Thung yai Naresuan West Wildlife Sanctuary
Kanchanaburi Province
Thailand
Karen case study
Karen represents the largest indigenous group in Thailand by number of the population included in the cluster. They comprise four distinctive subgroups: Sgaw, Pwo, Kayah, and Toungthu. The term Karen (pronounced Ga-Riang in the Thai language) has been accepted as official by the government and hence used as a general term that is used and understood by the public. However, the Karen people called and identified themselves by the subgroups listed above.
The two villages subject of our research study are located in the lands of residence of the Pwo people in the Kanchanaburi province. According to the Karen Linguistics Project (2012), the province is the fourth-largest settlement of the Karen people in the Kingdom of Thailand. Deepadung and Khammuang (1997) assumed that the Pwo Karen moved from China and came to live in Thailand in the 13th century.
Communities
The Pwo people in Laiwo subdistrict (Sangkhlaburi district, Kanchanaburi province) sustain their traditional livelihood in distinctively unique ways. Their sustainable circular shifting farming practices, rituals, and beliefs are intimately linked with nature and remain still strong today. Their traditional livelihood and food systems are an essential support for the Pwo families and communities which is also reflected in their culture including the way the people dress and their music and rituals.
Two out of six villages in the Pwo community are object of research in RISE: the Sanephong and Koh Sadueng villages. Although both villages are just about 50 km apart, they have distinctive characteristics. Sanephong village is larger (1157 censored residents compared to 361 of Koh Sadueng) and the community livelihood is in a relatively stronger and more advanced socioeconomic transition as can be easily observed by the type of housing and infrastructure development including roads and mobile phone-based communication. These differences offer an interesting natural setting in which to explore the commonalities and differences of the effects of climate change on traditional food systems, their socioecological repercussions and adaptation options between the two communities.
Natural Environment
The two studied communities are located within the Tanowsri mountain range that forms in this area a natural divide between Myanmar and Thailand comprised by small hills and narrow valleys with an elevation range of 0-1,000 meters higher above sea level. The region, under the strong influence of the southwest monsoon that brings over 80% of the 2,000-2,400 mm of the annual rainfall, has three distinctive seasons: a hot, wet season runs from May to October followed by a cool, dry season between November and January, and a final hot, dry season from February to April. The area functions as a watershed forest of the Kwai Noi River, which flows through the two study communities.
The natural area around the villages exhibits a vast area of thick and well-preserved mature forest, including evergreen and mixed deciduous forest, that is home to abundant and diverse flora and fauna that includes several rare and endangered species. The area was declared a wildlife sanctuary of the west Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in 2517 B.E. (1974) and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2535 B.E. (1991).
Regarding contemporary local changes in climatic conditions, an exhaustive analysis of weather station data across Thailand reported strong increases in mean (~0.35 °C/decade) and maximum (~0.6 °C/decade) temperatures over 1976-2006 for a weather station in the Kanchanaburi province close to where our two case study Karen villages are located (Atsamon et al. 2011). The same study reports the central region of the country, including the Kanchanaburi province, having significant increases in temperature extremes over the same period with both the annual number of warm days/nights (daily maximum or daily minimum temperature above its 90th percentile) increasing by 3.4/4.1 days per decade and individual warm spells becoming longer (4 days/decade). Meanwhile, changes in precipitation trends for the central region are less conclusive. Analysing historical (1955-2014) precipitation records across the country, Limsakul and Singhruck (2016) show a tendency towards less but more intense precipitation events in most regions of the country, including the central region, especially during the summer monsoon season. These changes are in turn related to increases in flash floods.
Projected regional trends follow a pattern of further warming over the course of the century and weak increases in precipitation, the latter subject to significantly more uncertainty. The figure below shows the (left) multi-model ensemble mean monthly temperature anomaly projected for the mid-century (2040-2059) relative to the baseline reference period of 1995-2014, and (right) the mean annual temperature anomaly by decades from 1951-1960 to 2091-2100 relative to the same reference period for the Kanchanaburi province. The lower panels present the same information but for the total monthly (left) and annual (right) precipitation. Projections are given for two contrasting SSP-RCP scenarios to give a sense of the wide range of possible future outcomes depending on the greenhouse gas emissions scenarios and climate policies followed. Figure generated using the World Bank's Climate Change Knowledge Portal.
