PERSPECTIVES OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES ON NATURE CONSERVATION IN TAMAN NEGARA PAHANG, MALAYSIA AND KHAO YAI NATIONAL PARK, THAILAND
TEH KATE YNG
UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
2017 PERSPECTIVES OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES ON NATURE CONSERVATION IN TAMAN NEGARA PAHANG, MALAYSIA AND KHAO YAI NATIONAL PARK, THAILAND
by
TEH KATE YNG
Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
December 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express sincere appreciation to my main supervisor, Dr. Nik Norma
Nik Hasan, who has provided excellent guidance, valuable comments and ideas at every stage of my thesis writing. I owe my deepest thanks and gratitude to her. In addition, I am grateful to my co-supervisor, Dr. Mahyuddin bin Ahmad for his proficient supervision in making this study a success. Without their assistance and support, this thesis would not be completed.
I would also like to acknowledge with thanks the respondents in Malaysia and
Thailand who have spent their precious time to involve in all interview sessions of this research. I am highly grateful to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks
(DWNP) and the Department of Orang Asli Development (JAKOA) in Malaysia, the
National Park, the Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (NPD) in Thailand for their help, cooperation and support in conducting my fieldwork smoothly.
I am fortunate to have good friends in Malaysia and Thailand who helped me by offering their time and opinions all the way through this long journey. Finally, I am most thankful to my family members for their love and support. Special thanks to my husband, Mr. Somkiat Leewongcharoen for his continuous encouragement throughout my difficult time in completing my study.
ii TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgement …………………………….…….…..….…………...…………...ii
Table of Contents ………………………………………….………...……………....iii
List of Tables ………………………………………………………….....……….....ix
List of Figures …………………………………………………………………...... x
List of Abbreviations ………………………………………………..……….....….xiii
Abstrak ………………………………………………………………...……...... ….xv
Abstract………………………………………………………………………..…...xvii
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview ……………………………… …………………….....…………....1
1.2 Problem Statements ……………………………..…………….………...….10
1.3 Research Questions …………………………………………….……...……14
1.4 Research Objectives …………………………..…..………………..…….…14
1.5 Conceptualisations ……………………………………………………….....15
1.6 Significance of the Study ………………………………………..………….20
1.7 Limitations of the Study……………………………………………….…….22
1.8 Thesis Outline …………………………………………..………….……….23
CHAPTER 2 - THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 Social Exchange Theory …………………………………..…………….….25
2.2 Conflict Theory …………………………………………..……………...….33
2.3 Perspective-taking Paradigm in Communication ………………………..….41
iii CHAPTER 3 - LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 Nature and Nature Conservation: A Contested Theme……………………...49
3.2 History of Nature Conservation Approaches ……………………...... …….54
3.3 National Parks, Local Communities and the Conflicts ……………….…….62
3.4 Crisis Management in National Parks ……………………………...…….....76
3.5 Previous Studies on Local Communities’ Perspectives on
Nature Conservation ……………………………………...... …..81
3.6 Communication, Conflicts and Nature Conservation………………...….….89
CHAPTER 4 - METHODOLOGY
4.1 Study Areas ……………………………..……………………………..……96
4.1.1 Study area 1: Taman Negara Pahang, Kuala Tahan Malaysia …...... 96
4.1.2 Study area 2: Khao Yai National Park, Thailand …….…...... …..99
4.2 Research Design and Method …………………...………………………...101
4.2.1 Focus group discussions …………………………………………..104
4.2.2 In-depth interviews …………………………………………...…...105
4.2.3 Observations …………………………………….………………..107
4.3 Pre-test Results ………………………………………………………..…...108
4.4 Sampling Procedures ……………………………………………...…..…..110
4.4.1 Identify the target population ………………………………...... 110
4.4.2 Sample selection ………………………….………………..……...112
4.5 Data Collection ………………………………………..…………....……..113
4.5.1 Focus group discussions …………………………..……….……...113
4.5.2 In-depth interviews ………………………………….……...... …...117
4.5.3 Observations …………………………………...………….…...….122
iv 4.5.4 Data recording ………………………………………...…………...122
4.6 Data Analysis ……………………………………….…………..….……...123
4.6.1 Data transcription ………………………….……………...... ……..123
4.6.2 Footing …………………………………………………………….123
4.6.3 Data reduction ………………………………………………...…...124
4.6.4 Thematic analysis ………………………………………….….…...124
4.6.5 Narrative analysis ……………………………………………...…..125
4.6.6 Analysis of observational data ……………………………...……..128
CHAPTER 5 - FINDINGS: TAMAN NEGARA PAHANG, MALAYSIA
5.1 Focus Group Discussions ……………………………………………...... 130
5.1.1 Themes of local communities’ perspectives on
nature conservation ….....………………………………………….132
5.1.1(a) Economic values …………………………………...……..132
5.1.1(b) National heritage ……………………………………..…..133
5.1.1(c) Sense of belonging ……………………………….....…....134
5.1.1(d) Place of survival ……………………………………..…...135
5.1.1(e) Aboriginal rights …………………………………...….….138
5.1.2 Themes of factors contributing to positive perspectives …………..139
5.1.2(a) Income and employment opportunities …………….…….140
5.1.2(b) Appreciation of nature………………………….....…..…..142
5.1.2(c) Local transportation and infrastructure facilities……...…..144
5.1.2(d) Local knowledge and awareness of park ……………...... 145
5.1.2(e) Community survival, cultures and traditions ………...... …149
5.1.2(f) Relationship with park management ………………....…...153
v 5.1.2(g) Other socio-cultural benefits………………………....…...155
5.1.3 Themes of factors contributing to negative perspectives ……...…..156
5.1.3(a) Resource conflict between the park management
and Batek ………………………..………………………....156
5.1.3(b) High cost of living ……….………..……………………...157
5.2 In-depth Interviews and Observations …………………………....….…....158
5.2.1 Local incomes and livelihoods ………………………..………..….160
5.2.2 Local infrastructure and culture …………………..……..…..….....163
5.2.3 Survival, cultures, traditions and beliefs of Batek ……….....……..168
5.2.4 Community environmental knowledge and awareness ………...….174
5.2.5 Communication and relationship with park management …...... ….177
CHAPTER 6 - FINDINGS: KHAO YAI NATIONAL PARK, THAILAND
6.1 Focus Group Discussions ………………………………………...……...... 184
6.1.1 Themes of local communities’ perspectives on
nature conservation ……..…….………………………………..….186
6.1.1(a) Sense of belonging ……………………………………….186
6.1.1(b) Aesthetic values …………………………………….…….187
6.1.1 (c) Economic pressures …………………………………..….188
6.1.2 Themes of factors contributing to positive perspectives …………. 189
6.1.2(a) Appreciation of nature …………...…….…...... ……190
6.1.2(b) Income and employment opportunities …….……..……...190
6.1.2(c) Local transportation and infrastructure facilities…...……..192
6.1.2(d) Promotes of cultural exchange……….……..…...……...... 193
6.1.2(e) Local knowledge and awareness of park …………...... ….194
vi 6.1.2(f) Community cultures and traditions ……….……….....…...198
6.1.2(g) Good relationship with park management ………….…....199
6.1.3 Themes of factors contributing to negative perspectives ………….201
6.1.3(a) Resource conflict due to restriction for accessing forest
resources …………………………………………...…....202
6.1.3(b) Human-wildlife conflict…………………….………...... 202
6.1.3(c) High cost of living …………………………….………….204
6.1.3(d) Loss of lands to outsiders ……………………...... …...205
6.1.3(e) Negative environmental problems ……………..…...... …..206
6.1.3(f) Poor relationship with park management ………..……….207
6.2 In-depth Interviews and Observations ……………………………….…....209
6.2.1 Local livelihoods and incomes ………………………..………..….211
6.2.2 Local infrastructure and culture …………………….…….……….220
6.2.3 Degradation of local weather and natural environment …...... 223
6.2.4 Community environmental knowledge and awareness ………...….227
6.2.5 Rituals and beliefs about the forest …………….……………...…..230
6.2.6 Communication and relationship with park management ……..….234
CHAPTER 7 - DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
7.1 Discussion ……………………………………………………………..…..243
7.2 Implication to Social Exchange Theory …………………………...... …….269
7.3 Conclusion …………………………………………………………..…….274
7.4 Directions for Future Research ………………………………..……..…....278
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………….…..281
APPENDICES
vii LIST OF PUBLICATION
viii LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 3.1 The IUCN protected areas management categories 59
(World Conservation Union, 1994)
Table 4.1 Examples of the unusable and new questions construction 110
after pre-test
Table 4.2 The breakdown of the participants for focus group discussions 116
in Malaysia and Thailand
Table 4.3 The semi-structured questions used for focus group discussions 117
