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Huai Khrai, Chiang Rai, Thailand
1988 - 2021
Short description
In 1987, nearly 55 percent of the forest in the Doi Tung watershed area had been destroyed from illegal logging and slash-and-burn agriculture. Today, through the protection and restoration of natural forests and creation of economic forests for sustainable use, 77 percent of Doi Tung is covered with forest. The communities have developed their own community rules and regulate themselves to eliminate disasters such as forest fires, floods, and landslides. The same principle also applies to issues of healthcare, peace and security. Armed violence is reduced to zero while crime rates and family violence are minimal.
Main purpose
Biodiversity conservation / restoration,
Land restoration for increased soil fertility / reversal of land degradation,
Reduced environmental degradation from sustainable resource use,
Climate change mitigation / capture of greenhouse gases,
Food security,
Provision / protection / diversification of employment and livelihoods / poverty reduction,
Protect / restore cultural, spiritual, or religious assets,
Gender equality,
Increasing agricultural productivity / crop and cattle protection
Trust building between conflicting groups
Other expected benefits
Flood protection: redirection / drainage / infiltration of flood waters,
Improved market / trade / prices of natural resources
Conflict context
Until 1956, opium production, sale and use were legal in Thailand. It helped finance more than a third of the tax revenue of the Thai state. After becoming illegal in 1959, the ethnic minorities were able to keep cultivating opium because they lived in a remote region hard to access by the central government. There was no other crop that provided the guaranteed cash that opium did. They sold opium to local militias who controlled trafficking, transporting the sticky blocks of opium out of the region on the backs of donkeys.The hill-dwelling ethnic minorities were and are culturally and religiously distinctive. They worried about public officials, who saw them in some cases as alien and susceptible to engage in insurgency against the central government. Villagers felt threatened by police, local militias, and the milieu of criminal activities that came with drug trafficking and illegal logging. Communication with the outside world was rare. Most villagers did not speak Thai and roads were almost inexistent. Locals had no recognized citizenship rights, no formal papers such as a state identification card, and thus lacked the freedom to move around. As a result, the communities in Doi Tung remained secluded, with limited livelihood options outside of the drug trade. Because the Princess Mother was able to understand that the villagers’ opium cultivation and connection with illicit activities and deforestation were symptoms of poverty and other structural problems, the Doi Tung approach focused on reducing poverty and inequality by targeting the most in need first, which represents one of the most important cornerstones of the UN 2030 Global Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Peace and security contributions
- The DTDP was successful in working with all structural issues behind conflict, fear and violence in Doi Tung. Armed violence is reduced to zero while crime rates and family violence are minimal.
- Social, economic, civil and political rights of all are protected, promoted & respected.
- Self-established village rules and equal rights regardless of ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, age & religion.
- Multi-cultural approach allowed for a peaceful and cooperative co-existence among all ethnic groups.
Reported elements of good practices
- Open and inclusive political participation and transparency was assured at village and sub-district levels.
- Income generating activities and non-repressive law-enforcement displaced illicit economies.
- Openness to the outside world has transformed closed ethnic societies into a more tolerant and open society.
Reported challenges
Building trust was the major constraint to overcome at the beginning of the Project. The Project staff stayed in the community and conducted many rounds of discussions to gain insight into their needs and wants, followed by implementing a quick hit creating immediate daily subsistence needs of the community to earn their trust.
Practical details of implementation
- The last phase of the DTDP is focused on the sustainability of the development processes. It puts the Project in the hands of local communities in Doi Tung. In practical terms, it means the transformation of the communities into the owners of their own future.
- A bottom-up approach to identify the needs and problems as identified by the community. This meant there was a continuous presence of MFLF team members, learning from people and meeting with the community, as they conducted socio-economic surveys of every household and ground surveys.
- Generation of additional income for families allowed women to work close to their home and children to go to school, ending human trafficking and child labor in DT.
Method of monitoring environmental and peace impacts
Household surveys, natural resource surveys, and other tools have provided disaggregated data for monitoring and evaluation.
DTDP has come a long way from its origin as an Alternative Development project, and is now a Sustainable Alternative Livelihood Development project that aims to free the ethnic hill tribes from poverty, 2017. Credit: Mae Fah Luang Foundation.
but if there is no Doi Tung Development Project,
then I will not live here.
I have wished to plant forests
for over 10 years now.” Princess Mother, 1988 – 2017. Credit: Mae Fah Luang Foundation.