Paradise Is Still Burning

[villagefarang]

Seems like everyone is venting their spleen over the burning in Northern Thailand so why not me. What I have noticed is that everyone seems to have their own limited perspective on the problem. Most rant on about the government and lack of enforcement, while few have any recommendations that don’t border on the ridiculous.

One guy suggested that all you need is a couple of helicopters flying around full-time to douse the fires before they get out of control. Okay that takes care of his village, now what about the rest of the region and our neighbors. In a search for simple solutions we focus on overly simplified explanations of the problem.

Some say all the smoke comes from Burma and Laos. Others blame big agribusiness and the growing of corn in areas like Mae Chaem. Some say it is the rice farmers who are the culprits or perhaps the slash and burn hill tribe people. Yet others blame their neighbors for burning their trash. Some seem to think it is all the government’s fault, due to greed and corruption, or the educational system is to blame.

A few foreigners have cobbled together a poorly thought out petition to demand the end of the burning. I am sure it made them feel less impotent but I am equally sure it will have no effect. I heard of one guy who got perhaps a little too vocal in his criticism of his Thai neighbors and their penchant for burning so his wife took him for a holiday down south to avoid the linch mob coming over in the middle of the night. She seemed genuinely concerned.

Composting of all the waste has been suggested but we are not talking of kitchen scraps here. There are literally mountains of vegetation leftover after the harvest. The corn harvest leaves not only stalks on the steep mountain slopes but also mountains of discarded husks at the processing sites. Some say plow the stubble back into the ground. Unfortunately many of the hillsides are far too steep for heavy equipment. Even the hiring of the larger tractors necessary to plow waist high rice stubble back into the earth is expensive and would make the growing of rice even less profitable for small farmers. Many indeed argue that burning helps control pests and disease, leading to a better crop.

As it is, villagers in my area can’t make a living growing rice but do it based on a longstanding tradition that one must grow your own rice. It is okay for city people to buy rice from the store but it is not the done thing in the village. To make a living they must go to find work in the cities and scavenge what they can from what is left of the natural environment. Each year they encroach a little more into the forest. They strip the streams and reservoirs of fish. They burn the undergrowth in hopes of stimulating an abundant crop of wild mushrooms that can be harvested and sold at roadside stands.

The locals are quite ingenious in searching out leaves, bugs, frogs, crabs, snakes, fish, mushrooms and countless other edible delectables to supplement their diet without adding to their financial burden. The environment ends up paying a price though. Villagers are not immune to the seduction of modern conveniences and want what we all want. They want transportation, communication, entertainment, electronic conveniences, a better house and perhaps a leg up for their children by sending them to better schools. Everything costs money and the rural populace have limited options compared to their big city brethren.

As bad as things are in our village they continue to burn daily. People will complain about the smoke in a very general way and then go off and light another fire. Around here fires are not started by faceless figures in some remote location but by friends and neighbors. Pointing fingers at individuals is only done in extreme cases as one cannot afford to do anything that could lead to being ostracized from the community as a whole. The extreme interdependency in the village is the adhesive that bonds them together and makes things work. At the same time it is what often holds them back when it comes to making changes. They are mired in tradition and superstition unable to step over the threshold into a truly modern world.

One villager for example lost seventy rubber trees, by his estimate, due to his neighbor’s burning which got out of control. He asked for something like 70,000 baht but I heard they may have negotiated that down to around 30,000. Chances are the firebug doesn’t have the money so will try to avoid payment or he will have to borrow the money and go even deeper into debt. That will lead the culprit to further disregarding rules and regulations in an effort to scrape together a few more baht here and there.

As you can see I am not claiming to have the answers to this problem. I suppose I am suggesting that foreigners who think they have the answer are a bit more daft than I am. I’m sorry guys but we are guests here and what we think or want carries very little weight. Punitive measures focused exclusively on the poorest members of society, especially when they are the backbone of that society, are in the very least counterproductive and potentially destructive and destabilizing.

Until someone can come up with affordable alternatives that don’t further burden the poor and take into consideration the complexity of what leads to this yearly burning and the resulting pollution, we are destined to suffer with this problem for years to come. In my estimation, the talk and histrionics will continue until the rain comes. Hopefully that will be soon. The little we got yesterday didn't make a dent.

With the government’s focus being primarily on the floods there will be no money allocated to the burning in my estimation. If we are lucky some flood related initiatives could help stem the encroachment into the mountains as there is an overlap there between the burning and the floods. The wife and I suffer from the smoke just like everyone else but I dare say we are not so simple as to think there is a simple solution to this problem. So there you have my take on the burning of paradise. Nothing will happen.

[theblether]

Excellent essay vf, the answers are below the governments nose but they don't have the will to implement them.

Until they get the will to do it the problem will continue.