Table 4.4 The breakdown of the respondents for in-depth interviews in 119
Malaysia and Thailand
Table 4.5 The semi-structure questions used for in-depth interviews 120
adapted from Labov’s (1982) evaluation model of narrative
ix LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 2.1 Theory of conflict behaviour (Bartos & Wehr, 2002) 39
Figure 2.2 Proposed conceptual framework for this study adapted 46
from the social exchange theory, conflict theory and
perspective-taking paradigm in communication
Figure 4.1 Research design based on Creswell’s (2003) qualitative 103
research methods
Figure 5.1 Emerging themes of local communities’ perspectives on nature 132
conservation
Figure 5.2 Emerging themes of factors contributing to positive perspectives 139
Figure 5.3 Emerging themes of factors contributing to negative perspectives 156
Figure 5.4 Emerging themes of local communities’ perspectives on nature 159
conservation, contributing factors, and park-people interaction
and communication approaches
Figure 5.5 Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “local incomes and 160
livelihoods”
Figure 5.6 Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “local infrastructure 163
and culture”
Figure 5.7 Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “survival, cultures, 168
traditions and beliefs of Batek”
Figure 5.8 Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “community 174
environmental knowledge and awareness”
Figure 5.9 Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “communication 177
and relationship with park management”
x Figure 5.10 Findings of focus group discussions, in-depth interviews 183
and observations in Taman Negara Pahang, Malaysia
Figure 6.1 Emerging themes of local communities’ perspectives on nature 186
conservation
Figure 6.2 Emerging themes of factors contributing to positive perspectives 189
Figure 6.3 Emerging themes of factors contributing to negative perspectives 201
Figure 6.4 Emerging themes of local communities’ perspectives on nature 210
conservation, contributing factors, and park-people interaction
and communication approaches
Figure 6.5 Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “local livelihoods 211
and incomes”
Figure 6.6 Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “local infrastructure 220
and culture”
Figure 6.7 Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “degradation of 223
local weather and natural environment”
Figure 6.8 Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “community 227
environmental knowledge and awareness”
Figure 6.9 Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “rituals and 230
beliefs about the forest”
Figure 6.10 Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “communication 234
and relationship with park management”
Figure 6.11 Findings of focus group discussions, in-depth interviews 242
and observations in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand
Figure 7.1 Proposed strategic communication framework for 267
conservation activities based on local communities’
xi perspectives on nature conservation in Malaysia
Figure 7.2 Proposed strategic communication framework for 268
conservation activities based on local communities’
perspectives on nature conservation in Thailand
Figure 7.3 Proposed framework of local communities’ perspectives on 272
nature conservation in Malaysia based on Social Exchange
Theory
Figure 7.4 Proposed framework of local communities’ perspectives on 273
nature conservation in Thailand based on Social Exchange
Theory
xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
CBD Convention on Biological Diversity
CEPA Communication, Education and Public Awareness
DWNP Department of Wildlife and National Parks
FELCRA Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority
ILO International Labour Organisation
IUCN World Conservation Union
JAKOA Department of Orang Asli Development
JKKK Village Development and Security Committee
JNPC Johor National Park Corporation
MIDAS Mekhong International Development Associations
MOAC Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
NBSAP National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans
NGOs Non-Governmental Organisations
NPD National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department
NRE Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
RFD Royal Forest Department
UN United Nations
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
WCED World Commission on Environment and Development
WCMC World Conservation Monitoring Centre
WCPA World Commission on Protected Area
xiii WTO World Tourism Organisation
WWF Worldwide Fun for Nature
xiv PERSPEKTIF KOMUNITI TEMPATAN TERHADAP PEMULIHARAAN
ALAM SELITAR DI TAMAN NEGARA PAHANG, MALAYSIA DAN
TAMAN NEGARA KHAO YAI, THAILAND
ABSTRAK
Kajian perbandingan ini dijalankan untuk menyelidik perspektif komuniti tempatan terhadap pemuliharaan alam sekitar di Taman Negara Pahang, Malaysia dan Taman Negara Khao Yai, Thailand. Melalui perbandingan antara dua negara yang berbeza dari segi agama, kebudayaan dan tradisi, kajian ini bertujuan untuk meneroka faktor yang mempengaruhi perspektif masyarakat tempatan terhadap aktiviti pemuliharaan di sekeliling Kuala Tahan dan Khao Yai. Permasalahaan kajian ini telah mengenalpasti konflik antara taman negara dengan orang tempatan dalam pengurusan taman negara adalah satu cabaran utama dalam usaha pemuliharaan.
Namun kajian mengenai pemuliharaan alam sekitar, orang tempatan dan komunikasi strategi di Malaysia and Thailand masih terlalu kecil. Justeru, sumbangan tesis ini adalah untuk merapatkan jurang kajian melalui penerokaan pendekatan strategi interaksi dan komunikasi antara pengurusan taman negara dengan komuniti tempatan seterusnya mencadangkan satu rangka kerja komunikasi strategi bagi kedua-dua taman negara dalam mencapai matlamat pemuliharaan dan menyelesaikan konflik.
Kajian ini menggunakan kaedah penyelidikan kualitatif iaitu perbincangan kumpulan fokus, temu-bual secara mendalam dan pemerhatian bagi mencapai objektif. Secara umum, majoriti responden di Malaysia dan Thailand mempunyai perspektif positif dan menyokong penubuhan taman negara. Penemuan dari kedua-dua taman negara menunjukkan persamaan dari segi keputusan faktor positif dalam mempengaruhi perspektif iaitu: pendapatan dan peluang pekerjaan, penghargaan terhadap alam
xv semula jadi, peningkatan pengangkutan dan infrastruktur tempatan, galakan pertukaran kebudayaan, manfaat sosio-budaya, pengetahuan dan kesedaran tempatan, kelangsungan hidup komuniti, kebudayaan dan tradisi komuniti, dan hubungan baik antara kakitangan taman negara dengan penduduk tempatan. Walaubagaimanapun, hasil kajian juga menunjukkan beberapa perbezaan antara Thailand dengan Malaysia.
Antaranya faktor yang mempengaruhi perspektif negatif dalam kalangan responden
Thai adalah berdasarkan konflik sumber alam, konflik antara binatang liar dengan orang tempatan, hubungan antara komuniti tempatan dengan kakitangan taman negara terjejas akibat kegagalan usaha mendapatkan ganti rugi, dan kehilangan tanah nenek moyang kepada orang luar. Di Malaysia, konflik yang wujud antara pengurusan taman negara dengan orang asli, Batek Negrito, adalah disebabkan oleh komuniti penduduk asal ini dilarang daripada memburu secara komersial dan juga penjualan sumber taman negara. Hasil analisis kajian menunjukkan bahawa pendekatan pengurusan dan komunikasi Taman Negara Khao Yai adalah berdasarkan sistem atas-bawah dengan penyertaan terhad daripada orang tempatan. Berbeza dengan Malaysia, tradisi dan kebudayaan di Thailand mengutamakan ketua kampung yang berkhidmat sebagai orang tengah dalam proses komunikasi antara taman negara dengan komuniti tempatan. Kajian ini mencadangkan penyertaan komuniti tempatan secara meluas dalam pengurusan taman negara sebagai strategi untuk komunikasi efektif bagi mendapat sokongan mereka dalam mencapai matlamat pemuliharaan serta dalam usaha menguruskan pelbagai jenis konflik.
xvi PERSPECTIVES OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES ON NATURE
CONSERVATION IN TAMAN NEGARA PAHANG, MALAYSIA AND
KHAO YAI NATIONAL PARK, THAILAND
ABSTRACT
This comparative study examines local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation in Taman Negara Pahang, Malaysia and Khao Yai National Park,
Thailand. By comparing two different countries with the differences in religions, cultures and traditions, this study also seeks to discover the contributing factors that shape the local people’s views on conservation activities surrounding Kuala Tahan and Khao Yai. The problem statements of this research have acknowledged the park- people conflicts as the key challenges to effective park management. Moreover, very little work has been documented by the past researchers about the nature conservation, local people and communication strategies in Malaysia and Thailand.
