Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

Villagers are prone to gambling and other vices that cost money such as cigarettes, alcohol, and playing
bingo. Their inability to establish initiatives to tackle their debt is a concern. The main credit source
is the Bank of Agriculture and Cooperatives (BAAC). As villagers have no land documents, they are
forced to use group collateral. The average debt ranges from 50,000 to100, 000 Baht. While other
sources of funding, including the Village Fund and the Poverty Alleviation Fund, aim to minimize the
risk, the accumulation of the village debt for some households can be as high as 10 million Baht.
Ban ChoengDoi
Ban ChoengDoi was established in 1957, when the village consisted of just 17 households. Now there
are 68 households with 365 people. All the households grow rice and the average holding size for rice
cultivation is around one hectare. About 60 households also grow cassava with a combined area of 19
ha. There are 25 households that earn extra income from vegetable production. Similar to most rural
villages, income from off-farm work is considered an important supplement to household income. In Ban
ChoengDoi, around 100 people earn income as construction workers. Weaving is also a supplementary
source of income. The villagers originally migrated from Phannanikhom, Sukonikon province. Ban
ChoengDoi is located in Na Mong sub district, Kut Bak, some 65 miles from the city. The people are of
an ethnic group called Phu Thai, with their own language and culture.
An important landmark in the villages’ turbulent history is the year 1964. During this period, the
Communist Party of Thailand controlled the surrounding area. Ban ChoengDoi, like many other
villages in the region, harbored dissidents and communist militia, supplying them food and shelter. In
response, the government designated the whole region a “red zone”. The natural resources and forests
became sources of conflict. In 1972, the RFD proposed the area to be declared “national park” with
some 66,900 ha to become state-controlled. By 1982, a further ground survey by the RFD reduced the
area to 66,470 ha. Even with a decrease in the area, it still represented a massive loss to the village as
technically all their production area was now within the “national park”.
In 1985, the RFD assigned Ban ChoengDoi “forestry village” status that led to further land re-allocation.
Landholdings were restricted to no more than 15 rai each. In 1991, after the national coup d’état, the
revolutionary council announced a new forestry and land policy for the whole country. Within this was
born a project called “land allocation for the poor within the national forest reserve and degraded area
in the North East”.
Ban ChoengDoi became one of the many northeastern beneficiaries of this ill-fated project. Villagers
were told to resettle to a nearby village called Ban Duean Ha. Fighting back, the villages affected by
the policy organized themselves into a network called the “Phu Phan forest network” to protest the
implementation of the project. They also established Village Forest Network Communities, made up
of 47 forest-based villages, to solve land problems in the surrounding forests. In 1992, stepping up
their protests, they wrote a petition to the then Prime Minister, Anand Panyasachun, demanding the
termination of the project. Under substantial pressure, and with a visibly failing policy, the government
responded. In July 1992, “land allocation for the poor within the national forest reserve and degraded
area in the North East” was terminated, and the villagers returned to Ban ChoengDoi.
However, the conflict between the state and its people continued. Lacking security of tenure, the
villagers still felt threatened. In the following years, several NGOs visited the area to conduct research
and to help build the capacity of the leaders as well as community members to manage their land and
forest. They accompanied the village leaders on study tours, exchanging views and knowledge with
people in other provinces and other regions. Their objective was ultimately to turn Ban ChoengDoi into
a model for land and forest resource management in the northeast region.
The forest is now classified into seven distinct zones: (i) community forest, 18 ha (comprising the area
of the temple in the forest, the cemetery, and community forestry); (ii) buffer zone, 80 ha; (ii) public
grazing land, 2, 400 ha; (iii) spiritual forest, 4 ha; (iv) village temple, 2.56 ha; (v) school, 2.88 ha; and
(vi) residential area, 12.8 ha. To manage the forest, six rules were drawn up.
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