Changing climate demands a change in thinking

To address this, international experts held a discussion on how local communities are adapting to climate change through community forestry.

The event, entitled ‘Adapting to climate change – how can we foster innovative ideas that work?’ was co-organised by RECOFTC – The Centre for People and Forests, and the Royal Forest Department of Thailand and was part of the third Dr Somsak Sukwong public lecture series held at Kasetsart University on September 23.

Throughout Asia and the Pacific region, local communities are innovating ways to adapt to the impact of climate change. Vatcharin Panasan, village chief of Pang Yang community forest in Nan province, said an increase in flooding and landslides in the area began about 10 years ago, resulting in damaged farmland and property.

The villagers began planting trees and developing agro-forestry on former farmland, which both helped ensure the community’s food supply and helped prevent future landslides. This modification in traditional cultivation practices is one example of how local communities are adapting to the changing climate.

But making the change wasn’t easy. “We didn’t have the finances for tools to make these changes,” said  Vatcharin. “But we survived. Because we live in a protected area we have no land titles or land rights. Without these rights, we aren’t able to make more changes to our land to help us to further adapt to climate problems.”

Dr Somsak Sukwong, founder and former executive director of RECOFTC said local communities play a crucial and core role through innovative practices like terracing and agro-forestry to help themselves in a way that nobody else can help them. He added that projects initiated by the Royal Forest Department help foster the innovative ideas initiated by local communities.

“To support these local communities to adapt to the impact of climate change, we are actively promoting better collaboration between villagers and the forest department and other departments,” said Theerapat Prayurasiddhi, director general of the Royal Forest Department.

Although Thailand has more than 9,000 community forests, Somying Soontornwong of RECOFTC, said that over 1,000 forest villages lacked tenure rights to their land. “In Thailand there is a big problem with land rights,” Somying said. “If villagers are 

insecure on their land, how can they invest for adaptation?”

“Local people are vulnerable to the severe impact of climate change,” said Dr Doris Capistrano, board chairperson of RECOFTC. “Widespread implementation of community forestry offers a way to strengthen national and regional resilience to climate change, while supporting local livelihoods from forests, improving ecosystem functions, increasing food security, and reducing disaster risks.”