Therefore, this thesis contributes to fill in the gap by exploring the park-people interaction and communication approaches in order to propose a strategic communication framework for both national parks to achieve conservation goals and to solve the conflicts. The study employed qualitative research methods through focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and observations. Overall, majority of the respondents in Malaysia and Thailand expressed positive perspectives and supportive attitudes towards the park establishment. Findings in both national parks showed similar results for factors that contribute to positive perspectives included: income and employment opportunities, appreciation of nature, improves of local transportation and infrastructure, promotes of cultural exchange, socio-cultural benefits, local knowledge and awareness of park, community survival, community
xvii cultures and traditions, and good park-people relationship. However, the outcomes also revealed some differences between Thailand and Malaysia. Factors that contribute to negative perspectives among the Thai respondents were mainly due to resource conflict, human-wildlife conflict, challenges in getting the compensation have resulted in poor park-people relationship, and loss of ancestral lands to outsiders. In Malaysia, a conflict was discovered between the park management and the indigenous people, Batek Negrito, because the aboriginal community were prohibited from commercial hunting and selling the park resources. The study analysis discovered the management and communication approach of the Khao Yai
National Park is practicing a top-down system with limited participation of local people. Unlike Malaysia, the traditions and cultures in Thailand highlight the importance of their village headmen to serve as mediators in communication process between the park management and local communities. Hence, the study suggests greater inclusion of local communities in management should be a key strategy of effective communication in order to win the local support for achieving conservation effectiveness and managing different kinds of park-people conflicts.
xviii CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview
The purpose of this thesis is to contribute towards a profound understanding of local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation in the oldest national parks of two countries, Malaysia and Thailand. A perspective study is very important in any nature conservation activities because it shows the kind of interaction and communication that people have to experience within the national park which subsequently determines their support for conservation efforts (Ormsby & Kaplin,
2005; Muhumuza & Balkwill, 2013). Hence, assessing local residents’ perspectives by taking into account their needs and opinions should become a management priority of the national parks to identify the accurate conservation strategies
(Allendorf, Smith & Anderson, 2007) while ironically becomes the main objective of this study.
This research takes a comparative view, and focuses on exploring both similarities and differences in local people’ support for the national park establishment between
Malaysia and Thailand. I also aim to discover the underlying factors that shape their perspectives of nature conservation attempts. Drawing on a debate in comparative basis, this study argues on how communities’ perceptions are influenced by different factors due to different backgrounds of the countries, for example the differences in religions, cultures and traditions. Therefore, this section provides a brief overview of
1 the similar and dissimilar attributes of two countries that make them unique for this research.
Both Malaysia and Thailand are located in the equatorial region which falls in the tropical wet and climate zone with abundant rainfall (Association of Southeast Asian
Nations Information Centre, 2015). Thus, they undergo quite a similar climate, geographical and ecological characteristics, vegetation and wildlife species. Malaysia has a hot and humid tropical climate whereby the rich and diverse tropical rainforests have been recognised internationally as a depository of mega-diversity of both flora and fauna (Lee & Krishnapillay, 2004). On the other hand, Thailand’s climate is tropical and largely determined by the monsoons, where the temperature is high and relatively uniform throughout the year in all regions (Ridd et al., 2011).
Meanwhile, both countries also have some differences that make them worthy for thoughtful attention, such as through religion and culture. Previous studies have examined the impact of religious faith on public’s views and attitudes to environmental issues whereby many researchers are increasingly realised on the important role of the religion and culture (Hunter & Toney, 2005; Horenstein, 2012;
Hope & Jones, 2014). The finding is somewhat germane because religion acts as an important source of morals and values for many people that influence their environmental attitudes and behaviours (Horenstein, 2012).
As an overview, Thai culture is deeply influenced by religion with nearly 94 per cent of the country populations are practicing Buddhism. Islam accounts of approximately five per cent while Christianity records less than one per cent (Hays, 2008). Often
2 referred to as “The Land of Buddhism”, Thailand’s constitution specifies that their
King must be a Buddhist and the Guardian of Buddhism. Hence, to the Thai people as a whole, Buddhism strengthens their culture and philosophy with specific control on the art and literature, ethics and morality where significance sight can be soon from the majority of their folkways and festivals (Kusalasaya, 2005).
In Malaysia, on the other hand, the country’s religious diversity presents a basic cultural characteristic of the local society. Being a multi-religious nation, the devotees of each religion in the country heavily reflect the multi-cultural characters of the population (Mokhlis, 2006). Islam is the most widely professed religion in
Malaysia with the proportion of 61.3 per cent. The followers of other religions are
Buddhism at 19.8 per cent, Christianity at 9.2 per cent, Hinduism at 6.3 per cent, and
Confucianism, Taoism, tribal, folk or other traditional Chinese religion stand at 1.3 per cent (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2015). It has also been reported in the statistics that 100 per cent of Malays in Malaysia are Muslims. Islam has played a major role in the lives of Malays, shaping various aspects of Malay ethnic identity and their culture as well.
Even though Malaysia is a multiracial country with more than half of its people are
Muslims, while Buddhists are the largest religious group in Thailand, it could also be contended that both residents of Malaysia and Thailand are familiar with these two world’s major religions. The reason is that there are significant numbers of adherents of each religion in both countries. In Malaysia, for example, Buddhism is the second largest religion professed after Islam, widely practised by the Malaysian Chinese community (Mokhlis, 2006). This is also the religion of Thais who are the
3 practitioners of Theravada Buddhism. Conversely, Islam is also the Thailand’s second largest religion and strongly represented in the southern provinces of Satun,
Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. Thus, this has reflected the sharing cultural heritage between Malaysia and the Thailand’s southernmost provinces.
The Muslim community in Thailand is divided into two categories, the Malays and non-Malays. The ethnic Malays form the majority group, at nearly 80 per cent. In this case, Aphornsuvan (2003) states that the Thai-Muslims of Southern Thailand belong to the Malay world. Meanwhile, the other 20 per cent of the Muslim populations are scattered around especially in the central region. The central
Muslims are different from those of the South, as they tend to portray themselves as
Thai citizens. In relation, the southern Muslims prefer to be called with the term
“Malay-Muslims”, instead of Thai-Muslims because the word “Thai” is meant by
“Buddhism” (Aphornsuvan, 2003). Politically, therefore, the efforts to draw southern
Malay-Muslims into the nations’ mainly Thai-Buddhist culture and politics have been reportedly unsuccessful (Aphornsuvan, 2003; Chalk, 2008). As argued earlier by Hope and Jones (2014), religious beliefs have moulded the concepts of relationship between humans and environment, whereby the scholars claim that religion has been proven to influence views and attitudes towards environmental and conservation issues among the general public. In order to provide deeper insight into the debate, this study helps to explore how religious beliefs in Malaysia and Thailand might contribute to form locals’ perspectives on nature conservation activities.
As the largest economic powerhouses in the Southeast Asia region, Malaysia and
Thailand feel the pinch of the tensions of balance between the socio-economic
4 developments for the betterment of society in order to overcome the collapse of diverse biodiversity. Thailand has been transforming from a traditional agricultural country to an industrial development country, but at the same time it has also led to serious environmental problems that threaten the survival of Thai people (Pongloe,
Wijaya & Mindarti, 2015). On the other hand, human activity of deforestation which is driven primarily by agricultural expansion, population growth and illegal logging has manifested various problems of pollutions and ecological degradation in
Malaysia. These catastrophes include cases like landslides at Gua Tempurung and
North-South Highway (2004), flood in Segamat (2007), and recently flash floods and landslides at Cameron Highlands (2014) and Pantai Remis (2015), while the haze that spread to Malaysia, Singapore, south of Thailand and Philippines (2015) have caused a significant deterioration in air quality.
