4 research outputs found
Khon Rai Sanchat: Resident Aliens and the Paradox of National Integration in Thailand
No full textInternational audienc
Khon Rai Sanchat: Resident Aliens and the Paradox of National Integration in Thailand
No full textInternational audienc
Implementation of the COP26 declaration to halt forest loss must safeguard and include Indigenous people
No full textWorld and industry leaders at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) asserted in their declaration on Forest and Land Use a commitment to “halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030”1. Nothing less than decisive and coordi-nated global action is required as we near an apocalyptic future of environmental degrada-tion, species extinction, and catastrophic climate change. With the recent acceleration in newly created global commitments and successes such as the achievement of Aichi Target 11 in 20212, we should nonetheless pause and reflect about the implications of such top-down pledges to conserve forests for indigenous peoples worldwide.
To successfully achieve our climate change mitigation goals through halting deforestation while safeguarding indigenous peoples’ and forest-dwelling communities’ dignity, rights, and livelihoods will require policy makers to be socially inclusive and ensuring that conser-vation initiatives learn from the long history and problematic history of forest conservation. It is important that the burden of addressing mitigating climate change should not fall on indigenous communities who are the least responsible for the current biodiversity and cli-mate crises
Psychological and Social Impacts of Top-down Conservation Initiatives on Indigenous Communities: Lessons from the Announcement of two Royal Decrees in Thailand
No full textIn November 2024, the Thai government approved two Royal Decrees for ecosystem conservation that would severely threaten the livelihoods, living prospects, and continued residence of Indigenous communities in protected areas. Protests with 10,000 participants prompted a review of the decrees in May 2025. This research report investigates the psychological and social implications of the announcement of the Royal Decrees and argues that it undermined community social capital and intrinsic engagement with everyday environmental heritage. We drew on qualitative and survey data collected from 09/2024 to 05/2025 in two Pga K’Nyau and two Hmong communities in the northern Thai highlands, comprising community consultations with 73 participants, 101 semi-structured interviews, and two survey rounds, for a total of 384 observations. We used qualitative thematic analysis and descriptive statistics to explore how community members experienced, interpreted, and responded to the announcement of the decrees. We found that Indigenous villagers experienced anxiety and unease, and that the decrees undermined community efforts to conserve and engage with local ecosystems. The continued uncertainty surrounding communities’ future sparked a strong activist sentiment to resist the decrees. Disruptions to community social capital and everyday environmental heritage also had plausible, potentially significant ecological downstream effects. We therefore call for an urgent correction to the conservation initiative to embrace inclusive, bottom-up natural resource governance
