Co-Management For Reduction of Conflicts Over Forest Resources: A Case Study of Joint Management of Protected Area in Ob Luang National Park

1st National and International Conference on Administration and Management
January 30, 2015, KU Home, Bangkok, THAILAND
Co-management for Reduction of Conflicts over Forest Resources: A Case

Study of Joint Management of Protected Area in Ob Luang National Park
Wittaya Nawapramote*
Abstract
The conflict over forest resources has been another major problem in all ASEAN countries. It
therefore requires more effective management. The study on Joint Management of Protected Area was
aimed to discover the guidelines and methods for ending the conflicts over forest resources between the
government and communities, communities and communities, and people in the communities. The
results found that the Co-management helped transfer and link the power of management to the
relevant stakeholders who introduced and proposed the concepts and solutions. These consist of 1)
analytical framework and holistic concept; 2) co-management mechanism; 3) tools for co-management;
and 4) clear working procedures. All of them must target at sustaining the ecosystem based on the
sustainable economic development and effective resources management. The problem on land
demarcation in the forestland must be firstly addressed through agreements, commitment, regulations,
and evidence base produced from the co-management with aims to reduce the conflicts over forest
resources and forest encroachments.
Keywords: Co-Management, Holistic Concept, Evidence Base, Land Demarcation
Introduction
Natural resources in the ASEAN region used to be fertile to serve utilization of its people.
However, due to the population increase and economic expansion, the resources have been depleted,
and conflicts in utilizing these abundant resources have apparently become a major problem. In addition,
the study on land changes conducted by H-J Stibig et.al. (2007) indicated that the ASEAN forest area
tends to decrease between 1990-2000 and 2000-2005, accounted for 7.0% and 7.8% respectively. In
Thailand, there have been problems concerning the forest encroachments for agricultural activities.
Meanwhile, enforcement of the related laws alone has been realized to be inadequate for ending
*
Ph. D. student, Sustainable land use and natural resource management Program, Chiang Mai University; Email:
watershed.gis@gmail.com

excessive forest resources exploitation. Based on satellite images classification by Faculty of Forestry of
Kasetsart University, the forest areas of Thailand remain only at 16.34 million ha or 31.57 percent of the
entire amount, compared to the year of 2008 found at 17.06 million ha or 33.44 percent (Royal Forest
Department, 2014). This reduction is believed to put an impact on the ecological balance, posing dangers
to the environment, economy, and society.
Several findings pointed out that relevant stakeholders are willing to take part in natural resource
management as stated in Prabudhanitisarn (2007), Grimble and Wellard (1997), Roling and Wegemakers
(1998), and Chevalier (2001). This concept has then been developed into the co-management. Likewise,
Somsak (2009) indicated that the futures co-management in the protected areas is very challenging since
it requires more effective measures. Bryant (1992) also suggested that the political ecologys framework is
the way to analyze the conflicts, particularly those arising between villagers and the modern government
with more power and an attempt to take over all natural resources by denying an access of villagers to
their traditional rights as stated in Vandergeest & Feluso (1993), Ganjanapan (1997), Wittayapak (1996),
cited by Prabudhanitisarn (2010).
This concept of co-management has recently been modified by integrating several subconcepts
and tools, and later employed under the Joint Management of the Protected Areas (JoMPA) at 11
national parks in Thailand, including Mae Tia-Mae Tae watersheds in Ob Luang National Park. These areas
had been encountering the water shortage for more than seven years (1996-2002) along with the conflicts
between the highland and lowland communities. The causes of those problems were the changes of land
exploitation mainly from farming purposes to commercial ones. As a result, people requested for more
land to grow more crops, whereas chemical substances were used to increase the yields. When the land
was over exploited, the forestland was illegally encroached to make room for farming activities, especially
in the areas of Ob Luang National Park, where laws and regulations were intensively enforced. However,
people living in these areas known as Highland Conservative Group of Chom Thong District, consisting of
ten villages, started their political movement in order to alter the national resources management
policies (Youngyubol, 2001). Doi Kaew Administrative Office intervened in order to solve the problem
together with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government officials under Mae Tia - Mae Tae
Committee by JoMPA in 2005. The success of co-management was collaboratively operated by four direct
and indirect stakeholders; local communities e.g. land owners whose land bordered with the forest area
together with the community committee and watershed committee; government agencies e.g. Ob Luang
National Park and Tambon Doi Kaew Administration Organization; NGOs e.g. Sustainable Development
Foundation (SDF), Raks Thai Foundation, and Inter Mountain Peoples Education and Culture in Thailand
Association (IMPECT); and academic and operational support groups e.g SLUSE and Geo-Informatics for
Watershed Management Center. Three years of JoMPAs implementation explicitly brought the evidence
for sustainable utilization of the protected forest and conflict reductions. This research was conducted to
study the components and operation of the co-management in the areas of Ob Luang National Park for
the sustainability of natural resource management. The study mainly centered on the modern co[172]

