Karen farming tradition at risk

[webfact]

Karen farming tradition at risk
By Pratch Rujivanarom
The Nation

 

The line between community's preserved forest and rotational farmland can be clearly noticeable, as the preserved forest is lush with protected big trees.n\Pratch Rujivanarom

 

Dispute over rotational agriculture involving burning as park threatens community

 

TAK: -- KAREN VILLAGERS in Tak are fighting to maintain their traditional rotational farming practices as Mae Ngao National Park officials plan to expand into their home territory and apply stricter laws that could prevent them from earning their livelihoods in the forest.

 

In the mountainous area near the border with Myanmar in Tak’s Tha Song Yang district, one of the last communities practising Karen traditional rotational farming calls Mae Por Kli village home. The area under cultivation occupies an entire slope of a mountain, which is readily identifiable as the area has just been cleared of vegetation, leaving only burnt remains, to prepare for a new crop this month.

 

To the eyes of outsiders, this kind of farming may look very harmful to the forest and far from sustainable. However, local farmer Korn Suesudsaeng said rotational farming was actually the most sustainable kind of farming despite the appearance of the terrain.

 

“The area of cleared and burnt forest is a new field for farming this year. We normally cut down trees and clear grass in April, so we can start growing upland rice and vegetables when the first rain comes in May,” Korn said.

 

“We do not get rid of the tree stumps, because when we harvest our crop at the end of the year, this plot will be abandoned, so nature will take the land back and the area will be a forest again. We normally let the land rest for five to seven years and then we will use this plot again for farming.”

 

He said farmers traditionally had shifted the land under cultivation at least seven times before returning to a plot, but now the people in Mae Porkli village had reduced the rotational period to only five to six years due to a land shortage.

 

After the harvest, the area will gradually become a forest again as vegetation flourishes in the cleared land.

 

Suwichan Pattanapriwan, a lecturer on Karen ethnic issues at Bodhivijjalaya College, said that compared to the other kinds of farming, rotational farming was sustainable because there was no need to use fertiliser or pesticides. The soil was already fertilised from the forest, Suwichan said, adding that farmers also used local varieties of plants that were resistant to pests and weeds.

 

“Karen people have a strict pattern for land use and land distribution in their community. Apart from their small living quarters, around 30 to 40 per cent of the land is used for rotational farming, while the other 60 per cent is spared as a community forest,” Suwichan said.

 

“People grow rice and vegetables at their farms, while they collect other products such as mushrooms and bamboo shoots, which can be sold. They can live harmoniously with nature by this traditional farming.”

 

However, this way of life has been challenged by a plan to extend the area of Mae Ngao National Park to cover the entire village, which would result in strict land-use laws covering the national park, which could affect the traditional rotational farming.

 

Suwichan said that from the examples of land management in other national parks, it could be seen that local Karen people had been forced to use land continuously, while rotation was forbidden, which ended up in a shift towards single-crop cultivation.

 

“When people are forbidden to do rotational farming, they will shift to maize plantations, which require a lot of fertiliser and pesticides. This will not only drag people into a spiral of debt, but the environment will also be damaged by the extensive use of chemicals,” he said.

 

He said authorities normally do not understand the traditions of Karen people and have different views of land ownership.

 

“The Karen people do not believe that the land belongs to individuals, but to the gods of nature, so before they use the land, they will perform a ceremony to ask for permission from the gods to use the land and then after harvesting the crop, they will return the land to nature,” he said. “While authorities and people in the city see the land as an asset owned by individuals or the state, that conflicts with the Karen people’s way of thought.”

 

However, Nonn Panitvong, an expert on forest ecosystems, said rotational farming had many benefits compared to maize plantations, but in terms of land-use efficiency, the traditional method was not a good choice.

 

Nonn said rotational farming still required burning to clear the ground, which caused air pollution and damaged the soil. Most rotational farms are on the slopes of mountains, where the top soil is washed away by the rain.

 

“People can live with the forest, but in order to let both people and the forest gain benefits together, we must find new farming techniques to increase the land-use efficiency, such as paddy-field terraces,” Nonn said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30314515

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-05-08

[canuckamuck]

The author missed a few points here. the Karen also leave some areas of land completely untouched so that wildlife and big timber will be supported as well. This was the case here in our village also, until other tribes began to buy property and the rotational method was made impossible. After that it was every man for himself. It is not true that all Karen make offerings to nature gods before they farm. A large percentage of Karens are Christian and do not involve themselves with animist rituals.

[canopy]

In a nutshell we are talking about people stealing national forest land for their own benefit and ruining it. It was a real gem to read "they will perform a ceremony to ask for permission from the gods to use the land". If only we could all get away with that one. And how many times did these gods respond "no! you can't have it. go somewhere else bud". This sentence from the expert in forest ecosystems pretty much sums up why the karens must be stopped.

 

"rotational farming still required burning to clear the ground, which caused air pollution and damaged the soil. Most rotational farms are on the slopes of mountains, where the top soil is washed away by the rain."

 

The damage they do to the forest will last for centuries even if they stop today which they won't. Their bad deeds should not have to be shouldered by the rest of the population like this. It's causing drought in addition to air pollution and they are a great detriment to all wildlife that they kill by burning, hunting, and destroying habitat.

 

[canuckamuck]

14 minutes ago, canopy said:

In a nutshell we are talking about people stealing national forest land for their own benefit and ruining it. It was a real gem to read "they will perform a ceremony to ask for permission from the gods to use the land". If only we could all get away with that one. And how many times did these gods respond "no! you can't have it. go somewhere else bud". This sentence from the expert in forest ecosystems pretty much sums up why the karens must be stopped.

 

"rotational farming still required burning to clear the ground, which caused air pollution and damaged the soil. Most rotational farms are on the slopes of mountains, where the top soil is washed away by the rain."