[villagefarang]

Thank for the "likes" ronniem, Carib and David48. And wouldn't you know, theblether would be the only one to comment.

[Ned]

Excellent post Villagefarang. Best I've read on this forum in ten years. At last someone who knows what's going on.

[bunta71]

One aspect of the burning we can probably agree on is the neighbors next door really don't have to burn plastic beside my window...

[IanForbes]

I totally agree with VF. But, as a visitor to Thailand there is nothing we can do about it. In Canada we have our problems with the indigenous people who use modern equipment to plunger the wilderness of fish and game, but then blame the government when the obvious happens.

[villagefarang]

On my blog I tend to steer away from news events or the more sensationalized aspects of Thailand. Therefore I have been avoiding the burning problem except in passing comments. Finally I realized that it had become a pervasive part of my life and was affecting everything I do and don’t do.

To help relieve the fatigue and frustration of being confined to an air-conditioned room I finally broke down and wrote about the burning. It helps sometimes to purge ones muddled mind and put things down on the page. I am glad some of you approve of what I wrote and I appreciate your comments.

[wana]

Thank for the "likes" ronniem, Carib and David48. And wouldn't you know, theblether would be the only one to comment.

there probably a lack of comments because nobody knows what to say .........its a problem ,which hopefuly in thai style will go away

if ignored for long enough ,a bit like the floods,until it happens again

for the people who live in bkk and pattaya ,they probably dont realise the extent of whats happening because they are not overly affected by it

thai people in bkk watched the floods on the news in ayudaya but didnt care too much until it was alledgedly coming to bkk

to be honest ,i live in bkk and i woudnt even know theres a problem in chiang mai unless i read it here

thais with full time jobs probably dont have as much time to spend reading online as i do and even if they knew ,its one of those times where everyone

knows somethings wrong ,but nobody knows what to do about it

in times like this the thai just sits back and says "khao pad ka pow ! " and just accet it and hope it will go way by itself

[villagefarang]

Thank for the "likes" ronniem, Carib and David48. And wouldn't you know, theblether would be the only one to comment.

there probably a lack of comments because nobody knows what to say .........its a problem ,which hopefuly in thai style will go away

if ignored for long enough ,a bit like the floods,until it happens again

for the people who live in bkk and pattaya ,they probably dont realise the extent of whats happening because they are not overly affected by it

thai people in bkk watched the floods on the news in ayudaya but didnt care too much until it was alledgedly coming to bkk

to be honest ,i live in bkk and i woudnt even know theres a problem in chiang mai unless i read it here

thais with full time jobs probably dont have as much time to spend reading online as i do and even if they knew ,its one of those times where everyone

knows somethings wrong ,but nobody knows what to do about it

in times like this the thai just sits back and says "khao pad ka pow ! " and just accet it and hope it will go way by itself

My wife says she doesn’t really think about it much because she knows she can’t do anything about it. In her words you just can’t change other people. All you can do is learn how to cope.

[StreetCowboy]

I could be wrong, not having lived there for a long time, but I believe back in the old country we used to burn back the heather, and burn the stubble off the fields, but no longer do so. That was a long time after we stopped using oxen in the fields. Maybe we should complain if the Thais are still burning the rice stubble in ten years' time. Or maybe we should holiday and live elsewhere, if it offends us so.

My dear old mother got grief from a neighbour across the road last time she had a bonfire to get rid of her garden waste, and bought one of those chipping machines.

SC

[canuckamuck]

Nicely stated Op VF. Now that I live up in the mountains, I can see the temptation to burn. I for one intend to make our 40 rais burn free, but it will take some doing. Like you said, there is not much for alternatives that are not overly expensive, impossible, or just too much work.

But I still intend to find a way, and hopefully achieve some economic advantage that will encourage imitators.

[mauGR1]

Excellent post, VF, nothing much to add to that.

The sad reality is that the Planet is much more populated than 100 or 1000 yrs ago..It will get worse before it gets better...I remember a famous B. Marley song : ...Total destruction, only solution...

Sorry for being pessimistic, hope you get some rain soon up in the North

@ SC

Those chipping machines are not the solution, except for a little garden in the city, they are noisy, polluting, and they require labour and fuel.

[robblok]

Is it not laziness ? id say there is enough labor there but burning is the easy way out ? Please correct me if im wrong.

[thaibeachlovers]

Excellent post, VF, nothing much to add to that.

The sad reality is that the Planet is much more populated than 100 or 1000 yrs ago..It will get worse before it gets better...I remember a famous B. Marley song : ...Total destruction, only solution...

Sorry for being pessimistic, hope you get some rain soon up in the North

@ SC

Those chipping machines are not the solution, except for a little garden in the city, they are noisy, polluting, and they require labour and fuel.

