It is hard to believe Sahwing Indharangsri when he says his village and the forest around it was once inhabited by wild animals.
"When I was a child, I would often see herds of bulls and other wild animals, including elephants, roam the jungle," says Sahwing, assistant to the headman of Ban Moo 9, in Ngob subdistrict in Nan province. The village is in a watershed forest, through which the Nan River flows.
- VIDEO: Saving the northern forests
The land, which Sahwing describes as a "luscious forest", is now sparse, and looks more like a lawn interspersed by rows of rubber trees. The mountain may still be green, but it will turn into a barren, brownish colour after villagers start harvesting corn early next year.
"The forest was gone in the last two decades when commercial farming was introduced to our community. Since then, villagers have started to clear more and more of the forest to feed demand from the businesses," said the farmer.
Sahwing was among thousands of villagers who grew corn. But the 46-year-old gave up corn harvesting a few years ago after learning that the financial return was low. He witnesses villagers mired in debt as the cost of seeds, pesticides and chemical fertilisers outweigh the price of corn.
"It is just like we are hired by the middlemen and agro-companies to clear the forest and plant corn for them. We need to buy seeds, fertilisers and pesticides from them and sell our products to them. The middlemen dictate the price and control everything. At some point, I felt like I was a slave." Sahwing is one of 11 villagers who joined the "Khon Plai Nam Rak Pah Tone Nam" or Nan Watershed Conservation Fund, a pilot project that persuades locals to protect watershed forests, which kicked off on Sept 26. Under the campaign, villagers will reduce corn plantation to 8%, then allocate 60% of watershed forest to conservation, 20% as a public community forest and the remaining 12% to living and domestic consumption, such as raising chickens, ponds, and planting fruits and herbal plants. The total forest land in the project is only 100 rai, which is part of a national forest.
Sahwing and 10 members are allowed to stay in the forest, under the 1998 Cabinet decision that allows villagers who are able to prove that they have been living in the area before it was declared a national forest. These 11 villagers hope they might be allowed to stay legally if they are able to show that they can protect the forest.
Commercial plantation is eating away watershed forests in the Northern region of Thailand. It is estimated that more than eight million rai of land in the Northern forest mountains has been cleared for harvesting corn to supply the animal feedstock industry. As a result, watershed forests -- known as natural water generating sources and flood absorbers -- are being destroyed, leading to floods and drought in areas and cities downstream.
Maj Gen Piyapong Phankosol.
The problem is becoming more serious in Nan, known for its pristine and well-preserved mountain forest. During the last decade, the amount of farm land increased from 100,000 to 800,000 rai, despite most of the land being on high slopes where plantations are prohibited. Loss of watershed forests resulted in unusual floods affecting the municipality located in the low-lying areas, such as the incidents in 2006 and 2010. And it is not just the ecology that was affected. Public health is at risk from three million litres of herbicides being used to clear vegetation before harvesting corn.
"The project is a bridge between people who live downstream and villagers living in the watershed forests. We believe that people downstream should help the villagers protect the forests. We simply cannot ask them to conserve trees, we need to help," says Maj Gen Piyapong Phankosol, founder of Nan Watershed Conservation Fund. Maj Gen Piyapong, lecturer at Royal Thai Army War College, has been appointed by the National Council of Peace and Order (NCPO) to head the national team that crafts the strategy to solve forest encroachment and land problems.
The foundation is in co-operation with Nan Community College to create a sustainable forest plantation model that permits villagers to live in and make use of the forests. Nadchapat Panich, director of Nan Community College, applied His Majesty the King's conservation theory that fosters the peaceful cohabitation between villagers and forest conservation.
HM the King's concept -- known as "Sai Muak Sai Rong Tao Hai Phu Kao Hua Lone" ("Wearing Hat and Shoes for Denuded Mountain") focuses on planting trees on mountain tops to preserve crucial watershed areas and constructing micro-irrigational system, such as weirs and ponds on the foothills to absorb floods and to be used as water sources. The centre of the mountain is used as a forest where villagers are allowed to harvest plants.
To obtain sustainable income, the project has initiated the idea of matching funds for forest planting. Donors are known as "foster parents", and they donate 2,000 baht per rai per year, or 6,000 baht per rai for the whole first phase. The first phase of the campaign lasts three years, and the second phase will take another two years to complete. The first three years is for creating new professions for farmers. "Money from forest parents will compensate villagers for giving up clearing forest to plant corn. Otherwise, we cannot ask them to stop farming without providing any incentives," says the director.
The second phase is to create revenue from those newly-grown trees by selling the forest as "carbon sink" for polluting projects or countries that are bound by United Nations' Climate Change Treaty to reduce earth warming emissions. Under United Nations' climate change reduction plan, the "carbon sink" idea takes into account forests, oceans, and other natural environments viewed for absorbing global warming gases, such as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Sahwing has begun planting the first batch of trees on his land. Each tree has a foster parent. The community college has attached tags and GPS data for foster parents to monitor the trees. The college appoints a "teacher" to help villagers look after the trees. The project also helps villagers and their children receive credit if they need access to a college education.
Maj Gen Piyapong says the project offers new hope to solve the forest encroaching problem in the long term. If successful, it will be applied across the country, and will help defuse the problem of villagers who are forced to move out of their homes in the forest. "The army knows it is impossible to remove villagers out of the forests because villagers live in forests and make a living from the forests. What is going to happen if all the forest dwellers are removed from all the forests in the country? What are they going to do?" says Maj Gen Piyapong.
For video of this story, visit www.bangkokpost.com/vdo.
- Contact Maj Gen Piyapong Phankosol on 083-696-4696 or Dr Pradit Kittirudeekul on 081-453-2828. Joining the foster parent programme is 6,000 baht per rai, or 1,000 baht for forest plantation activity.
- Account: "Nan Watershed Conservation Fund" Kasikorn Bank; branch, IT Square; savings account, 003-1-60162-2.
- SMS the donation payment to 083-696-4696 or fax to 02-940-9072.
- Donations are tax deductible.
Sahwing Indharangsri, third right, has joined the forest conservation campaign.
In 2006, deforested hillsides, waterlogged after days of rain, collapsed in rivers of mud, drowning the mountainous province of Nan.