 

The damage they do to the forest will last for centuries even if they stop today which they won't. Their bad deeds should not have to be shouldered by the rest of the population like this. It's causing drought in addition to air pollution and they are a great detriment to all wildlife that they kill by burning, hunting, and destroying habitat.

 

This is not about encroachment. They are talking about their method for farming land they have used for generations. They are not breaking the law. The point the article was trying to make is that the Karen way is much more sustainable than the other mountain farming techniques found in Thailand. Which has them burn every tree and stump and keep it clear for years with herbicides until only the feeblest of corn plants can be produced. Then they burn down another chunk of virgin land higher up and begin again until you have only naked hills.

[ratcatcher]

4 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

The author missed a few points here. the Karen also leave some areas of land completely untouched so that wildlife and big timber will be supported as well. This was the case here in our village also, until other tribes began to buy property and the rotational method was made impossible. After that it was every man for himself. It is not true that all Karen make offerings to nature gods before they farm. A large percentage of Karens are Christian and do not involve themselves with animist rituals.

"A large percentage of Karens are Christian and do not involve themselves with animist rituals."

 

Instead they eat and drink the token flesh and blood of a person who lived over 2000 years ago. (Christ almighty?)

 

Animist:....2.    the belief in a supernatural power that organizes and animates the material universe.  (God almighty?)

[robblok]

1 hour ago, canuckamuck said:

This is not about encroachment. They are talking about their method for farming land they have used for generations. They are not breaking the law. The point the article was trying to make is that the Karen way is much more sustainable than the other mountain farming techniques found in Thailand. Which has them burn every tree and stump and keep it clear for years with herbicides until only the feeblest of corn plants can be produced. Then they burn down another chunk of virgin land higher up and begin again until you have only naked hills.

More sustainable.. you mean less damaging. Kinda like saying its better to be hit by a car then a big truck. 

 

Why do forests need to be used for farming ? If its a national park they should not touch it.. if its their own land.. good on them let them do it this way. 

 

But the way i read it its done in a national park...... why farm there at all. 

[robblok]

20 minutes ago, ratcatcher said:

"A large percentage of Karens are Christian and do not involve themselves with animist rituals."

 

Instead they eat and drink the token flesh and blood of a person who lived over 2000 years ago. (Christ almighty?)

 

Animist:....2.    the belief in a supernatural power that organizes and animates the material universe.  (God almighty?)

Yes its always funny to see people who believe (without proof) in one god go down on the religions of an other. While the only ones with any proof are those who are atheist. (no god has even proven to exist) 

[SiSePuede419]

If you use the same plot in 5-7 years, it won't be forest.  Again.  DOH!

 

This only works if you don't use the plot again.

 

Keep reusing the same tropical soil without adding fertilizer and eventually it will be too weak for forest to regrow.  The only thing that will grow there will be noxious weeds. ?

[canuckamuck]

11 hours ago, SiSePuede419 said:

If you use the same plot in 5-7 years, it won't be forest.  Again.  DOH!

 

This only works if you don't use the plot again.

 

Keep reusing the same tropical soil without adding fertilizer and eventually it will be too weak for forest to regrow.  The only thing that will grow there will be noxious weeds. ?

You leave a piece of mountain land  alone for 3 years and you won't even be able to walk thorough it without a machete. Several kinds of trees here get up ten meters in that time. In 6 years the amount of organic material built up on the ground is considerable. Of course it is not technically a forest, but it is perfect for wildlife and for soil conservation. Growing on it the next year requires no fertilization. If it is then allowed to go back to nature there is no soil destruction.

Where their system falls down is on the reliance to burning, which eliminates years of organic matter which would have been better off composted.

What they need is some education on permaculture. They nearly have it. They hack and slash everything before they burn. If they would only stack the deadfall in long rows and farm between them, the eventual effect would be excellent soil and a preserved watershed.

[canopy]

If it’s such a great idea why don’t you or some group buy some land and perform this type of farming on a 200 year plan to demonstrate how great and sustainable it is? Because by all appearances it’s only economically feasible when stealing a healthy forest from public land. It’s also unfair to pollute the air we all breathe for personal gain. In the meantime, Thailand needs a more responsible method of farming that does not destroy the precious few remaining forests it has. The habitat and endangered species it supports are just too important to throw away.

 

This is not permaculture. Burning down a healthy forest to ashes and ruining the soil means the land won’t be suitable for an indigenous forest to thrive anymore.  A few years of scrub brush growing does not hold a candle to the ecosystem supported by beautiful, mature 100-year-old trees that used to be there. And these karen’s don’t replant the forests they destroy. They slash and burn out of greed and then move on to wreck somewhere else. If it’s not their land, which is the case here, I just don’t understand why this encroachment and destruction granted by these gods is tolerated at all.

 

By the way, I am not just an armchair poster here. I live among hill tribe people for many years which gives me a lot of insights I otherwise wouldn’t have. Nice people and I have a lot of friends among them, but putting them near anything natural is like releasing a fox in a hen house. It’s just the way they are. Anytime I have them on my property to do some gardening work every creature great and small and every innocent plant is at risk and I must warn them and watch them like a hawk to protect nature from them. They will instantly kill every snake, slingshot every bird, yank every mole out of the ground with fishing hooks, pluck every horn beetle, dig up every root, advise me how to make money by cutting down all of the trees for me, etc. There will simply be nothing of value left in a forest if they remain there unchecked. We are all taught from an early age these people are living in harmony with nature and this picture will be difficult for some here to ever change. But I can’t ignore everything that I see and learn about them shows nothing could be further from the truth. This news story is just more confirmation of this.

 

Edited May 10, 2017 by canopy