Traditional foods
The natural abundance of wildlife in the forest provides a reliable and nutritious supply of food for the people of our two study communities that complements the staple crops grown in their farming fields, orchards, rice paddies and backyard gardens.
Previous research lead by one of our Thai team members (Chotiboriboon et al. 2009) documented the diversity of natural foods consumed by the Sanephong community to be as much as 387 varieties of plants and terrestrial and aquatic animals. In a later food diversity study, Kansuntisukmongkol et al. (2012) recorded over 200 food species among 3 villages in the Laiwo district (Sanepong, Koh Sadueng, and Kong Mong Ta) with a strong seasonal component. Families relied on 12-128 species during the rainy season, 10-162 species during the cold season, and 10-132 species during the hot season. The people had a large storage supply of rice to last for 11 months which indicated strong self-reliance on food supply. Traditional foods are nutritionally very important for these communities with fishes and dry nuts being an important source of protein, green vegetables of folate (natural form of vitamin B9) and dietary fibers, and fruits of fibers and vitamin C.
Rice cultivated in circular shifting plantations provides the main staple food among the people in both communities, who also grow a diverse variety of other edible plants in their farmlands. Premphund et al. (2016) found at least 40 types of crop species that yielded year-round food such as rice, chill pepper, sesame, taro, potato, pumpkin, and sour gourd. Rice grain and vegetable seeds were collected to use in the plantation of the upcoming year.
Besides wild foods and crops, local people also supplement their diets with vegetables, fishes, eggs, and seasoning products acquired from groceries as well as importing goods from external sources.
Local knowledge on food processing and preservation in these communities is rich and very important including the seasonal availability and complementary use of farming and natural foods, collection, processing and preservation of raw foods, and cooking practices. Different parts of plants and animals are prepared and cooked in multiple ways for different tastes and textures resulting in variety of dishes that satisfy all members of the families.
Traditional food also plays a significant cultural role in these communities from collection to consumption. Local people share their crops and cook dishes among friends, relatives, neighbors, and religious bodies. The sharing provides all year round nutritious food for the enjoyment and well-being of all members of the communities and opportunities for the members of the community to gather and socialize, keeping their customs and traditions through generations.
References
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Atsamon, L., S. Limjirakan, T. Sriburi, T. and B. Suttamanuswong. 2011. Trends in temperature and its extremes in Thailand. Thai Environmental Engineering Journal. 25. 9–16.
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Chotiboriboon, S., S. Tamachotipong, S. Sirisai, S. Dhanamitta, S.Smitasiri, C. Sappasuwan, P. Tantivatanasathien and P. Eg-kantrong. 2009. Chapter 8. Thailand: Food system and nutritional status of Indigenous children in a Karen community. In Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems: The Many Dimensions of Culture, Diversity and Environment for Nutrition and Health. H. Kuhnlein, B. Erasmus and D. Spigelski (Eds). Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE). pp. 159–183 (available here).
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Deepadung, S. and S. Khammuang. 1997. Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups in Thailand: Pwo Karen (In Thai). Research Institute for Languages and Cultures for Rural Development.
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Kansuntisukmongkol, K. et al. (2012). Community-based food security management: the analysis of communal management of seasonally flooded forest in the northeast and mixed evergreen and deciduous seasonal forest in the west using driver-pressure-state-impact-response model. Final report (In Thai).
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Limsakul, A. and P. Singhruck. 2016. Long-term trends and variability of total and extreme precipitation in Thailand. Atmospheric Research, 169: 301-331.
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Premphund, F., J. Popangpoum, S. Popangpoum, and J. Piengngoke. 2016. The wisdom of the Karen: Kanchanaburi (In Thai). The Office of Arts and Cultures. Kanchanaburi Rajabhat University.
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Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre. (n.d.). Ethnic groups in Thailand (online resource available here).
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The Natural World Heritage Sub-division, Division of Foreign Affairs Department of National Park Wildlife and Plant Conservation.Thungyai - Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuaries http://naturalworldheritage.dnp.go.th/
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The Thailand Research Fund. (2012). Karen Linguistics Project. Stories from the Thai-Burmese Border: Intellectual Sparks for Sustainable Development (available here).
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Thai World Heritage Information Centre. Thungyai - Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuaries (online resource available here).