The shared environmental degradation problems have been an enormous challenge for Malaysia and Thai government every year as the mishaps have endangered the people’s quality of life (Hadi, 2009; Xu, 2012). In the context of addressing the environmental issues and concerns, national concerted initiatives on nature conservation have been taken by the governments of both countries to protect natural resources, as well as their living habitats. As a result, many tropical forests in
Malaysia and Thailand have been nominated to become the national parks in the beginning of 20th century.
According to the protected areas management categories proposed by the World
Conservation Union (IUCN), the national parks which is listed under Category II are the most extensive and most restrictive type of protected areas (West & Brechin,
5 1991; Muhumuza & Balkwill, 2013) to maintain the most valuable, delicate and threatened habitats, species and landscapes (Hamin, 2002). In most developing countries, national park acts as a cornerstone for nature conservation. More precisely, a national park is a nature park, operated for conservation purposes as perceived by surrounding communities. Hence, in this study of locals’ perspectives, the term
“national park” largely refers to “nature conservation”.
In addition to its important role in nature conservation, the other reason of national park establishment is also aimed to document the nation’s natural history. It has been highlighted by Nynas (2004) that the concept of the earliest national parks is based on an idea of a national heritage with the key objective of documenting the nation’s natural history. It represents a strong symbol of a nation’s understanding of the actual root, by symbolising the own characteristics and authenticity. Therefore, establishing a national park can also be interpreted as a nation’s maintenance of an image that emphasise pure nature, as well as their culture. For example, with an area of 4343 square kilometres, Taman Negara National Park in Peninsular Malaysia conserves more than 3000 species of flowering plants, 200 species of pteridophytes and a host of wildlife species (Latiff, 1996). Additionally, the park also serves as a symbol of national identity, as it was estimated to be 130 million years old and considered to be one of the oldest tropical rainforests in the world.
Besides, the rationale of choosing the national parks as the focus of this study is because they represent an entirely close, specific and complex relationship between human and natural environment. In general, Macleod (2001) views national parks as protective controllers or defenders of resources. They manifest a natural context of
6 human desire under a culturally-determined sentiment whereas they illustrate a relationship of power between human and nature, as well as between differing social groups. Therefore, the study of national parks in uncertain and various situations helps us to gain better understanding on the fundamental issues in environmental conservation, social development, human behaviour and cultural interpretation of nature.
Goh’s research (2007) in Kinabalu Park, Malaysia, finds that there was not only a growth in the number of protected areas, being witnessed over the past few decades since 1960s, but also the evolution and diversification of the role played by them.
There are two main conservation concepts that have influenced the management policy of the national parks: traditional and contemporary conservation. The traditional conservation movement was first initiated through the setting of human as a threat to nature in order to preserve natural resources which are pure, pristine, untouched and desirable (Castree, 2001; Adams & Hutton, 2007). This idea of separating human activities from nature was proliferated from nineteenth to twentieth century and has instigated a clear conceptual division between natural environment and human.
Unfortunately, it has resulted to a variety of negative consequences and park-people conflicts because the rights of local people who are traditionally depending on the forest resources to sustain their living, have been either denied or restricted (Wells,
1992; Robert & Martin, 2003; Crawford, 2012; Mamo, 2015). Concerning the dilemma between the protection of natural resources and human rights, there are different points of view among the ecological conservation advocates and social
7 scientists. On one hand, the ecological conservationists consider the local people’s activities as the causes of biodiversity degradation and support the need for strict park management. On the other hand, many social scientists particularly in the discipline of sustainable development criticise the exclusion of human activities and promote social equity in conservation (Champbell, 2005; Adams & Hutton, 2007), since the local residents have been utilising forest resources in relation with their cultures and traditional ways of life.
In response to these challenges, there has been a shift from traditional to a new conservation concept to underline the integration between the park management and participation of local communities towards nature conservation and decision-making activities (Poudel, 2002). Park-people conflicts resulted from the separation of natural resources and human influence have led to a growing attention from the stakeholders since the national parks should play a role in sustaining local communities.
Previous research works have argued the importance of examining the perspectives of local communities living in and around national parks to achieve the effectiveness of nature conservation programmes over the long-term, especially in developing countries (Allendorf, 2007; Triguero-Mas et al., 2010; Mamo, 2015). This is because understanding the local people’s attitudes on nature conservation is vital in order to overcome the park-people conflicts (Webber et al., 2007). In Southeast Asian countries, park-people conflicts are often linked to crop damages by wild animals
(Sifuna, 2010; Karanth & Nepal, 2012; Lamsal, 2012), restriction of access to traditionally used forest resources (Heinen & Shrivastava, 2009), unequal land
8 allocation (Panusittikorn & Prato, 2001), and lack of community involvement in the decision-making processes (Silori, 2007). All these problems may contribute to poor relationship between national park management and the surrounding communities as well as inflicting more negative attitudes towards nature conservation amongst the local people.
In order to solve the park-people conflicts and improve their mutual relationship, an effective communication between all the stakeholders within the community comprising the government organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and local villagers is absolutely essential and momentous. The main reason lies on the fact that the information and effective communication may assist in the development of a good relationship between the regulatory network and its environment, and may also facilitate in influencing the wider environment by changing the attitudes in the various target groups. In short, communication strategy is important to educate the society to change their perspectives and attitudes for the sake of the environmental conservation (World Conservation Union, 2007; Jacobson,
2009).
I am interested in conducting a comparative study to examine if the different backgrounds of the countries could also lead to nature conservation as it is perceived in different ways by the local communities. This thesis also seeks to fill in the gaps of the existing literature by identifying park challenges, particularly in finding out the conflicts between the national park management and the local villagers. Furthermore, this research will look at the park-people relationship and the communication approach between the two parties in order to suggest effective communication
9 strategies specifically in nature conservation activities that include the ability to manage different kind of conflicts. It will serve as a useful tool in designing appropriate guidance and policy to address the needs and expectations of the local populations once the motivating factors that determine their perspectives on nature conservation have been successfully discovered.
1.2 Problem Statements
Despite the growing establishment of national parks has significantly reduced the rate of biodiversity loss, the park strategists have conspicuously failed in other realms. Many previous studies, conducted on threats of protected areas in Malaysia and Thailand, acknowledged that the key challenges for the implementation of the national parks in both countries entail few dimensions that consist of constraints on laws between the Federal and State governments (Mat Som, Mohamed & Yew, 2006;
Pakhriazad, Hasmadi & Aida, 2009), Federal budget cuts, visitor management and environmental impacts of tourism (Phumsathan, 2010; Zaiton, Aziz & Mohd Rusli,
2013), illegal logging and wildlife poaching (Panusittikorn & Prato, 2001) as well as conflicts with neighbouring communities (Yamuachi, 2005; Nasuchon, 2009).
Among the aforementioned threats, conflicts with the local people living within the national parks are found to be the greatest and most significant pressure that has inflicted the park management particularly in developing countries (Thapa, 2014), and ironically it offers a lacuna to be further explored in this study. This is because the national park and its surrounding communities are highly dependent on each other: On the side of local people, the national park has become a part of their life
10 economically and socio-culturally as they are relying on the park resources to sustain their cultures and traditional way of life. For the park management, however, the authority has failed to adopt appropriate policy to protect the park against traditional exploitation of natural resources (Bhusal, 2012).
Also, as claimed by Thapa (2014), the protected areas are the breeding ground of conflicts in almost every place. The established national parks are not free from conflicts with local people who inhabit the area, either inside the parks or in the buffer zones. Initially, the national parks were established in following the American model of park management whereby the park resources and wildlife are protected from human exploitation. The concept of separation between humankind and its natural environment is embodied in the IUCN (1975) definition of a national park:
Where one or several ecosystems are not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation, whose plants and animal species, geomorphological sites and habitats, are of special scientific, educative and recreative interest, or which contains a natural landscape of great beauty (IUCN, 1975).
There have been numerous cases which lead to arising conflicts between the park management and local people. Conflicts often occurred when interests and needs are incompatible due to restriction of access to cultural resources (Kathirithamby-Wells,
2005; Heinen & Shrivastava, 2009; Lamsal, 2012), displacement of people from their traditional lands without compensation, loss of crops and livestock due to wildlife damage that causes poverty and threats to human lives (Adams & Hutton, 2007;
Sifuna, 2010; Karanth & Nepal, 2011), disruption of local culture and economies by tourists (Hough, 1988), lack of communication between the park employees and
11 local residents (Ormsby & Kaplin, 2005), and limited community participation in natural resource management and decision-making (Silori, 2007; Abdul Aziz, 2009).
