A Place For Indigenous People In Protected Areas

[churchill]

The seas of South-east Asia are home to unique peoples called sea gypsies, who have travelled the region for centuries living on boats and in temporary settlements along the coasts of the southern Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia all the way up into the Mergui Archipelago of present-day Myanmar.

.In Thailand, some 3,000 sea nomads remain dispersed over numerous islands off the Andaman coast in an area that has recently been added to Thailand’s tentative list of World Heritage Sites. These people belong to three distinct communities, the Moken, Moklen and Urak Lawoi, each with its own set of cultural traditions and language. Much of their territory has been lost to tourism development.

Many of the remaining islands have been designated as marine protected areas. Subsequent strict conservation measures and escalating tourism development have deprived the last of these communities from the sustainable use of the various resources and further contributed to their marginalization. Yet it is not recognized by the authorities that these people, through generations of living in close contact with the marine environment, have developed complex knowledge and interactions with its diversity. Issues concerning the participation and representation of local and indigenous people in decision making processes and management need to be addressed.

Since 1998, UNESCO in partnership with the Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute (CUSRI) have undertaken field project activities related to issues concerning the place of Moken people in Surin Islands Marine National, Park, Phang Nga Province. The project activities have been extensively published in document in English and Thai.

Supported by NOAA ,one of our current activities is to conduct field research on socio-economic monitoring (SocMon) with the Moken people and the Urak Lawoi people, Lipe island, Tarutao National Park, Satun Province.

http://www.unescobkk.org/natural-sciences/...areas-thailand/

[topben]

interesting read. love to explore further. more feeds, please.

[Nilrem]

Thank you very much for this introduction to this issue and links. I will study the literature.

With the UN Bruntland Commission (1986) that first raised the topic of sustainable development I was commissioned by the governments of Canada to participate in a pilot project as to whether sustainable development was practically possible. This was done conjunction with the indigenous people. It was proven possible, put into place though the political reality poisoned it.

In scanning the info I see that the process is using the stakeholder model and seems that the indigenous people not at the table since they are not citizens of Thailand. Apparently, they get no funding from the Thai government. While I’m only skimming the surface I don’t see how the Thai university and UNESO will come to ground on a sustainable system let alone does justice to the indigenous people. I hope I’m wrong, but the deck seems stacked against the people, the academics and international help they are getting.

The process developed in Canada threw out the stakeholder model that was “scientifically” quantified by cost-benefit analysis. We developed a consensus model that first of all qualified values for the present as well as the future to develop a system that worked initially, but has since been corrupted as previously stated.

[h90]

On Koh Phayam they all converted to Christian religion.

They restaurant where we ate, told us in the past they came many times and borrowed something and the relation was OK. After they got Christians she (the restaurant owner) couldn't hear the god blabla anymore and told them, they should ask their god for the goods, not her.....

(not my opinion, don't bash me, it was what I got told on the island)

[churchill]

Phuket’s sea gypsies face strict regime to repay debt

RAWAI, PHUKET: Many Moken sea gypsies living in a village close to Rawai Beach are still heavily in debt to violent loan sharks, despite the actions of a community organization which paid off more than half a million baht’s worth of their debts earlier this month.

Now, the villagers have agreed to strict new rules aimed at helping them pay off the debt.

“The villagers have had to agree to stop gambling and drinking and to keep their village clean,” Preeda Kongman, a community organizer, told the Gazette.

Cutting out gambling and drinking would make it easier for them to save money, while keeping the village clean would keep them healthy enough to work off their debts, she explained.

Although the ‘Poor’s Right to Develop Phuket Network’ (PRDPN) paid off debts worth more than half a million baht for 162 of the village’s residents, debts of more than two million baht – backed up by threats of beatings and electrocution – still hang over many of the villagers.

For our previous report, click here.

“154 sea gypsies still have a total of more than two million baht’s worth of debt at very high interest rates because they can’t borrow money through official channels,” Ms Preeda said.

“But during the monsoon season they need the money to survive,” she added.

Ms Preeda said a saving scheme had been set up in which villagers were asked to pay in five baht every day.

In addition to the money still owed to loan sharks, the villagers will have to pay back the half a million baht paid by the PRDPN, though at the significantly more manageable interest rate of six percent per year.

A meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall presided over by Vice Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office Nipon Boonyapataro and attended by Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop, last week aimed to hammer out a solution to the problems of the villagers, which are not confined to debt.

Gov Wichai reiterated a promise to work with landowners to improve the water and electricity supply to the village – a pledge he made back in April following a protest outside Provincial Hall.

“The land the village is built on belongs to four private landowners who won’t allow electricity cables to be set up in the area,” Gov Wichai said.

“A process of verifying the title deeds is underway, but it’s going to take a long time, so we’ve asked the landowners to sell the land to Rawai Municipality at a cheap price.”

http://www.phuketgazette.net/news/index.as...5&display=1