Sasin Chalermlarp

Sasin Chalermlarp is developing a conflict management mechanism to protect the largest remaining forest complex in Southeast Asia. By restoring the credibility of indigenous ways of life, he has enabled forest inhabitants not only to remain in the forest, but also to collaborate in conservation efforts alongside government officials as equals.

Sasin is changing the consciousness of forestry officials and turning indigenous people into potential partners, rather than enemies. He has employed a series of conversation starters to create mutual understanding with inhabitants of the forest and the forestry department. Top-level bureaucrats and field officers alike now recognize indigenous mechanisms of forest and wildlife preservation and, despite legal limitations, have revised conservation practices on the ground to include the local forest community.

Sasin is also reuniting forest communities who had previously been under threat by conservation officials. He is reviving old community networks—such as watershed neighborhoods, community doctors, and barter and trade channels with low environmental impact—thus developing alternative models of low-impact communal infrastructure and services. More importantly, these networks are creating and strengthening mechanisms for the community to voice its concerns.

As a result, whereas arrests of forest inhabitants were a common practice in the Western Forest Complex, these have practically ceased to exist. In addition, over 100 forest communities have agreed to common land use regulations and together guard against forest encroachment. Sasin is replicating this collaborative conservation approach in well over 100 other communities along the forest borders, to ensure lasting protection of forest, wildlife, and the right of indigenous communities to coexist with nature.

Environmental conservation efforts in Thailand have long been characterized by conflict between the state and the people. Ethnic minorities inhabiting some of the most valuable forests of Thailand and Southeast Asia have been particularly affected by these conflicts.

The Western Forest Complex, encompassing a Natural World Heritage Site and nearly 18,000 km2 on Thailand’s western border with Myanmar, is the largest remaining continuous forest in Southeast Asia. Located at the juncture of four biogeographical zones, the Western Forest contains unparalleled biological diversity—at least ten different types of forest ecosystems, one-third of all terrestrial vertebrates in mainland Southeast Asia, and many endemic and globally-endangered species. Some 10,000 inhabitants who practice swidden (rotational) agriculture also populate this forest, a tradition that has endured for at least 200 years.

Contrary to common perception by Thai government officials and the general public, this traditional form of agriculture preserves both forest areas and biological diversity. Swidden agriculture, or shifting cultivation, involves clearing a patch of forest for cultivation and, after the growing season, leaving the land to lie fallow for six to ten years, until a secondary forest grows back and nutrients return to the soil, at which time the farmer returns to cultivate the same field. However, government authorities view all types of human activity and settlement as a threat to forest protection. Accordingly, swidden farming has been denounced by various government departments, mass media and popular discourse as “slash and burn agriculture,” practiced by backward “hill tribes.”

In an attempt to protect the Western Forest, the Thai government has established 17 legally-protected wildlife sanctuaries and national parks. By law, any form of agriculture qualifies as forest invasion, thus leading to crop destruction and daily arrests of forest inhabitants. In return, indigenous communities view forestry officials as enemies. Swidden farmers are compelled to clear more land than they might otherwise need, in case of government confiscation. Some farmers burn and cultivate watershed forests in vengeance. In short, it has become an open battle between conservation officials and indigenous communities, with the Western Forest Complex held hostage.

The construction of road networks within the Western Forest for convenient government access has, ironically, introduced an even more powerful threat to forest protection. Roads have become important trade corridors, encouraging swidden farmers to switch to marketable crops and chemical-dependent monoculture. Nearby communities also have convenient access to the fertile soil of the Western Forest. In short, there are now growing threats of true slash-and-burn farms, owned by some forest inhabitants and many outsiders. The common perception, however, is that indigenous communities are the enemies of forest conservation.

Sasin is enabling mutual acceptance between forestry officials and forest inhabitants, at an unprecedented scale in Thailand. He has translated indigenous practices and beliefs into formal land use regulations, establishing credibility and accountability to forest communities’ way of life. Moreover, he has revived and improved existing community infrastructure, demonstrating to both conservationists and indigenous communities that human and forest coexistence has a future.

Sasin has changed the practice of conservation, encouraging conservationists to identify common ground between environmental and human rights protection. It is the first time his conservation organization—the Seub Nakhasathien Foundation, established by the death of a park ranger 20 years ago—is working with communities.

Since 2004 Sasin has initiated conversations within the forest. The first few years of his work was focused on earning the trust of community leaders in 14 Karen villages, located in the heart of the Western Forest Complex. Simultaneously, he opened dialogue among local forestry officials and park rangers, who wanted to find a more effective way of protecting the Western Forest than daily arrests of villagers. The forest communities, who once refused to speak to any conservationist or official, now allow Sasin’s team and forestry officials to participate in monthly village meetings.

To establish credibility for indigenous practices of coexistence with the forest, Sasin has introduced joint forest mapping to facilitate mutual understanding. Forestry officials, who once refused to share information with forest inhabitants for fear of further destruction, now realize that villagers know more about the forest. On joint forest surveys, villagers have the rare opportunity to explain to park officials about traditional conservation practices, such as the rotation cycle for swidden agriculture, the precise criteria for extractive gathering of forest products, and the strict spiritual belief to preserve watersheds and primary forests. After many walks and extensive conversation, villagers translate their traditional practices into formal land use regulations. Using global positioning system (GPS) data, villagers map the distinct boundaries between their swidden fields, forest areas for extractive use, and protected forests. An elected village committee and an advisory group of village elders are ready to administer financial and social penalties, ensuring that forest inhabitants respect these boundaries.