Therefore, this study will highlight the importance of understanding local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation in solving the park-people conflicts particularly in developing countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.
In Thailand, for example, there are diverse forest-related conflicts have been reported.
One example of conflicts deals with land rights issue which was happened in a national forest reserve in Buriram province of Thailand, namely Dong Yai, where the government had decided to allocate land and release the deteriorating forest to private sector for forest tree planting. About 300 out of 1297 families had to move out of the forest area without any compensation. 2000 villagers were against the authority and burnt down 20 rai of the forest and one nursery. Finally, on the charge of encroaching and destroying the forest reserve, a Buddhist monk and three village leaders were arrested and imprisoned under the National Forest Reserve Act 1964
(Yamauchi, 2005). Besides, unclear rights to forest resources and lands have also been reported in Kanchanaburi province, the west of Thailand. Interviews have been conducted with 50 participants regarding the conflicts between national park authorities and local communities. The results show that the underlying cause of the conflict is unclear and contested tenure (Phromlah, 2014).
All the conflicts mentioned above may contribute to poor relationship between park managers and the surrounding residents that will subsequently affect the effectiveness of park management. In other words, conservation success is often predicted on local support for nature conservation which is strongly influenced by
12 such perspectives of the impacts as experienced by the local communities (Bennett &
Dearden, 2014). Therefore, the greatest challenge of park establishment is to consider the perspectives and attitudes of the local people (Macleod, 2001; Walpole
& Goodwin, 2001), which is also the aim of this research. Moreover, examining local perspectives will also help to identify and resolve the park-people conflicts concurrently.
According to Ap (1992), perception implies a people’s knowledge or beliefs.
Meanwhile, Pickens (2005) sees attitude as a mind-set or a tendency to act in a particular way due to an individual’s personality and experience. In different words, perception is closely related and strongly influences the attitude (Pickens, 2005), beliefs and evaluation of outcomes (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). Wang et al. (2006), however, conclude that attitudes are not only built upon the perceptions and beliefs of reality, but they are closely related to other values and personal characteristics.
Based on this definition, researchers have recognised local people’s attitudes as not as simple as the reflections of their perceptions, but rather the results of the interaction between people’s perceptions and the factors that affect their attitudes
(Wang et al., 2006). Therefore, apart from evaluating the locals’ perspectives on nature conservation, this study is designed to explore what factors have influenced them, in order to present a tool for better understanding of why and how their attitudes are formed, whether they are willing to support or not the park conservation activities.
13 1.3 Research Questions
Based on the problem statements, the research questions can be formulated as follows:
RQ 1: What are the local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation in
Taman Negara Pahang, Malaysia and Khao Yai National Park, Thailand?
RQ 2: What factors determine the local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation?
RQ 3: What are the interaction and communication approaches between the national park management and local communities?
RQ 4: How can the local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation be integrated into effective communication strategies for conservation activities?
1.4 Research Objectives
This study aims to examine how the local communities, who are living within Taman
Negara Pahang in Malaysia and Khao Yai National Park in Thailand, would perceive nature conservation. In particular, the objectives of this study are as below:
1. To explore the local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation in
Taman Negara Pahang, Malaysia and Khao Yai National Park, Thailand.
14
2. To discover the factors determine the local communities’ perspectives on
nature conservation.
3. To explore the interaction and communication approaches between the
national park management and local communities.
4. To develop a sustainability communication framework for conservation
activities based on local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation.
1.5 Conceptualisations
Several terms and concepts have been defined and described for the profound understanding of this study.
Local communities: A group of people with diverse characteristics,
religion and race, but they are living in a same
territory with shared interest and linked by
social ties, involving in different occupations
but related aspect of livelihoods (Borrini-
Feyerabend, 1992; MacQueen et al., 2001). In
this sense, the local communities of two study
areas in Malaysia and Thailand include local
Malays, Batek Negrito, and local Thais.
15 Indigenous people: The native people especially protected in
international or national legislation as having a
set of specific rights based on their historical
ties to a particular territory, and their cultural or
historical distinctiveness from other
populations (Coates, 2004). For this research,
the Orang Asli group who primarily inhabits
the rainforest within Taman Negara Pahang,
Kuala Tahan is Batek Negrito.
Perspectives vs. Perceptions: According to Niederhoff (2011) who is an
expert in narratology field, a perspective is a
point of view. He argues perspective in
narrative may be defined as the way the
representation of the story is influenced by the
position, personality and values of the narrator,
the characters and possibly, other more
hypothetical entities in the story world. A
professor of Geography, Tuan (2001) asserts
that the study of perspective deals with the
research on a person’s spatial feelings and ideas
in the stream of experience. In this study,
perspectives could be referred to local
communities’ points of views, ideas, opinions,
and feelings based on own past experience. On
16 the other hand, perception is the process by
which individuals interpret and organise
sensation to produce a meaningful experience
of the world (Lindsay & Norman, 1977).
Similarly, Pickens (2005) describes perception
as a process when individuals receive, organise,
and interpret information from their
environment in order to make effective
decisions. They interpret the situation into
something meaningful to them based on prior
experience. Schacter (2011), a psychology
scholar, also defines perception as “our
organisation, identification and interpretation of
sensory information in order to represent and
understand the environment”. Therefore, in this
study, perception is the way we interpret our
perspectives or points of view, or how we
respond to the information. It implies people’s
knowledge and beliefs, constructed from their
perspectives that could influence their attitudes
either supporting or not the nature conservation
activities.
Factors: A circumstance, fact, or situation that
contributes to influence a result (Oxford
17 University Press, 2016; Cambridge University
Press, 2016). For example, Lim and Mohamed
(1999) define success factors as any
circumstances, facts or influences that
contribute to the success or failure of a project.
Besides, according to a study done by World
Health Organization (2004), adolescent
behaviours are influenced by a variety of
factors which are dependent on differences in
relationships, settings, cultures, and economic
conditions. These factors are called
“determinants” as they determine and influence
people’s behaviours. Thus, in this study, factors
refer to determinants, causes or characteristics
that contribute to influencing local
communities’ perspectives and attitudes either
to support or not the nature conservation
activities.
Nature conservation: Efforts made towards wise, careful, controlled
and sustainable use of natural resources
including plants, wild animals and their habitats
for the purpose of retaining biodiversity and
ecosystems (Maczulak, 2009) may be the
accurate explanation of nature conservation. In
18 a more reflective manner, according to the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
(1992), ex-situ conservation means the
conservation of components of biodiversity
outside their natural habitats (Article 9). On the
contrary, in-situ conservation refers to the
conservation of ecosystems and natural habitats
and the recovery of viable populations of
species in their natural surroundings (Article 8).
National park: It is listed under Category II of the IUCN
protected area management categories (World
Conservation Union, 1994), which provides a
foundation mainly for ecosystem protection,
education and recreation. National parks are
created to: a) protect the ecological integrity of
one or more ecosystems for future generations,
b) exclude exploitation or occupation inimical
to the purposes of designation of the area, and c)
provide a foundation for spiritual, scientific,
educational, recreational, and visitor
opportunities, all of which must be
environmentally and culturally compatible
(Dudley & Stolton, 2008). The national park
concept was originated in the United States
19 with the establishment of the Yellowstone
National Park in 1982 (Philips & Harrison,
1997).
Conflicts: This term can be alluded to perceived
incompatibilities or discrepant views among the
parties involved (Jehn and Bendersky, 2003).
Bartos and Wehr (2002) define conflict as “a
situation in which actors use conflict behaviour
against each other to attain incompatible goals
and/or to express their hostility”. In this study,
it mainly refers to the conflicts between the
national park authorities and local communities,
caused by improper planning and management,
which sometimes disregard the participation of
local people.