management on land demarcation in the forestland regarded as the top-listed problem with aims to
settle down the conflicts over the forest resources and illegal encroachments.
Methods
This research is based on the observation of phenomenon that occurs in every group of
stakeholders in Mae Tia - Mae Tae watersheds of Ob Luang National Park as follows.
1. Review concepts, theories, and study reports to create the explanations and resource
management through the governments operational mechanism and changing dynamics of the forestland
and land demarcation driven by the communities along with NGOs under the JoMPA, adopting the comanagement concept.
2. Collecting field data on the procedures and processes with respect to management of the
land demarcation by a series of interviews from all involved stakeholders.
3. Input Geographic Information System (GIS) data in order to evaluate the land demarcation and
changes of land exploitation such as physical data, boundary of national parks and forest reserved area,
data on land utilization following the aerial photos and satellite images, and data on land demarcation
for implementing this project.
4. Evaluate the relevant conceptual thinking frameworks, management, and operating procedures
of the co-management together with tools and methods for creating the evidence base as well as joint
agreements for land demarcation.
5. Test and prove the changes of land exploitation. Data on the changes of land use in
conformity with the aerial photos and satellite images are used for assessing the achievement of co management.
Results
This co-management relied on four main components namely 1) complete concepts for the
holistic approach, 2) co-management mechanism, 3) co-management tools, and 4) clear and complete
operating procedures. The process mentioned leads to the success of innovative co-management as
summarized in Figure 1.
1. Results of the project implementation:
1) Several meetings were organized to exchange the opinions on land demarcation and
solutions to the land conflicts.
2) The strategic and operational plans were then developed. The plans corresponded to
the paradigm of holistic co-management and its three concepts, including a) Sustainable ecology, b)
Sustainable economic development, and c) Participatory management.
2. Results of the Participatory Land Demarcation:
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1) A base map was created and used for negotiations on land demarcation (aerial photo
and satellite imagery by Ikonos). This helped promote confidence and acceptance as a result of
participation in each single step in land demarcation to produce the evidence base.
2) Land demarcation of the actual area was conducted, and the demarcated forest map
was mutually set up and accepted by all the parties.
3. Results of regulation development:
1) An informal village committee was established, comprising of village heads and
representatives of villagers.
2) Regulations and agreements were developed and accepted at the levels of village,
Sub-district, District, and Ob Luang National Parks officers as well as relevant offices.
4. Direct effects of JoMPAs co-management on solutions to the conflicts:
1) There were altered power relationships regarding the natural resource management.
2) Conflicts over the land demarcation between the government and communities,
including those between communities and communities, have apparently reduced.
3) The communities took care of land demarcation and, particularly, forest
encroachment cases. The village committee will implement the regulations and inform the National Park
Office of the cases. The officials also enforce the laws if villagers refuse to observe the regulations.
4) The agreements have been enforced by the communities and the officers.
5) Forest encroachment has reduced. Working with the village committee makes it
possible to identify the specific culprits.
6) Reduction of the forestland encroachment after implementing PLD was explicit, as
shown by GIS used for analyzing the land cover changes in the forestland. In this manner, the area of Huai
Sompoi village, consisting of three small communities with approximate areas of 1,597 ha of land in total,
was used as a study model. The surrounding areas are generally described as the evergreen forest, mainly
in the conserved forest and partly in the Ob Luang National Park whereas the pine and mixed forest is
found along the lower area of this village. The visual-classification technique and data-combination
technique were implemented to obtain the land cover maps throughout three periods. By comparing the
results brought by the participatory land demarcation with changes on the forestland utilization as shown
in Figures 2-4, it revealed that during six years (2002-2008) before the participatory land demarcation,
totally 164.32 ha of forestland were invaded or averagely at 27.39 ha of land per year. During the year of
2008-2010 or three years after the land demarcation was completed, totally 17.82 ha of forestland were
invaded or averagely at 8.64 ha of land per year. This also pointed out that the co-management for land
demarcation was able to reduce the forest encroachment averagely at 18.75 ha of land per year.
In addition, as an indirect result, this successful case regarding the solutions to the forest
encroachment and the conflicts over land utilization can be further used as a guideline on the model for
solving the problems under the project of Mae Chaem-Omkoi-Galyani Vadhana.
[174]

Figure 1 A summary diagram representing the whole image of the innovative co-management under
JoMPA
Figure 2 Land Cover Map 2002: Huai Sompoi Village
[175]

