Thailand

However, the government agency in charge of forest conservation thinks the shifting cultivation in the Kaeng Krachan forest is an unacceptable threat to the ecosystem of theforest. It can stop the agricultural system that has been together with the forest for a long time and has high food security. Many development organizations have projects like collecting seeds to increase food security. However, it does not support shifting cultivation, an agricultural system in which many seeds are already stored. Many projects support self-reliance, growing and cooking food by yourself to reduce expenses, but it does not support shifting cultivation as the main food source, which does not need to spend the money for it. Instead, it encourages villagers to grow monocultures for sale. Even if it is an integrated farming, it is not as diverse as a shifting plantation. And most importantly, it cuts down the shifting cultivation system, causing the villagers to have no food. When they cannot plant their own rice, they need to buy it. Instead, the government agency encourages the villagers to plant bananas, durians and other crops for villagers to sell and earn money and buy some rice. It cuts off the production system for self-consumption with the pretext of conservation, even though there are several studies detailing how shifting cultivation can sustain forests.

 

The shifting cultivation system is also an agriculture that does not rely on chemical production. However, the land must be cleared and burned to provide enough minerals for the soil to cultivate. It is not burning the forest, but it is done just in the area for the next cultivation after the farmers have left the farm for 7 years. It needs to be done for soil restoration. And this burning is at odds with conservationists who have the idea of ​​ deforestation. However, in the long run, permanen t agriculture will require chemicals to nouri s h and protect plants from diseases and insects due to the repetition of growing plants for a long time, which can cause the soil and water resources contamination and

it is the upstream that flows to people downstream.

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When land is allocated for growing plants, some villagers have tried growing crops to sell, especially bananas. However, with public utilities that are not conducive to managing the productivity as it should be, such as the difficult access roads that make it inconvenient to transport goods, caused the higher transportation cost, including the product prices are limited. Moreover, the development and privatization are difficult because there is no electricity. The water supply system quality is still not good enough. The community economy, therefore, does not turn around as much as it should. And it loses a self-sufficient agricultural system. As a result, the villagers have quite difficult lives. It is not easy to find food in the forest because of strict conservation laws. Fortunately, there is still the Phetchaburi River, which is rich with enough aquatic animals. From many problems in the area, the project of GEF SGP together with Kaeng Krachan National Park and various agencies both public and private is established, to try taking the needsof the villagers into a project in order to improve the quality of the villagers’ lives in both villages. Help them restore and save the ecosystem service in the long run, starting with community tourism and promoting the cultivation of smaller, easily transportable crops such as coffee. Nevertheless, after asking many villagers about community tourism management, it was found that the villagers still do not have access to self-managed tourism. It all depends on the rules of the national park only. For example, to enter the village, you must purchase a ticket at the national park office first, which is tens of kilometers away from the entrance to the village, and the entrance fee goes to the National Park unilaterally. “It’s like tourists buying tickets to us,” one villager says. Making homestays and camping grounds by the villagers themselves is not permitted by the national park, causing the villagers to lose the opportunity to generate income from tourism. Camping is limited to the park’s camping grounds. “We are ready for community tourism. We have the knowledge to help tourists understand nature more,” one villager shared his hopes of doing a homestay and taking a tour if the park allows them to do so. “If the shifting cultivation still exists, I want to be a tour guide for shifting cultivation, forest trips and fishing,” another teenager adds. It still takes time to learn the entire coffee production process. However, with the fertility of the area, both Pong Luek and Bang Kloy, good quality coffee can be grown. The next step is to promote the knowledge of

improving the quality of coffee beans, including picking, drying, storing, roasting and marketing.

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Pong Luek-Bang Kloy coffee has been receiving feedback and educating the villagers from private organizations regularly, which is a good long-term direction for this plant as it is easier to transport than heavier plants. If there is any organization or agency that can enhance knowledge for farmers, it will make a productivity development and create a good quality of life for the villagers. Although Bang Kloy is only a small starting point in the giant Kaeng Krachan forest group, it affects many areas in Thailand. Therefore, it must be taken as a case study in improving the quality of life and conserving naturalresources sustainably at the same time.