Put your finger on the real reason- overpopulation, but of course nothing will be done about that till every inch of the planet is populated or cultivated.

Meanwhile, up in Lamphun, the police banned outside fires, so perhaps there is a glimmer of hope for the future.

[mauGR1]

Is it not laziness ? id say there is enough labor there but burning is the easy way out ? Please correct me if im wrong.

Yes, after the forest clearing, burning is the best and cheapest way to get rid of the cuttings..of course, do it extensively and we have an extensive air pollution ..

Btw, here on Koh Chang the sky is quite hazy too, i would not be surprised if it's depending from the fires in the North

[trainman34014]

Excellent post VF. Mirrors my thoughts and saved me the writing. We have similar village neighbours to you; they moan about each others fires but then go and light their own. In one instance next door went to the Police Box to complain but half an hour later the Policeman came and told them that he couldn't do anything because the fire was in the garden of 'a powerful man'. !

[IanForbes]

The low land areas all NEED water to farm properly. The landscape also needs to be burnt periodically to cut back on tinder dry duff that could cause catastrophic fires if not controled periodically. If they actually wanted to do something constructive the government could kill two birds with the same stone. Every year there are floods somewhere in Thailand. In 2005 and 2011 there was catastrophic flooding in Chiang Mai and all points south. The only way to control flooding is to have large, mature forests that will protect the environment. As that is not an option there could be high dikes built around all northern Thailand farm lands. Let the fields lay fallow and fill with water behind low dam/dikes. Once the rainy season was over the water could be released slowly. If the government paid the farmers NOT to grow rice and corn during the flood causing months of August and September then it would prevent the possibility of floods during the bad years. The wet, soggy vegetation would actually rot under water and provide humous to the soil.

Of course, that would take long range planning that Thailand as a whole is not very good at. They can't see beyond a meter in front of their body.

[Kwasaki]

Excellent post VF.

In one instance next door went to the Police Box to complain but half an hour later the Policeman came and told them that he couldn't do anything because the fire was in the garden of 'a powerful man'. !

Yeah !! it's either "robblok" or this guy.

[trainman34014]

Excellent post VF.

In one instance next door went to the Police Box to complain but half an hour later the Policeman came and told them that he couldn't do anything because the fire was in the garden of 'a powerful man'. !

Yeah !! it's either "robblok" or this guy.

Sadly the real person is a skinny little runt who weighs about 45 kilo's !

[StreetCowboy]

What do they do in Scotland now, instead of burning the stubble and the heather?

I should ask Smokie, I suppose...

SC

Edit: I've never been involved in stubble-burning, but after the last time I got an open-razor shave in Bangkok, I'm sorely tempted to start. It was the roughest, scratchiest shave I've ever had...

Edited April 2, 2012 by StreetCowboy

[theblether]

Thank for the "likes" ronniem, Carib and David48. And wouldn't you know, theblether would be the only one to comment.

Look at that, I've started a tidal wave of comments. Proud of myself I am :-)

@SC.....correct re the burning of the heather, there used to be bonfires just about every Summers night where I lived too, causing pollution and causing many an irate lady to have to bring in the washing from the rope and wash it again. The bonfires were banned in the late 70's if I remember.

At roughly the same time the UK switched from coal to gas central heating, and pollution dropped dramatically. I remember many a pea souper smog of acrid smoke when I was a boy. I bet there are a few other people that can remember that smell.

So it's not been that long since we in the UK uniformly belched out tons upon tons of pollution every day.

To the OP, I do reckon composting is the only answer, and the government will need to look at a subsidy scheme to encourage it. If the Thai farmers were getting a profit out of composting they would do it.

[robblok]

Excellent post VF.

In one instance next door went to the Police Box to complain but half an hour later the Policeman came and told them that he couldn't do anything because the fire was in the garden of 'a powerful man'. !

Yeah !! it's either "robblok" or this guy.

Sadly the real person is a skinny little runt who weighs about 45 kilo's !

That guy is huge im no where near that big. Im not sure i want to either.. though id like have his bodyfat %

[villagefarang]

So while I was out taking care of burning issues, starting a blaze or two to help maintain air quality, you guys got active with your comments. I found the timely reminders of our own burning pasts interesting, along with the awareness there were far fewer people on the planet at that time.

With more and more of us wanting affordable food on the shelves, the providers will no doubt cut every corner they can to feed our hunger and their greed. In our modern era the pressure to provide in the short-term, often outweighs our desire to survive in the long-term. Anyway thanks for all the feedback.

[robblok]

So while I was out taking care of burning issues, starting a blaze or two to help maintain air quality, you guys got active with your comments. I found the timely reminders of our own burning pasts interesting, along with the awareness there were far fewer people on the planet at that time.

