6 - Environmental Issues in Thailand: A Rural Perspective

Summary

This chapter focuses on environmental issues in Thailand, particularly looking at how these environmental issues are experienced, talked about and thought about at a local level. My first objective is, then, to provide a local perspective on some national environmental issues. Second, I explore the ways in which discussions of environmental issues are often intertwined with discussions about “appropriate” life styles. Very often environmental discourse in Thailand incorporates suggestions about people changing to more environmentally appropriate life styles. Third, I want to suggest that we may benefit from somewhat less preoccupation with the idea of environmental crisis and move towards a greater focus on environmental risk and the way people adaptively manage risk. The theme of risk runs through my entire presentation in a subtle sense, and I will return to it more explicitly at the end.

The data in this presentation is based on anthropological research in a rural village in northern Thailand. It also draws on my longstanding interest in the politics of environmental knowledge in the region.

ENVIRONMENTAL, AGRICULTURAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE

I want to start with farmers, and particularly the farmers I have been working with in the village of Khua Kaw, which is located about two hour's drive from Chiang Mai. This is a northern Thai (khon muang) village, located in a narrow lowland valley with substantial areas of paddy fields but also quite a lot of upland cultivation and orchards on the fringes of the paddy fields. Like most northern Thai villages, this is a rice-growing village and in the wet season rice is the predominant crop. During this season, almost one hundred per cent of the paddy fields and quite a lot of the upland is cropped with rice and you get lovely picture postcard scenes of verdant paddy fields that are often used by people in Thailand who want to provide images of sustainability, cultural tradition and ecological balance.