1.6 Significance of the Study
It is increasingly conceded by many scholars that failure in considering the local communities' perspectives that include their opinions, perceptions, attitudes and community participation in conservation activities will lead to limited success of the national park management (Western & Wright, 1994; Macleod, 2001; Walpole &
Goodwin, 2001; Bennett & Dearden, 2014). Such argument is based on the reality that the local voice is often excluded from park planning processes (Honey, 2008) as
20 it had triggered adverse social-economic impacts, and caused conflicts between park managers and local residents (Andrade & Rhodes, 2012). With criticisms on every angle of the conservation debates, therefore, it is critical to have a better understanding that associates the perspectives of local people with environmental conservation.
Research on conservation, people, and communication strategies are still new in
Malaysia and Thailand. Therefore, the findings of this study are important to build strategic communication framework for both countries. In addressing negative human impacts and park-people conflicts, Bogart et al. (2009) believe that strategic communication and education must be integrated into conservation delivery. It is, hence, a useful guidance in employing sustainability communication strategies for future conservation activities, particularly for approaches that contribute towards effective park management by working together with local people through communication and education programmes.
This research also provides a significant contribution for the governmental and non- governmental conservation agencies by generating useful information and understanding not only to the extent of the community involvement in management of national parks, but also towards tourism programmes. Malaysia and Thailand are nations that are well-endowed with a variety of rich biodiversity resources, whereas tourism is highly promoted to make use of natural landscape for the dominant and important growth of the country’s economy. On a related note, findings of this study will also provide a reference for students, scholars and researchers with interests in similar or related fields.
21
Lastly, a comparative study of two different countries will offer a tool to illustrate why and how members of local communities with different backgrounds perceive natural resource conservation initiatives. It will present findings of the strengths and weaknesses of different park management styles under two different governmental policies. This is because every side is unique and the challenges involved in management differ from country to country, and even region to region or site to site
(Shioya, 2011). In other words, this study helps to highlight on what each party can learn from the other and finally generates useful information in designing effective conservation policies for both countries.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
The main limitation in conducting this research lies on the problems of language barriers that had created communication difficulties with the target respondents. First, the Batek people do not speak Malay as their first language. Only some of them who often interact with the outsiders could speak a combination of Malay and English languages. Similarly, all of the respondents in Thailand speak Thai as their native language. In order to conduct interviews in a foreign language, this study employed an interpreter who is a native and well-versed with Thai culture that can converse easily with the respondents.
The reluctance of the respondents to be interviewed was another challenge in this research. Most of the Batek women were shy and unwilling to speak with the researcher as they refused to be interviewed alone. However, the researcher managed
22 to persuade one of them who eventually agreed to participate in focus group discussion.
Other limitations of this research are related to insufficient financial resources and time constraint. This is because of the poor accessibility of Batek villages due to the distance and remoteness. Their settlements are only accessible by boat and the fare is expensive. My schedule of visiting these villages was thus has to be adapted to these conditions.
1.8 Thesis Outline
This study is composed and structured into seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview and background of this research. The nature of the research problem, research objectives and research questions are clearly stated. Next, the definitions of conceptualisation terms were developed accordingly to the scope and objectives of the study. It also contains important contributions to the fields of conservation, people and communication.
Following the introduction, Chapter 2 consists of the theoretical framework. It describes the social exchange theory, conflict theory and perspective-taking paradigm in communication, as well as the arguments of the intentions in using them.
Finally, a framework was proposed with regard to the application of this study.
In Chapter 3, the literature review begins with the arguments of previous research by describing the meaning of nature conservation which is relevant to this study. Then,
23 it moves to the history of conservation approach in global protected areas from conventional to contemporary conservation concepts, and the conflicts happened between the national parks and local communities. The literature also considers the past research related to various topics including local people’s perspectives on nature conservation, and the roles of communication strategies in conservation activities.
Chapter 4 outlines the research design and methodology that were used for this study in detail, including the qualitative methods which are used to collect data from focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and observations, data collection and data analysis procedures. The interview questions were designed to explore the perspectives of local communities and possible factors that determining their perspectives.
Both Chapters 5 and 6 respectively presents the detailed findings in Malaysia and
Thailand. Next, Chapter 7 provides the discussion of both similarities and differences in local people’ support for nature conservation activities between two different countries in the lens of different backgrounds. Finally, this last chapter concludes the study with a summary of the major findings, conclusions and recommendations.
24 CHAPTER 2
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter discusses the theoretical framework that underpins the research which is premised upon three main conjectures: (1) social exchange theory that looks at how the positive and negative impacts from the national park establishment would contribute to local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation, (2) conflict theory that helps to explain on why a particular conflict exists between the park management and the surrounding communities, and (3) perspective-taking paradigm that argues the role of communication in managing park-people conflicts and improving their relationship.
2.1 Social Exchange Theory
Social exchange theory helps to investigate on why and under what situations that local villagers hold favourable or unfavourable perspectives on nature conservation and support the establishment of national park. Its appropriateness can be explained by two reasons: Firstly, the fundamental essence of social exchange theory suggests a person’s satisfaction towards a relationship is depending on expected benefits or costs where he or she would gain from that relationship. Secondly, this theory is also imperative to look at the influential factors that are likely to predict people's perceptions.
Since the late 1950s, the social exchange theory which was rooted from the economic theory has been vastly embraced in the sociology and social psychology
25 fields through four prominent scholars: George Homans, John Thibaut, Harold
Kelley, and Peter Blau. Although different views of these major works have emerged, some theorists still agree that social exchange involves a series of interactions that would generate obligations (Emerson, 1976). Its fundamental principle can be expressed in social situations where human will only perform behaviours that maximise their likelihood of meeting self-interests. In other words, from the social exchange perspective, human behaviour is viewed by desire to receive benefits from a social relationship rather than costs (Chibucos et al., 2005).
As further pinpointed by Chibucos et al. (2005), the theory operates through few key assumptions. First, individuals are believed to behave rational and engage in calculation of rewards and costs exchanged in personal relationships. Second, they are assumed to maximise rewards and minimise costs simultaneously. Third, an exchange process is not only involved a social interaction that serves individuals’ needs, but also hinders individuals on how they may ultimately seek to meet those needs. Finally, the social exchange was also built upon the assumption that exchange processes will cause differentiation of power and privilege in social groups due to the competitive nature of the social system. As a result, those with more resources on hand are assumed to gain more benefits and rewards from the exchange.
George Homans through his book, Social Behaviour as Exchange (1958) makes a conscious effort to identify the foundation of the social exchange theory as a general exchange approach. He further produces his argument three years later and defines social exchange as:
26 The exchange of activities, tangible or intangible, and more or less rewarding or costly between at least two persons (Homans, 1961, p. 13).
Homan’s main emphasis moves around the individual behaviour of actors specifically in interactions with one another. This notion focuses on the social behaviour that emerges as a result of the social processes of mutual reinforcement.
He indicates that the failure of reinforcement could lead to the termination of a relationship. Besides, Homans (1961) also contends that the importance of the social exchange theory rests on the concepts of equality and reciprocity. Both concepts could be linked with the verdict that the individuals would perceive of what they will receive the benefits from a relationship approximately equal to what they are putting into the relationship. Based on Homans’s (1961) view, Chibucos et al. (2005) subsequently form an argument that perceptions of equality imply the presence of reciprocity. They argue that social life requires a degree of reciprocity, meaning that, for individuals who perceive relatively balanced levels of reciprocity in a social exchange process, they are more likely to feel satisfied with and yet maintain the relationships. Simultaneously, Cropanzano and Mitchell (2005) interpret reciprocity as “rules and norms” of exchange. One of the key elements of the social exchange theory has been described as relationships that evolve over time into trust, loyal, and mutual commitments. Therefore, reciprocity is probably known as the best exchange rule.
Also, the other two social psychologists, John Thibaut and Harold Kelley, wrote at about the same time, construct their compact conceptual scheme in The Social
Psychology of Groups (1959). They identify role of perceived rewards and costs in encouraging and constraining behaviour. When Peter Blau’s Exchange and Power
27 (1964) appeared, the exchange approach of this social exchange theory was assured a future in the field (Emerson, 1976). Blau’s (1964) key proposition frames the study of his micro-exchange theory in terms of rewards and costs as well, but emphasises particularly on economic and utilitarian view of behaviour rather than building upon reinforcement principles derived from experimental behavioural analysis. His work is one of the first attempts to apply utilitarianism which is derived from economics to social behaviour (Cook & Rice, 2003).
