Thinking Global & Acting Local in Chiang Mai, Thailand
A Semester with the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute
International Sustainable Development Studies Institute (ISDSI)
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The ISDSI campus was a fantastic setting to initiate our environmental studies - the school building was constructed with reclaimed shipping containers, shaded and surrounded by endemic Dipterocarp, Bodhi, and palm trees. Next to the campus' cafe - sourced by local coffee from a neighboring provice - is the ISDSI CrossFit gym where we endured frequent training to prepare us for the hikes to come!
Erika completed her Environmental Fellows Program practicum as a student with the International Development Studies Institute (ISDSI) in Chiang Mai, where she spent four months studying the relationship between Thai history, culture, society and the northern region’s unique local ecology. Courses involved the study of sustainable food ways, political ecology of forest ecosystems, and marine biodiversity.
Erika embarked on hiking and backpacking expeditions with her cohort; learned and applied key ecological field skills; presented on socioeconomically significant local plant and animal species; and expanded her understanding of Thai language and culture firsthand through relationships with Thai instructors, friends, and host families.
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Temple at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai's most famous Buddhist pilgrimage site. The mountainside temple grounds are visible from nearly every spot in the city.
Block 1: Foundations - Thai Language and Society
Bathing elephants at Patara Elephant Farm, a breeding facility and educational center outside of Muang Chiang Mai.
"Thai Language and Society" served as the foundation the semester, being the first of four block courses. Our initial two weeks were spent in isolation in Bangkok, where we were kept busy studying Thai language and history in the confines of our rooms. Each morning, we met virtually with Thai instructors in small language groups, developing basic Thai speaking and writing skills that supplemented our afternoon history and culture seminars.
Upon arrival in Chiang Mai, we were quickly involved with class time dedicated to learning key principles of sustainable development, field note and species identification skills, and practices for developing cultural competency. Outside of the classroom, our familiarity with local Thai culture was fostered through watching Thai movies and television programming, interviewing Thai classmates and neighbors to learn the norms of the country's family dynamics and structures, as well as navigating public transportation to establish a sense of city orientation. We embarked on daily after-class visits to NGOS, such as a sustainable fish hatchery, a seed bank and research center aimed at supporting underprivileged highland farmers, a pollution-preventing volunteer network at Chiang Mai University, as well as a Karen-run elephant sanctuary. In each case, we gained understanding of the importance of community participation in achieving truly sustainable environmental goals.
Learning Outcomes:
- Conversational proficiency in Thai and ability to read and write basic Thai
- Understanding of key cultural and sociological characteristics of Thai society and history
- Knowledge of principles of sustainable development, and key issues in NGO development and strategies
- Understanding and application of experiential learning principles
Incorporating burnt rice chaff into vegetable beds in order to enrich the soil with carbon. This is one of many organic gardening practices that Mae Tha farmers employ in order to boost productivity and make use of food scraps.
Block 2: Sustainable Food Systems
Hiking through the regenerative tea farm. This farm sources leaves for Monsoon Tea, a high-end tea company with a mission to empower small-scale farmers and shift Thailand's tea culture away from mono-culture practices and towards agro-forestry practices.
Our next course, "Sustainable Food Systems," was the first of three experiential blocks, each comprising one week of in-class seminar study to prepare us for three-week long expeditions to contextualize learning concepts in real-life settings. This course entailed study of regenerative agriculture and agro-forestry as sustainable methods of food production. After establishing academic familiarity with the concept of human systems' intimate connection to natural systems - particularly as they pertain to food-ways - we spent time "in the field" to live among and learn from local communities outside of Chiang Mai.
We visited Mae Tha, an organic poly-culture community in the lowland region, then went on to spend time at an organic coffee agro-forest, a regenerative tea farm, and organic cacao plantation. Although the coffee and tea farms' organic operations were primarily driven by their owners' desire to maintain local biodiversity, Mae Tha and the cacao plantation were motivated to yield chemical-free produce for human health more so than for ecosystem health.
My initial research sought to answer the question of whether there is a difference in Mae Tha families' gender roles, and the place of women within conventional versus organic farming households. However, time and accessibility constraints prevented our cohort from being able to conduct interviews with conventional farmers. I was pushed to instead research gender roles within organic farming households, and draw connections between these relationships and Mae Tha’s characteristic “culture of community.” Through my 9 semi-formal interviews and supplementary online research, I found that the recent trend towards diversified livelihoods (as necessitated by organic agriculture’s demands) has fortified the elevated status of the community’s women, driven largely in part by the ability for women to generate their own income through farming activities. This research revealed the potential for organic farming practices to improve women's well-being, in terms of personal health, economic independence, and community engagement alike.
Learning Outcomes:
- Understanding of the key issues in sustainable agriculture and agroecology
- Understanding the biological processes within agroecosystems
- Knowledge of significant plants used in agroforests and agroecological farms
- Understanding of the sociological dynamics related to agriculture for both upland and lowland peoples of Northern Thailand
- Ability to successfully carry out the basic tasks related to sustainable agriculture, including composting, natural pesticide production, gardening skills and related tasks
- Biological field survey methods, especially as related to agroforests and integrated farming
- Proficiency with the tools of field research, including farm and village survey techniques, and the ability to carry out basic surveys in Thai
- Knowledge of the struggles related to creating sustainable communities and people’s movements related to sustainable agriculture
Hiking to visit Pakaloh village in Mae Hong Sohn province. We learned about local community members' engagement with nearby urban markets, and the different ways that villagers grow and obtain food throughout the year.
Block 3: Political Ecology of Northern Thai Forests
Hallway in the home of Huay Dtang Gaw village leader. Taken during his family's spirit calling event, a ceremony intended to bring good fortune to households during important holidays or life changes.
