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Community Rights in Natural Resource Management
Community rights are not a new concept. Many
rural communities have demonstrated concrete practices in
holistic natural resource management through sustaining their
livelihoods, traditional customs, and beliefs, which are deep-rooted
in traditional knowledge. Such knowledge in fact has a systematic
nature with a clear rationale that has been tested through
real-life experience for many generations. This can be seen
in the practice of traditional forestry (Don Phu Tar), watershed
forestry, traditional small-scale irrigation in the northern
region (Muang Fai System), paddy field forest conservation
in the northeast and community-based fish sanctuary zoning
in the south of Thailand. These are only some of the important
pieces of evidence to show that common resource utilization
managed by the community has led to an allocation of conservation
areas that are protected and regulated through the community's
measures and regulations.
Such proactive measures can defend against
outsiders who seek opportunities to exploit the natural resources
but do not respect the local rules due to a lack of understanding
of the local systems set in place. By becoming the guardians
and the protectors of their natural resources, the community
gains a strong sense of ownership and responsibility towards
the natural resources. Given these rationales, the notion
of community's rights is not at all a vague notion, but it
represents the relationships between communities and their
natural resources that have slowly evolved and developed with
dynamism, often over a long period of time. These are beliefs
that provide the fundamental principles for laying down the
community's rules and norms in relation to sustainable natural
resource management. Through this, the community is entitled
to its natural right to manage the natural resources, rights
to access and the rights to participate in identifying appropriate
policy for the survival of the rural community as a whole.
The Roles of Women and Youth Groups in
Natural Resource and Environment Management
In rural Thai society, women carry the burden
of ensuring both food and economic security at the household
levels. Each day, women spend a number of hours with the natural
resources to ensure that food is available and that incomes
are generated through many activities. These might include
non-timber forest collection, wood collection for cooking,
herb collection and many others. Through this, the relationship
between women and the environment is strengthened, while their
knowledge and understanding about the ecosystem grows. Thus,
the nature of women and the environment can be said to share
similar characteristics; those of providers, protectors and
utilizers.
The sustainable maintenance and abundance
of natural resources are vital for the development of women's
knowledge and their roles in the community. Adversely, the
decline and the degradation of the environment have destroyed
the opportunity of women to access the natural resources,
hence the roles and knowledge of women have been degraded
also. Aside from women, the role of youth in the community
and the society is also very critical. Their presence is to
ensure that the community's traditions and knowledge in natural
resource management can be passed down to the next generations
in the long term.
It is fortunate that at the present time,
there is an increasing awareness of the problems of the environment
and natural resource status among the women's and youth groups
in many areas. Nonetheless, it is still an area where their
participation in natural resource management can, and should,
be vastly improved. There is a need to further promote the
roles of these groups in becoming decision-makers with issues
regarding both natural resource and environment management
as well as instilling them with the confidence to creatively
express their ideas with equality and to work with others
in the society.
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