Therefore, Cropanzano and Mitchell (2005) conclude that Blau’s contribution to the social exchange theory is his comparison of economic and social exchange. They also notice that Blau has utilised the word “exchange” to indicate a type of relationships, and has treated social and economic exchanges as types of
“transactions”, rather than as types of “relationships”. According to Blau (1964), “the basic and most crucial distinction is that social exchange entails unspecified obligations” (p. 93). He avers that only social exchange “involves favours that create diffuse obligation... and the nature of the return cannot be bargained” (p. 93), and
“only social exchange tends to engender feelings of personal obligations, gratitude, and trust; purely economic exchange as such does not” (p. 94).
The trade-off between benefits and costs is explained through the social exchange theory, which suggests that individuals will engage in and support the activities if the perceived benefits are greater than the perceived costs (Pham, 2012). Normally, people strive to minimise costs and maximise rewards; their likelihood of developing a relationship with someone is based on perceived possible outcomes (Chen & Raab,
2009). People are likely to evaluate an exchange based on the benefits and costs
28 incurred from that particular exchange. An individual that perceives benefits is likely to evaluate it positively, while one that perceives costs is likely to evaluate it negatively (Andereck et al., 2005).
Theoretically, a comparison is an indispensable component of social exchange as it provides the standard against the judgment of all relationships. However, comparative standards are subjective and vary across individuals and groups (Ward
& Berno, 2011). Hence, the perceptions of an exchange can be viewed differently.
When an individual perceives an outcome positively they will evaluate the exchange in a different way rather than an individual who perceives it negatively (Gursoy et al.,
2002).
In relation to the field of nature conservation, the appropriateness of the social exchange theory as a theoretical framework for understanding rural farmers’ attitudes towards protection of forest areas was verified by Dolisca et al. (2006). This quantitative study of participation in forest conservation programmes with concern on the surrounding of a forest reserve in Haiti suggests that the farmers were more likely to support forest protection activities when they received more benefits from the forest, increasing of income, and improving of educational level. Results also reveal that other factors which could influence their support on forest management process include strengthening the organisational memberships and increase the involvement of women in the forest management process.
Additionally, a mix method study on the incentives for enhancing community participation in wildlife conservation in Kenya indicates that the local communities
29 live within Amboseli National Park experienced a sense of exchange: their participation in conservation activities were influenced by reasonable returns for putting easements on their land for wildlife use, while the park management has to ensure the payment for easements is sustained (Kipkeu, Mwangi & Njogu, 2014).
Bandoh’s (2010) research on the conservation and natural resource management in
Ankasa Resource Reserve, Ghana also confirms the usefulness and suitability of social exchange theory in explaining local communities’ willingness to support nature conservation and other alternative livelihood programmes such as tourism and recreation. He postulates that the positive perceptions on nature conservation and tourism development were largely attributed to perceive benefits resulted from the conservation and tourism activities. Similarly, Soontayatron (2013) in his research on
Thai interpretation of socio-cultural impacts from tourism development in Koh
Samui Island, located in the southern coasts of Thailand, posits that social exchange theory is useful for the evaluation of tourism impacts. This study explores the understanding of local responses to the tourism impacts in a pure Thai context where
Buddhism has played an important role in their culture and tradition.
In Western countries, social exchange theory is supported by plenty of quantitative research evidences to describe inter-relationships between perspectives of costs and benefits, positive and negative impacts, and support for tourism (Gursoy &
Rutherford, 2004; Andereck et al., 2005; Nunkoo et al., 2009; Nunkoo & Gursoy,
2011; Qi et al., 2016). The theory proposes that individuals who perceive positive tourism impacts were more likely to support its development. In opposition, they will oppose the activities when they perceive more negative impacts brought by its
30 development. Attitudes will be influenced by evaluations of outcomes of the industry for themselves and their communities (Andereck et al., 2005).
Despite previous studies on local perspectives and attitudes that have identified numerous factors as significant predictors, there are still lack of theories to explain the relationships between people’s attitudes and factors. Therefore, by using social exchange theory, many quantitative and qualitative researchers have started to look at the factors likely to influence the perceived impacts of certain activities or programmes and subsequent support for their development.
For example, a study was designed to explore the determining factors which would influence locals’ involvement in Watershed Management Programs in Iran by using the social exchange framework (Bagherian, Bahaman, Asnarulkhadi & Shamsuddin,
2009). Five contributing factors of people participation were discovered by employing a quantitative method: level of satisfaction of prior programmes, monthly income, their attitudes, knowledge and expectations of Watershed Management
Programs. Another research conducted by Garekae, Thakadu and Lepetu (2016) recently, guided by social exchange theory in examining attitudes of local people towards forest conservation in Botswana and exploring factors that affect their conservation attitudes. Using both quantitative and qualitative research methods through survey and in-depth interviews, the findings of this study reports that age, place of residence, length of residency and forest dependency have influenced the attitudes towards forest conservation.
31 Qualitative researchers such as Wang (2012) also confirms the usefulness of social exchange theory in explaining, understanding and comparing the fundamental factors that lead to Asian and Western people’s thinking pattern, interpersonal behaviour, decision making process, and its role in reducing the potential misunderstandings and conflicts within the intercultural communications. The findings include that during social exchange and social relationship, people tend to focus on one’s social status, resources possession, capital, social power, and social prestige. Also, geopolitical, social structural, as well as historical and cultural reasons are among the three main sources that lead to the difference between Asian and Western social exchange and social relationship rules.
The results appear that comparison is an important component of social exchange which differs from people to people, communities, as well as countries. As pointed out by Searle (1990), one of the important elements of social exchange theory is based on a justice principle. The theory states that in each exchange, there should be a norm of fairness governing the behaviour. It means that the exchange must be viewed as fair when compared to other parties. It involves the approach taken by each person, comparing his or her reward to others who have dealt with this individual and what they would receive for the same or a similar contribution.
In this case, it can be concluded that the positive and negative impacts from national park foundation, experienced by the surrounding communities could influence their perspectives and support for nature conservation (Bennett & Dearden, 2014). In the earlier problem statements, the researcher has argued that the main factor is likely to influence local communities’ views, either to support or not for park management,
32 that subsequently trigger a conflict between local people and park administrator. The original purpose of a national park establishment is to conserve the landscape and wildlife species from extinction. To the local villagers, however, its establishment is considered a threat to their daily livelihoods. The conservation rules and regulations of displacing locals from park resources have resulted in a variety of socio-economic problems and poor relationship with the neighbouring communities. Many studies conducted on threats of protected areas in Malaysia and Thailand, have also recorded park-people conflicts as the key challenges and issues had hindered the implementation of the national parks (Yamuachi, 2005; Gray, 2010).
2.2 Conflict Theory
Conflict theory is used to explain the linkages between national park, nature conservation and the local communities, three interrelated entities that can be seen as a triangle interaction. According to Allan (2006), conflict theory debates on how certain social interactions occur through conflict as it seeks to scientifically explain the general contours of conflict in society: how conflict starts and varies, and the effect it brings. In general, whenever there are two or more groups of people who are seeking the same limited resources, it will certainly lead to a conflict.
The conflict theory has a long history in sociological field since the early of nineteenth century. Initial statements of the conflict theory have been elaborated by the European theorists, who are the pioneers in the sociological field such as Karl
Marx, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel. This theory was originated from the work of
Karl Marx (1818 - 1883), a German economist and sociologist. According to the
33 theory, inequality exists because of the role of power in producing social order. The social order is maintained by domination, with power in the hands of those with the greatest political, economic, and social resources (Crossman, 2013). Karl Marx led a kind of conflict scholarship which produced credible and powerful analyses of conflict between different social classes (Bartos and Wehr, 2002). Thus, the core of
Marxism is the concept of class struggle: “Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another” (Marx & Engels, 1888, p. 6).
Since the conflict theory stresses on power differences among social classes, therefore, Marx’s definition of class is important. Class is a theoretical and formal relationship among the individuals. Marx defines a class as the ownership of property.