This zoning map and land use regulations has become the contract between forest communities and park officials. Villagers commit to using the forest within the existing boundaries, which allow for swidden fields and forest extraction. Park officials commit to ceasing arrests and crop destruction. Instead, Sasin has convinced both the Department of Forestry and Department of National Parks to an alternative interpretation of the law. In the Wildlife Reservation and Protection Act and the National Parks Act, field officers are permitted to exercise their best judgment in the interest of conservation. To date, 106 communities who live in and use the Western Forest are benefitting from this agreement, as well as three wildlife sanctuaries, eight national parks, and one future forest reserve within the Western Forest Complex.

Even as the open conflict subsides, Sasin recognizes the encroaching threat of cash crops and chemical agriculture. He has worked with villages inside and along the borders of the Western Forest to establish communal services, promote low-impact income-generation activities and most importantly, revive a sense of community.

Sasin is adapting various livelihood improvement and community empowerment programs to the Western Forest Complex, an area of unique ecology, ethnic diversity, and history. For instance, he has revived the network of “revolutionary doctors,” who received advanced medical training from the Communist Army, during the open conflict between the Community Party of Thailand and the Royal Thai government in early 1970s. Sasin has brought some 20 doctors in 14 Karen villages back together for the first time in almost 40 years. Since 2006, this network of Community Health Volunteers receives regular supplies of medicine and equipment, replenished twice a year and financed by donations from one temple, several private businesses, and many veterans of the attempted Communist Revolution. Community Health Volunteers provide herbal as well as Western medical care—ranging from prescription drugs to emergency surgical procedures—to forest inhabitants who live one to two days drive away from the nearest health facility.

Other community services include the chili-salt barter program. Building on historic traditions of exchanging the famous Karen chili grown in swidden fields with salt from traveling traders, Sasin has set up a modern-day barter program to engage both forest communities and forestry officials. Once a year, Sasin’s field officers trade salt for Karen chili, to encourage swidden agriculture, and gives the chili to park rangers to sell, in order to raise funds for purchasing more salt for the next year. Other services include eight learning centers for agroforestry, providing forest communities and surrounding villages with training, and tree seedlings. In 2009 Sasin initiated a trade agreement with Thailand’s most prominent herbal medicine company, for communities practicing agroforestry on the borders of the Western Forest to provide the company with sustainably-grown herbs.

In addition to livelihood improvement, these services focus on creating a sense of community in the Western Forest Complex. There is now a network called the Mae Chan Watershed Community, comprised of villages along the Mae Chan river in the heart of the Western Forest, who agree to conserve the forest together with park officials. Another community network in the nearby wildlife sanctuary issued a collective statement “against corn-growing.” Peer pressure, coupled with support for alternative practices, has effectively convinced most forest inhabitants to maintain their low-impact way of life.

Recognizing that the biggest threats to forest survival come from outside, not within, Sasin is conducting intensive outreach work with “gateway” villages along roads that lead to the Western Forest. Since 2006 he has facilitated local land use agreements in some 30 villages whose agricultural and forest gathering practices may threaten the Western Forest. At the regional level, he has set up active community forest networks in five provinces to promote community coexistence with the forest, with support from hundreds of volunteer forest patrols, local forestry officials, as well as governors and other high-level bureaucrats. At the Department of Forestry and Department of National Parks headquarters in Bangkok, Sasin is integrating more and more of his activities into the annual budget and regular conservation duties.

Today, Sasin is part of the Working Group to register another Natural World Heritage Site in Thailand. His contributions on community conflict management will be crucial, as this site along Thailand’s southern coast is abound with opposing interests among local communities, government departments and the tourism industry.

As a testament to the unique and critical impact of Sasin’s work, the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) extended its initial funding from one to five years, totaling approximately US$10M, before necessarily closing its operations in Thailand in 2009 due to Danish national policy. DANIDA, however, continues to work in neighboring countries Burma and Cambodia, and showcases the results of Sasin’s initiative worldwide as a prominent model of effective participation in natural resource management.

Sasin has embarked on active public communications campaigns, to share his approach and change common perceptions around conservation and community rights. In addition to hiring a media professional to his staff, Sasin is working closely with a broad range of journalists and contributing regular articles to a major national newspaper. Furthermore, he is using the Internet to engage new partners through almost-daily updates and photographs from field offices. He plans to translate the website content into foreign languages in the future.

Sasin’s education in natural science coincided with the beginning of Thailand’s messy struggle with environmental conservation. As a third year university student in geology in 1989, the Department of Forestry banned a century’s worth of timber concessions and declared its commitment to protecting the remaining forest areas. In the years to follow, Sasin witnessed human rights violations across Thailand—thousands of households being forcefully evicted from the forest, time and again. Contrary to expectations, this approach only resulted in more deforestation, not to mention violent resistance. Indigenous communities could not adjust to their new settlements and returned to their familiar ways of life in the forest.

Sasin’s graduate study in geology led him to a career in academia, but always with a people-centered orientation. Throughout his 13 years as university professor, Sasin conducted research on community and environmental impacts of mining projects, as well as founded and advised the student club for social and environmental services. He has also served on the National Human Rights Commission Subcommittee on Water, Coastal, Mineral and Environmental Resources, where he conducted investigations of community rights violations.

Sasin believes that being born into a family of government employees has helped him work effectively with government officials. As Secretary General of the Seub Nakhasathien Foundation, a nationally-respected conservation organization with close ties to the Department of Forestry, Sasin has been able to earn the trust of policymakers and park rangers more easily than other citizen sector workers. His unique background has enabled him to achieve unusual success in harmonizing the often-conflicting concerns for environmental conservation and human rights protection.