Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

costs. The service providers were identified and these are the six villages where HEC is high, namely
Na Yao, Na Isan, Lum Tha Sang, Tha Ten, Na Ngam, and Klong Toey. For these households, the
damage cost from crops and property damage and medical expenses related to elephant crop raiding
incidences was equivalent about 14 to 34% of their average household income.
When asked whether or not they would be interested in participating in activities to restore the
ecosystem within the sanctuary, more than 90% of the 200 villagers interviewed said that they would
be willing to volunteer their labor even if there were no payment. In many respects, this response was
to be expected. These villagers were already spending money to protect their crops and property. Any
measure that would lead to reduction of crop raiding incidences would reduce their current expenses.
Technically speaking therefore, the villagers are beneficiaries as well as service-providers. The latter
capacity is justified as there are external positive benefits to users and the general public from the direct
and indirect benefits of restored ecosystems services, as well as the non-use values of the biodiversity
resources in the sanctuary where the elephant is the umbrella species.
In addition to participating in the above activities, the service-providers from the six villages will also
be involved in monitoring and patrol activities. This is also an essential component of PES project
which is to provide concrete evidence of the improvement of the ecosystems. Particularly for this pilot
site, these include the reduction in the incidence of crop raiding, reduced damage costs to crops and
property, and reduction of risks and fear. Villagers will be involved in data collection. With cameras
installed at the locations of the water sources, the mineral licks, the food patches, and the use of GPS, it
will be possible to collect data on the number, timing, and type of wildlife that benefit from the water,
food, and mineral licks provided. As service-providers, villagers will undergo training so that they will
be able to undertake these routine but very important tasks. Monitoring wildlife activities was done
before in this sanctuary. The only difference will be that the villagers will be implementing this task
instead of sanctuary staff.
Exploring Buyers of Ecosystems Services
Perhaps the most challenging part of launching the PES project, particularly for a site such as KARN-
WS, is the identification of buyers. Apart from the service providers who also directly benefit from the
measures that will be undertaken, the beneficiaries of the ecosystems service are essentially those who
rely on water supply from the Bangpakong River and Prasae River. The single major user is the East
Water Company, a private business group that has shown considerable interest as a contributor. At a
meeting organized to discuss the objectives of the KARN-PES pilot project, East Water pointed out
that there is a need to know the on-going development projects funded by both government agencies
and businesses as part of their CSR investments within the 5-province corridor. Knowing what, where,
and at what stage the projects are would be helpful in planning processes, in identifying overlaps of
investments, and in channeling resources to where there are gaps.
But having a single buyer may not be sufficient to recover the initial investment nor the costs of recurring
activities. It is essential to involve other potential contributors. During the initial period, there were high
expectations that it would be possible to mobilize contributions from the private sector. Private sector
companies spend considerable sums each year on public relations and corporate social responsibility
(CSR). The optimism was that the KARN-WS PES pilot project already offers an opportunity where
they could do “good” and earn CSR points. But private companies may place more weight on quick
and tangible results. Clearly, there is a need for a formal institutional framework to create tangible
incentives for the private sectors to be involved and to do this, it may be strategically better to approach
private sector institutions such as the Federation of Thai Industries or the Thai Chamber of Commerce,
rather than individual private companies. Valuable lessons can be extracted from the experiences of
other countries’ initiatives to create markets for conservation of natural resources such as New South
Wales (NSW) BioBanking Scheme launched in July 2008.
In principle, biobanking is a voluntary market-based scheme. Three main groups of stakeholders are
involved: the landowners, developers, and conservationists. What is bought and sold are biodiversity
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