Our “Political Ecology of Forests” course explored the ethno-ecological relationship between northern Thai highland communities and their surrounding forest ecosystems. The expedition element of Block 3 entailed a number of trips to indigenous Karen villages across the mountainous Mae Hong Sohn province, during which we learned about local forest management and culture from living and talking with our host families. The Karen are widely known to be the largest hill tribe group in Thailand, and reside primarily along the Myanmar-Thailand border.
During week-long home stays in three Karen villages (Mae Klang Luang, Ban Mae Sa, and Huay Dtang Gaw), we learned each community's strategies for sustainable collective resource management, as well as the historical, cultural, and political factors that enabled and constrained these agricultural approaches. Our study of local forests' ecology through field research and forest/village surveys enriched our understanding of the Karen peoples' deep connections to their environment, as well as the complexities of forest resource management that accompany rapid changes in Thailand's governance and society.
My personal research project for Block 3 was titled "Governing the Commons: Local Strategies & Design Principles for the Sustainable Management of Forest Resources in Northern Thai Villages." My initial hypothesis was that villages whose forest management systems more closely resembled economist Elinor Ostrom’s 8 design principles for a stable common-pool resource (CPR) arrangement would likely demonstrate greater success in managing forest resources. What I found was that the strength of a CPR arrangement seems to depend less upon the presence or absence of certain design principles on paper, contrary to my hypothesis. Rather, community cohesion apart from resource management, as well as villagers’ commitment to conservation principles, seemed to be a greater influence on the success of villages’ forest management.
Learning Outcomes:
- Understanding of the key issues in forest political ecology, and peoples’ socio-economic as well as cultural adaptations within forest ecosystems
- Understanding of the social dynamics related to upland rotational agriculture of the Karen, and significant plants used in rotational plots and significant forest products used
- Ability to successfully carry out basic ethnographic studies of Karen ethnic people and their cultural adaptation to the rapid changes in Thai society
- Ability to implement forest survey methods related to both ecosystem and local knowledge of forests; proficiency with the tools of field research, including using a GPS during forest and village surveys, ability to carry out basic socioeconomic surveys in Thai, etc.
- Understanding of the alternative forest classification and management systems established for each particular socio-ecological context
- Knowledge of the barriers related to creating sustainable communities and people’s movements
- Understanding of the struggle for the recognition of local rights to manage community forest
Lunch on the shore of a Trang island, breaking our time traveling from one reef to the next during our ecological field survey activities.
Block 4: Culture and Ecology of the Andaman Sea
Steering clear of แมงกระพรุน, white-spotted jellyfish, during our snorkeling expeditions. Jellyfish populations proliferate in southern Thailand as a consequence of warming water temperatures that accompany global climate change.
Our final took place in the south of Thailand, where we had the opportunity to study marine biodiversity, as well as the ways in which ecosystems are used and supported by the local community for both sustenance and ecotourism. In SiKao, Trang, we would kayak, snorkel, and participate in sea-grass planting activities to familiarize ourselves with the Andaman Sea’s rich array of species inhabiting coral reefs, mangroves, sea-grass patches, and tidal areas.
Although the onset of COVID-19 in Thailand dashed our plans of home-stays with the semi-nomadic Urak Lawoi and Southern Thai Muslim fisherfolk communities, we still had the opportunity to hear from a number of NGO workers, local government administrators, and fishermen.
My personal research project investigated the ways in which Sikao fishermen apply their knowledge of mangrove species’ maturation cycles to their aquaculture practices, specifically comparing their understanding of and nursery operations for mangrove versus ocean-dwelling fish and crab species. In asking fishermen about the different practices they apply in handling of groupers vs. sea bass, and mangrove crabs vs. sea crabs, I learned the importance of maintaining natural nursery habitats (i.e. mangrove ecosystems), as well as the fact that fishermen's attention to the change in seasons (which strongly impacts these species' migration patterns) is critical to aquaculture success. Both climate change and habitat fragmentation (which has increasingly become a concern due to tourists' encroachment) pose threats to the continued success of these fishermen's aquaculture operations and therefore livelihoods.
Learning Outcomes:
- Understanding of the key issues concerning the sustainability of island/coastal environments and cultures
- Understanding the biological processes within marine ecosystems with particular knowledge of significant fish, reef and coral ecology
- Understanding of local knowledge related to fish and fishing as well as understanding of the links between local culture and marine resource utilization
- Understanding of the social dynamics related to marine ecology and island resource conservation and development (e.g. ethnic culture, tourism, commercial fishing, national park conservation)
- Ability to successfully carry out the essential technical skills related to the studies of marine ecology, including sea kayaking and skin-diving; geographical field survey method; comparative field marine biology survey methods; and social science research methods, including interviewing key stakeholders
Tham Morakot, or "Emerald Cave."
Reflections and Learning Outcomes
Across all of our travels and experiences, I believe that the most important outcome of my semester was learning that the most meaningful and effective sustainable development strategies must center the participation perspectives of local communities. Our curriculum continuously emphasized the idea that human systems are intimately tied to natural systems - with this, individuals and communities with historical and traditional ties to their landscapes are therefore uniquely equipped to respond to the ecological challenges that accompany changing climatic conditions.
Likewise, getting to learn from community members and the NGOs supporting their efforts offered me invaluable insight into potential pursuits for the future. This experience has reaffirmed my career aspirations of working with a humanitarian organization that works towards food sovereignty, where I’d be able to unite my passions for social justice, sustainability, and perhaps even East and Southeast Asian language and culture.
Good-bye (สวัสดิกะ) and thank you (ขอบคุณคะ)!