With more and more of us wanting affordable food on the shelves, the providers will no doubt cut every corner they can to feed our hunger and their greed. In our modern era the pressure to provide in the short-term, often outweighs our desire to survive in the long-term. Anyway thanks for all the feedback.

You got that right.. but to be honest most people want the same. The problem here is that the firebugs are bothering loads of people with their selfishness. They could do with less but decide to go for more and take the easy way.

I don't mind people wanting the most out of their lives as long as they don't bother others with it. Sometimes you just have to accept you can't have it all. I accept i cant have a big villa with a pool and some servants.

But seriously once you break the rules and really affect others with your action a point should be made by the police and government. Yes they are poor but that does not excuse them 100%. That is like saying poor people are allowed to steal because they have no money. Its ok if they steal a loaf of bread or some rice but once they start stealing luxury items its different. How much of this is to survive and how much is for the ease of it.

[spiritrace]

I looked at the satellite map and both Burma and Thailand are contributing to the smoke.....

Humans have been burning farmland for thousands of years after they discovered the benefits of burning off the old growth. It promotes crop growth by adding nutrients such as ash and acidifies the often base soils. It also renews depleated soil. It also gets rid of unwanted plant growth that competes with crops.

In spite of all our science and knowledge burning is still the best. The problem is that all the living creatures don't do well with breathing the smoke....it is definitely harmful to us.

I read in our weekly paper that the government (Bureau of Land Management) will have a prescribed burn next week in my area. One of the big advocates against smoke pollution is the government yet they burn. They want people to stop using our wood burning stoves because of the smoke yet they will burn thousands of acres of wildland. Typical government.

With all the really smart people around you would think they could figure a way to replicate the action of fire without the hazard of the smoke. Of course the cost would be high and farmers can't afford it. So it looks life we are stuck with the practice for a few more thousand years. Besides we enjoy the cheap cost of vegetables grown on these farms.

[canuckamuck]

The low land areas all NEED water to farm properly. The landscape also needs to be burnt periodically to cut back on tinder dry duff that could cause catastrophic fires if not controled periodically. If they actually wanted to do something constructive the government could kill two birds with the same stone. Every year there are floods somewhere in Thailand. In 2005 and 2011 there was catastrophic flooding in Chiang Mai and all points south. The only way to control flooding is to have large, mature forests that will protect the environment. As that is not an option there could be high dikes built around all northern Thailand farm lands. Let the fields lay fallow and fill with water behind low dam/dikes. Once the rainy season was over the water could be released slowly. If the government paid the farmers NOT to grow rice and corn during the flood causing months of August and September then it would prevent the possibility of floods during the bad years. The wet, soggy vegetation would actually rot under water and provide humous to the soil.

Of course, that would take long range planning that Thailand as a whole is not very good at. They can't see beyond a meter in front of their body.

Quite a lot of the burning is hillside burning, it is pretty hard to submerge a hillside eh? And getting people to not grow rice in the wet season would be just as impossible.

[IanForbes]

The low land areas all NEED water to farm properly. The landscape also needs to be burnt periodically to cut back on tinder dry duff that could cause catastrophic fires if not controled periodically. If they actually wanted to do something constructive the government could kill two birds with the same stone. Every year there are floods somewhere in Thailand. In 2005 and 2011 there was catastrophic flooding in Chiang Mai and all points south. The only way to control flooding is to have large, mature forests that will protect the environment. As that is not an option there could be high dikes built around all northern Thailand farm lands. Let the fields lay fallow and fill with water behind low dam/dikes. Once the rainy season was over the water could be released slowly. If the government paid the farmers NOT to grow rice and corn during the flood causing months of August and September then it would prevent the possibility of floods during the bad years. The wet, soggy vegetation would actually rot under water and provide humous to the soil.

Of course, that would take long range planning that Thailand as a whole is not very good at. They can't see beyond a meter in front of their body.

Quite a lot of the burning is hillside burning, it is pretty hard to submerge a hillside eh? And getting people to not grow rice in the wet season would be just as impossible.

Yes, but a lot of that forest duff could be removed without burning. There is only one bad month when the water needs to be retained to prevent flooding further down the chain, and damming off the rice paddies WOULD work. In BC we have the same problem with excessive corn stalks. They are cut up and turned back into soil. What little burning that takes place is done during border months when it can done a little at a time.

[yermanee]

Just as an aside, an interesting factual article about smoke here : http://burningissues.org/smoke.htm

Next time you start a BBQ, open wood-fire etc. think abt what you're inhaling.

Yermanee

[villagefarang]

We are still waiting for rain. This morning the air is quite bad. I noticed more fires last evening as I walked the dogs. No matter how bad it is the dogs come first.

[villagefarang]

Things are looking up here in the Rai. Here is the view this morning.

Last month same shot.

Edited April 8, 2012 by villagefarang