Discussion
Co-Management approaches existing previously were based on broad concepts. Therefore, (1)
they cannot explain complicated problems, and (2) they did not lead to the practices. This is beca use
such conventional co-management relied on theories that are disintegrated. For example, with the
purpose of protecting the natural ecosystem, the conventional co-management would emphasize on
merely the ecological concept. Similarly, when handling with forest encroachment problems, only laws or
legal measures would be used in such co-management. Also, when using social concepts like Political
Ecology, the problem would be explained with disintegrated parts; e.g. by explaining that the problem
occurs only from the governmental power that destroys the traditional customs of local people in
utilizing and managing forest resources in a sustainable manner. Thus, the social concept suggests the
[176]

community managing the forest areas instead of waiting for the government. In addition, there is a
theoretical proposition based on economical ecology that the national resources should be utilized at
their full capacity and value. All of these assumptions might be somehow correct, but are certainly
incomplete. Furthermore, most of the proposed co-management approaches were developed from
(closed) organization management. They are therefore inadequate to address the problems occurred in
the protected forest, which is not an organization and is highly complex with a great variety of
stakeholders.
To comply with the study and development targeted at the innovative co-management
approach for the protected forest, it can be concluded that: (1) under this new approach, the separated
descriptions have been integrated so that they correspond to the nature of the complex problem, and (2)
the management was conducted by considering the nature of differences among the stakeholders.
However, in order to encourage the stakeholders (who already have conflicts in various aspects) to co manage, sub-concepts used for the explanation are also required. For example, evidence-based
practices have to be adopted first so that all partners have mutual acceptance, and there must be a
process that deals directly with the problem (of the land demarcation) to obtain achievements.
Forestland encroachments and conflicts over the forestland demarcation have been occurring
and persisting without any effective solutions. The problems still continue and seem to be even more
severe when the government tries to implement the forest law to prosecute villagers living within the
forest areas. In response, some villagers united to protest against the law enforcement, while others
invaded the far-away forestland which was difficult to be protected by the officers. JoMPA project tries to
adopt an approach of co-management to address the problems concerning the forestland utilization. The
form of this operation is different from other general co-management approaches which require
participation of the stakeholders with no comprehensive analysis for the sustainable solutions. Therefore,
those approaches appear to be unsuccessful. In contrast, this study centering on the co-management in
land demarcation was conducted intensively by collecting comprehensive data based on the
implementation of JoMPA. This research corresponded to close relationships with all groups of
stakeholders by studying the overviews of this project and other relevant procedures at the beginning. As
a result, this study has discovered important components for solving the conflicts over the forestland
demarcation, which have not yet been explained in any previous studies on the co-management. That is
to say, the primary main component of co-management that needs to be initially considered is the
concept. In dealing with the forestland conflicts, the concept of co-management must cover the
solutions for both ecological and economical problems. Under this concept, the solutions must allow
villagers in the area to gain the security in their economy by possessing the sufficient agricultural land for
their living. Meanwhile, land utilization must aim for the sustainability by considering the risks of land
utilization. The complete concept will be used as a mechanism for driving the operations of committ ees
at various levels including the Village Committee, the Watershed Committee, the Protected Area
Committee, as well as some relevant NGOs, Geo-Informatics for Watershed Management Center, and the
[177]

Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management Center (SLUSE). These groups of stakeholders
are representatives of both the local communities and the governmental organizations. The mechanism
also involves with altered power relationships of the authorities with high power in decision making who
receive a small impact from the operations to nearly match the people with low power in decision
making who receive a big impact. The major tools that were used to drive the process of co-management
were Participatory GIS and Mapping in compliance with the up-to-date aerial photos or satellite images
with high spatial resolution. These tools help to promote equal understanding of all the stakeholders on
the context of the area to ensure their mutual acceptance as the evidence base. These operations are
driven by committees at various levels. The organizations provided their support for the whole
procedures, ranging from the procedure in creating understanding among the working groups, the strategic
planning, the action plan development, the field meetings, and the trainings for officers and villagers to
use the maps and Global Positioning System (GPS). Other important procedures include the Participatory
Land Demarcation, the procedure in selecting the committees, and the procedure in building an
agreement and commitment along with the regulations on forest resources utilization and enforcement
measures.
The use of this new co-management on land demarcation has resulted in reduction of forest
encroachments and land use conflicts between the government and local communities, as well as
between communities that live in the upper part and the lower part of the watersheds. In addition, all
the groups of stakeholders, as a result of this approach, are prepared to develop the efficient land
utilization for sustainability of forestry resources.
Conclusions and recommendations

