a forest fire.
Another point is the controversial policy on opium concessions. During World War II, the Thai government supported indigenous peoples to grow the opium poppy plant to develop the State's economic growth. However, the government changed this policy and opium poppy became an illegal plant because it could be transformed to heroin and indigenous people were accused of involvement with drug trafficking. The government also accused indigenous people of cutting down forests to grow the opium poppy, even as they followed the previous government policy. Afforestation projects were broadly promoted amongst the indigenous people and they were tasked to plant trees in non-forest areas.
Thus developed in broader Thai society a view that indigenous peoples are environmental destroyers. In the past, opium served medicinal purposes for indigenous peoples and did not require large areas. But due to the government promotion of opium poppy, areas were expanded for production.
Involved stakeholders
The stakeholders affected by the water management in Mae Wang watershed can be divided into two, according to the controversial definition of environment security as mentioned above: the government and local community.
From the government side, there are the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operative, government officials and technocrats working for the government, the business companies distributing the seeds, pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and local and national investors. The local community consists of Thai and indigenous peoples.
It is noticeable that the majority of the stakeholders come from the government side as the government has more power than the local community and this power is enhanced when the government cooperates with the business sectors and investors.
Village Wisdom Institute, a possible option for non-violent conflict resolution
The communities self-organized and established the "Mae Wang Village Wisdom Institute" to address the local conflicts, restore community solidarity, and re-establish traditional water management.
Prior to the Mae Wang Village Wisdom Institute, people in Mae Wang watershed established "Assembly of righteous water users of Mae Wang watershed" in 1973. This was later expanded as the Mae Wang Village Wisdom Institute in 2004. In the beginning, the Assembly of righteous water users of Mae Wang watershed merely focused on water management but had limited success. The transformation into the Mae Wang Village Wisdom Institute emerged and was based on the concepts of human-environment relations and recognition of cultural treasures.
The philosophy of the organization
A local development expert, Chachawarn Thongdeelerd interviewed a group of Mae Wang Village Wisdom Institute founders in 2005, and was provided a philosophical explanation of the organization.
Kaewa, the headman of "Huay I Kang" Karen village and chairman of Mae Wang Water Management Network, recalled the story telling of the white Karen and that "there are two ways of life, one is to heaven and another one is to hell." The technique to be in heaven is to have sufficient livelihoods and decrease economic competition.
Joni Odochao, philosopher of "Nong Tao" Karen village stated that "when we look for the next pond, we should not forget the first pond." His teaching gave the importance of history and culture that whenever we look for the next pond (economic development and a modern life), we should not ignore the first pond where we have our historical and cultural solidarity. Joni cautions youths and young adults to carefully step forward as they pursue the modern life, as the cultural solidarity will support them as they develop the quality of life they aspire.
Activities Mae Wang Village Wisdom Institute has titscenter in Bankad village and there are some interesting activities for everybody in Mae Wang watershed:
Assessment
It was not easy to distinguish the achievements of the Mae Wang Village Wisdom Institute. The organization focuses on long term sustainable development and environment restoration and the goal is to strengthen community solidarity and traditional water management. Song Chinawong, a local philosopher, argues that the community would survive if community members understand their history, culture, and each other (Thongdeelerd 2005).
During the traditional New Year's Day, there were a number of youths and young adults who visited the Mae Wang Village Wisdom Institute to watch the traditional performance and learned to make traditional crafts from the older members. This is an opportunity to increase traditional awareness amongst the new generation and for water management. Although water scarcity prevails, there is increased community solidarity that can respond to their concerns and hopefully restores the peace in Mae Wang watershed.
Another opportunity is in assistance to the proposed legislation on community rights. Important concerns of community rights are ancestral domain advocacy and community use of forest areas.
For the communities, water management includes the establishment of local organizations that promote culture and local wisdom and is a sustainable way to address present concerns. The people understand that is not easy to change the past. They disagreed to protest and did not request the government to replace the concrete dams by re-building traditional dams. The government has never understood the cultural context of indigenous people and the situation will probably get worse if the government intervenes.
The mere establishment of the Mae Wang Village Wisdom Institute does not provide ready answers and this may discourage the communities in joining activities. To maintain the organization and its relevance in addressing future conflicts, the Mae Wang Village Wisdom Institute needs to publicly promote what has been achieved so far and continue to be a venue for the community to gather together.
Other responses for sustainable development
There are three areas that Thai society can focus on to strengthen these local initiatives: 1)Legislative proposals to protect communities' rights
Communities in the margins need a law that supports community rights and rights for marginal people. The 1997 Constitution mandates the Administrative Court as responsible for settling disputes between communities and government project or business companies that have the concessions to proceed with projects in community areas. However, after affected communities file their petition with the Administrative Court and the judge positively considers their petition, the government or business companies have to immediately stop the project and wait until the ultimate verdict is announced.
This proposed law will allow government officials, some of who do understand people's concerns, to assist people with a supporting law. 2)Bureaucratic reform to empower local government and truly decentralize in basic services for indigenous peoples
Although the Thai government attempts to decentralize the state power to regional areas, municipalities still have to follow the policies of central government. In the area of education, it is government policy that the Thai language is a main language to be taught in every public school. However, ethnic languages are unrecognized and looked down upon. Visits to ethnic communities in the northern region of Thailand showed that young ethnic people are mainly unable to read and write their ethnic language and some are ashamed to speak their ethnic language in front of visitors or foreigners.
Local government has the power to provide basic social welfare services, such as education and health care and it should be able to respond to local needs rather than wait for central government. 3)The bridge of benefit
This response focuses on enhancing negotiations among stakeholders especially between advantaged and disadvantaged parties. For example, in the case of Mae Wang watershed, the government already built concrete dams and destroy these dams will not be helpful. People in the upper areas who benefit and people in lower areas who experience the negative impact should be offered an occasion to discuss what benefits they can share and how to resolve their conflicts peacefully. This is the proposed "bridge of benefit." Negotiations and discussions will allow stakeholders understand each other better and explore the appropriate responses together. For the Mae Wang watershed case, the bridge of benefit is the Mae Wang Village Wisdom Institute.
Ms Worrawan "Nok" Kalyanamitra used to work with the communities in the Mae Wang watershed for two months while pursuing her university degree. She is from Thailand and is a student of the Dual Campus Master of Arts Programme in International Peace Studies, Asia Leaders Programme at the University for Peace. ESSC had the opportunity to engage with Nok when she attended the course Environmental Security, Sustainable Development and Peace last May 2010. Pedro Walpole was the lecturer for this course and this is one of her papers she submitted. |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 21 December 2010 ) | |||||||||||||||||
