Community Participation in Forest Management of Huay Hi Village, Huay Pu Ling Sub-district, Muang District, Mae Hong Son Province

Abstract

            This research aims 1) to study community context of Huay Hi Village, Huay Pu Ling Sub-district, Muang District, Mae Hong Son Province; 2) to study community participation in forest management of Huay Hi Village; and 3) to analyze the community strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat. The research is based on qualitative methodology by collecting in-depth data from key informants, including community leaders, community committee, local sages, and community members, totally 25 persons. The research tools are based on observation form, in-depth interview form, and focus group discussion. The data is analyzed by SWOT Analysis and its description.

               The results of this research reveal that: 1) community context: in the social aspect, it has a strong relationship with kinships; in the administrative, it is set up some rules and regulations among them; in the economic, it is rich natural resources which could be the capital for production; and in the cultural, traditional, belief and ritual inheriting from ancestry, it is maintained through the body of knowledge, beliefs, local wisdom, and community culture; 2) community participation in forest management: it is operated in the following: 1) setup in the committee; 2) identification of rules and regulations in usage; 3) specification of punishment in case of rules breaking; 4) new tree plantation; 5) promotion of eco-tourism; 6) organization of forest guard for preventing the illegal tree cutting and wild fire; 3) SWOT Analysis: it is manifested that the strengths (S) are the strong community leaders, community awareness, culture, tradition, beliefs, rules, and regulations; the weaknesses (W) are lack of knowledge in management; the opportunities (O) are more empowerment and support from government sectors in forest reservation; the threats (T) are the limitation of fund support, unclear boundary of forest reservation, and condition of laws. The suggestions for development are required such as more support of government sectors, proactive working, networking, strengthening knowledge, flexible implementation, and more research.