1. Theoretical debates on Co-management for Sustainable Utilization of Protected Forest and
recommendation
In addition, according to the results as summarized in 3 and 4, this co-management is apparently
unlike other previous forms of co-management, and it could be applied with a certain level of efficiency.
The study on co-management for addressing the conflicts over the forest resources management was
not based on conventional research approaches applied in the forestry or in the social science that relies
merely on experiments or questionnaires.
Theoretically, co-management has been performed but no practical outcomes. This is because
the sub-concepts in the co-management were not integrated by taking components from all the
dimensions into consideration. On the contrary, this study has discovered a new form of co-management
which is based on complete implementation of the holistic concept. For example, the previous co management failed to explain how to apply the descriptions regarding the ecological economy and laws
together. Such points are truly important because, in the protected area with the community settlements,
it is inadequate to consider only the existence of the ecosystem. The development must also consider
[178]

vitality of the ecosystem relevant to production of the existing communities. It is therefore important to
realize that any damage made to the ecosystem also means the same damage made to the production.
For mutual sustainability of both the production and the ecosystem, the risk areas should be also taken
into consideration. Under this concept, there will be security in the economy via the systematic co management process. Another important point is that the previous co-management tends to focus only
on management, but not on the management mechanism. Conventional co-management usually
emphasizes only on the participation, which is insufficient for the success of these operations. Instead,
tools and process play another key role. Thus, it is advisable to target the management at the group of
leaders. In addition, land users should be regarded as the performers who obtain supports from the
involved organizations. The theories for co-management in this study were conceptualized and
experimented to ensure the success of land demarcation. Research by the government sectors or by any
organizations aimed to create such successful co-management on the forestland must allow the
academic institutions or research teams to observe all the procedures in details. The aspects to be
studied must cover the ecosystem, sustainable production with an ecological economy approach, and
efficient management. With an emphasis on the co-management of this research, the future studies on
this topic should comply with the operations to promote the development of knowledge bodies. This
approach will probably enable the success of such future studies and their results can be extended for
any further implementation.
2. Policy conclusion and Recommendation
Broad policies cannot be used to solve problems concerning forest land encroachment and
conflicts in forest land usage. Instead, a suitable policy to be applied needs to have details with
complete components of co-management. Importantly, the specified concept should be holistic. In
addition, linkage among the concept, mechanism, co-management tools, and co-management process
should be considered and summarized in a form that can be presented to the administrators of the
Conservation Area Administration Office for further implementation. A summary from different dimensions
of the management should also be used to organize for the officers to learn from results of the study.
With these workshops, forest officers from all units, such as the Watershed Management Units, heads of
the Forest Fire Control Units, and, especially, directors of all National Parks will be allowed to have
common understanding on the policies of the co-management. Working groups must be established to
play a key role in field operations for higher efficiency of the work. Mechanism must be implemented to
adjust attitudes of officers in charge to welcome participation of external organizations, especially NGOs
and academic institutions, which can create better understanding and communicate more closely with
the community. Local communities tend to be confident that such these organizations can act as a good
mediator for villagers. Committees of all sections must provide strong supports in terms of financial
budgets, regulations, and academic matters. The existing co-management tools must be able to produce
maps capable to let all stakeholders and field performers understand and utilize them in field work.
These maps must be produced as base maps in forms of both topographic maps and satellite images for
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creating common understanding when being used for negotiation in the opinion floors organized for
sharing opinions on land boundaries. Within these opinion floors, decisions on land boundaries should be
clear before starting the field survey to allow easier operations. Furthermore, the maps must also be
accurate and up-to-date, and complete with details on areas with ecological risks. Useful databases
should also be linked and shown in the maps as well.
Acknowledgement
This thesis was completed due to the cooperation of several parties, particularly Dr.Sidtinut
Prabudhanitisarn, who always provide me knowledge, thinking process, and helpful suggestions since I
carried out this field of study. Accordingly, this helped shape my attitudes toward the resource
management apart from improving it. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to Assoc. Prof.
Dr.Somporn Sangawong, who kindly gave me his valuable advice and support. Special thanks also went to
the JoMPA Project, especially the cooperation of resource co-management which gave me a rare
opportunity to study its relevant concepts as included in this thesis.
References
Bryant, R, L. 1992. Political Ecology: An Emerging Research Agendas in Third-World Studies. Political
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Grimble, R and Wellard, K. 1997. Stakeholder Methodologies in Natural Resource Management: a Review
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Stibig, H-J., F. Stolle., R. Dennis and C. Feldkotter. 2007. Forest Cover Change in Southeast Asia The
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Co-Management For Reduction of Conflicts Over Forest Resources: A Case Study of Joint Management of Protected Area in Ob Luang National Park

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1st National and International Conference on Administration and Management

January 30, 2015, KU Home, Bangkok, THAILAND