SDF: 1900 - 2006

Here’s what I have learned: The Thai government used to profit from allowing logging companies to harvest wood from its forests. The hill tribes didn’t like this and they sabotaged the logging companies’ efforts. The logging companies complained to the government and it forcibly removed some of the more aggressive hill tribes from their land. Many fires were set in the forests, some by the hill tribes to stop the logging (ironic) and some by the logging companies to disturb the hill tribes (also ironic). Things were violent and destructive. In the 1960s some important government guy visited the US and went to Yellowstone. When he got back to Thailand he established the National Forest system. A huge percent of Thailand became protected land. Logging ceased but life was still rough for the hill tribes. There were more forced removals. The government did not want to acknowledge the rights of the people who had lived in the forests for hundreds of years. The government has tried to contain the hill tribes and restrict their use of the forest. But the hill tribes practice a well developed sustainable organic method of agriculture involving crop rotation. Some fields used to grow crops get breaks as long as six years. This all but eliminates soil nutrient depletion and landslides. And the hill tribes are responsible managers of the wood and bamboo resources of the forest out of necessity; their whole way of life depends on the availability and health of the forest. The government uses helicopters to survey the land and when it sees hill tribe people cultivating a ‘new’ plot of land people are sometimes fined and arrested. In addition, there are conflicts between different hill tribes. Some are more aggressively abandoning subsistence living and pursuing farming for profit. This changes their lifestyles and their resource use. For example, the Hmong people, who live upland of the Keren, have recently begun to grow lumber to sell. But this reduces the amount of water available to the Keren.

SDF acts as a mediator between the various parties. And it makes progress on multiple interconnected fronts using baby steps. SDF is in it for the long haul. It interacts with the media and the hill tribes and the public and the government. It teaches sustainable farming and does advocacy work. It organizes public gatherings and everyone who works here is cool. SDF was started 10 years ago by Mr. Pihiyo Dacho. He is a great guy, hardworking, good sense of humor, he has vision and he is a natural leader, he is powerful and present in that great soft-spoken kind of way. SDF’s main field coordinator is Manop. Manop is the guy who takes me into the field. Manop is Keren (a hill tribe) and he’s a big drinker. Manop’s English gets much better when he drinks but it also gets more useless and rambling. He is a whiz in his red 4WD Nissan Extended Cab Pickup Truck. Manop can drive any road at any incline, even when it isn’t a road. Manop wears a straw cowboy hat that say’s Marlboro on it and as far as I can tell, a typical field trip is all about Manop driving around and meeting with people. Oh yeah, and drinking with them. He is a master networker. He has to know who the major players are and what their major interests are. SDF also has a full-time GIS (mapping) guy. Pau has a Master’s in geography and he makes beautiful sophisticated information-rich maps. When I met Pau it became clear that I was not going to be helpful when it came to using ArcView; his skills far exceed mine.

Right now SDF is working to push a bill through the legislature that will codify the government’s recognition of the basic rights of the hill tribes. This bill is the first ever initiated by the public in Thailand, not a politician. Last year SDF was part of a coalition that organized a march and rally that lasted two months and covered hundreds of kilometers. People walked from Chiangmai to Bangkok to bring attention and media coverage to the issues of the hill tribes. SDF has a project where they are helping some villages grow and produce organic shade-grown coffee that will put no additional demands on water usage in the forest. The coffee is great and the packaging isn’t bad. I helped correct the English.

SDF’s biggest and newest project is the mapping one. This is the one I was brought in to help on. The idea is that if they are armed with maps of where they live and work, the hill tribes will be able to force the government into dealing with the de facto realities of the hill tribes’ living situations. The project started by training the hill tribes to survey and mark their land. Then villagers were trained to use GPS units. They would walk their land and log the GPS information. Back at the SDF offices the data were downloaded and maps were made. However, the government said that the maps’ resolution was not good enough. So SDF is adapting and responding. It is all very exciting.

I’m gonna talk about where we are now on another post. It’s Friday night and I’ve put in two trips to the hills this week and I could use a beer right now.