In this far-reaching examination of environmental problems and politics
in northern Thailand, Tim Forsyth and Andrew Walker analyze
deforestation, water supply, soil erosion, use of agrochemicals, and
biodiversity in order to challenge popularly held notions of
environmental crisis. They argue that such crises have been used to
support political objectives of state expansion and control in the
uplands. They have also been used to justify the alternative directions
advocated by an array of NGOs.
In official and alternative discourses of economic development, the
peoples living in Thailand's hill country are typically cast as either
guardians or destroyers of forest resources, often depending on their
ethnicity. Political and historical factors have created a simplistic,
misleading, and often scientifically inaccurate environmental narrative:
Hmong farmers, for example, are thought to exhibit environmentally
destructive practices, whereas the Karen are seen as linked to and
protective of their ancestral home. Forsyth and Walker reveal a much
more complex relationship of hill farmers to the land, to other ethnic
groups, and to the state. They conclude that current explanations fail
to address the real causes of environmental problems and unnecessarily
restrict the livelihoods of local people.
The authors' critical assessment of simplistic environmental narratives,
as well as their suggestions for finding solutions, will be valuable in
international policy discussions about environmental issues in rapidly
developing countries. Moreover, their redefinition of northern
Thailand's environmental problems, and their analysis of how political
influences have reinforced inappropriate policies, demonstrate new ways
of analyzing how environmental science and knowledge are important
arenas for political control.
This book makes valuable contributions to Thai studies and more
generally to the fields of environmental science, ecology, geography,
anthropology, and political science, as well as to policy making and
resource management in the developing world.