Such ownership provides a person with the power to use the property personally without considering other parties (Rummel, 1977). Rummel also indicates, overall, there are six elements in Karl Marx’s view of class conflict: (1) classes are authority relationships based on property ownership, (2) a class defines groupings of individuals with shared life situations, thus interests, (3) classes are naturally antagonistic by virtue of their interests, (4) imminent within modern society is the growth of two antagonistic classes and their struggle, which eventually absorbs all social relations, (5) political organisation and power is an instrumentality of class struggle, and reigning ideas are its reflection, and (6) structural change is a consequence of the class struggle.
Hence, according to Karl Marx, a society is a two-class system: bourgeoisie (owners of the means of production) and proletariat (workers). The bourgeoisie refers to the
34 capitalist who owns the factories, the products, and controls all the trade. While the proletariats are the working class people who provide the labour to produce goods and services. There is obviously a different between classes, where the rich are staying rich and the poor continue to be poor. Therefore, Marx’s idea suggests the incompatible goals of two different classes as the major source of conflict in a capitalist society.
Since Marx views power as the core of all the social relationships, he suggests the key conflict in society is strictly in the lens of 'economic' perspective. However, the arguments made by Walsh (2012) seem to be differed from what Marx has said.
When comparing the origin of conflict, the Marxist theory suggests that conflict stems from the powerful oppressing the powerless, for example, the bourgeoisie oppressing the proletariat under capitalism. On the other hand, Walsh (2012) claims that conflicts are generated by many factors, regardless of the political and economic systems.
In parallel with Karl Marx, Max Weber (1864 – 1920) who is also the German sociologist and scientist provides a profound impact on the conflict theory. In proposing what is known as the conflict theory, is in the same view with Marx that economics play a central role in power distinction. Even though the conflict perspective is associated with both Marx and Weber, Walsh (2012) still believes that they differed upon three key elements. First, Marx sees cultural ideas as being moulded by the economic system, whereas Weber sees a culture’s economic system as being moulded by its ideas. Second, Marx predicts the end of conflict with the destruction of capitalism, while Weber argues that conflict will always exist,
35 regardless of the social, economic, or political nature of the society. Third, according the Marx, there are only two social classes, the capitalist and working group. But unlike Marx, Weber sees class with a more complex outlook as there are other factors that would contribute to social inequality. He believes that there are many status groups in a society which possess varying degrees of social power.
While Marx’s concentration on two great classes divisions (i.e. the bourgeoisie and the proletariat) are based on the economic interests as the most important source of social conflict, Max Weber focuses on three types of social group: class, party, and status. A class group only concerns on economic interests. Party refers to political group whilst status group is considered as the only truly social group because members hold common values, live common lifestyles, and share a sense of belonging (Walsh, 2012). Looking at such differences between class and status,
Weber’s analysis of class is similar to Marx’s, but he prefers to generally discuss class in the context of social stratification. Class is described as a dimension of the social structure, while social status is another. However both are significant contributors of social differences. To Weber, Walsh (2012) emphasises that the concept of power is focused. Distribution of power and authority is the basis of social conflict. Power is related to the ability to command resources where the people with power want to keep it while those without power want to seek it, because the powerful persons are able to impose their will on others through criminalising acts that are conflicting to their class interests.
According to Georg Simmel (1858 – 1918), conflict sets boundaries between groups by strengthening group consciousness and awareness of separation from other groups
36 (Coser, 1956). In the 1950s, another German sociologist, Lewis Coser intentionally draws theoretical ideas from Georg Simmel rather than Marx or Weber. He elaborates upon what Simmel has to say, where he presents “a number of basic propositions which have been distilled from theories of social conflict, in particular from the theories of Georg Simmel” (Coser, 1956, p. 8). Also, he follows Simmel’s idea towards mainstream sociology, acknowledging that conflict is a normal and functional part of human life. Both of them believe that social action always involves harmony and conflict accordingly in tandem with the following argument:
Groups require disharmony as well as harmony, dissociation as well as association; and conflicts within them are by no means altogether disruptive factors… far from being necessarily dysfunctional, a certain degree of conflict is an essential element in group formation and the persistence of group life (Coser, 1956, p. 31).
Besides Lewis Coser, notable initiatives have been taken by Ralf Dahrendorf to explore conflict theory in a new direction. In the efforts of presenting a new understanding of conflict, his contribution is not only blending the different theoretical elements and ideas from Marx, Weber and Simmel, but also produces concluding contrary to the claims of most previous theorists (Allan, 2006). For example, Dahrendorf follows Marx’s concept of political interests stemming from bipolarized social positions. Like Coser, Dahrendorf recognizes conflict as a natural and necessary part of society whereby it presents in all human relations. Besides, he also perceives same thinking with Coser that conflict can be violent, but he adds one more variable which is conflict intensity to explain the level of violent and its effects.
From Weber, Dahrendorf takes the idea of power and authority. He claims that power is something that unavoidable in all social relations. Hence, he calls power
37 “factual” which denotes that it is a fact of human life. However, between power and authority, Dahrendorf is more interested in authority because it refers to the legitimated use of power which is “always associated with social positions or roles”
(Dahrendorf, 1957/1959, cited in Allan, 2006, p. 224).
While many theorists have rendered different versions of conflict theory, another group of researchers also offered different definitions of conflict. Walsh in his paper
Criminology: The Essentials (2012) positions himself along with Max Weber, claims that conflict as a normal and socially desirable. Conflict is explained as “a way of assuring social change, and in the long run, a way of assuring social stability” (p. 97).
Therefore, conflict is necessary to produce social change.
Bartos and Wehr in Using Conflict Theory (2002) also define conflict as a situation in which “actors use conflict behaviour against each other to attain incompatible goals and/or to express their hostility” (p. 13). This definition presents actors as individuals or groups that encounter conflict when they have incompatible goals or in hostility (or both) with other individuals or groups, and that involves a unique type of behaviour, which is called conflict behaviour. Consequently, a theory of conflict behaviour has been developed by Bartos and Wehr (2002) to identify the possible causes in order to explain why a particular conflict exists.
Essentially, they hypothesise conflict behaviour as any behaviour that helps the actor to achieve its goal which is incompatible with the opponent's view or manifests its hostility between each other. Their arguments that conflict behaviour can occur for six main reasons have been shown in Figure 2.1: (1) the individuals or groups may
38 have incompatible goals, (2) each of them may have achieved high solidarity, (3) they may have organised for conflict, (4) they can mobilise their conflict resources,
(5) they may be hostile towards their opponents, and (6) they may have sufficient material resources.
Incompatible goals
Solidarity
Organization
Conflict behaviour Mobilization
Hostility
Resources
Figure 2.1: Theory of conflict behaviour (Bartos & Wehr, 2002)
According to the theory of conflict behaviour, there are three types of actor goals which may be incompatible with another actor’s goals: (1) incompatible resources, (2) incompatible roles, and (3) incompatible values. Resources are contested when both actors compete between each other. These resources can be classified into three main categories which are wealth, power, and prestige. Incompatible roles can be occurred when two actors play different roles in an institution or an organisation. To explain how incompatible roles happened in a vertical or horizontal hierarchy, Medler et al.
(2008) state that conflict in which one actor maintains power over another actor is
39 called vertical, while horizontal refers to both actors having equal levels of power.
They continue to explain that value incompatibilities can happen when actors are separated from one another or differences in their size and technology exists. This is because actors that are separated from each other tend to develop different cultures that may advocate incompatible values (Bartos & Wehr, 2002).
Embracing the definition of conflict suggested by Bartos and Wehr (2002), conflict theory has been selected to be used in this study because it explains human behaviour in social contexts resulting from conflicts between competing individuals or groups that have unequal power, but are struggling for the same limited resources. In relation with this research, conflict can be defined as the expression of different interests and goals between the national park authorities and surrounding communities (Blomley, 2003). Therefore, this theory is important in order to look at the park-people interactions with related to nature conservation activities.
Conservation policy of the national park has often triggered adverse social impacts on local communities by disrupting their traditional ways of living (Garcia-Frapolli et al., 2009) and subsequently undermine protection policies through conflicts between park managers and local residents (Ruschkowski & Mayer, 2011; Andrade
& Rhodes, 2012). The conflicts are mainly caused by improper planning and management including a lack of attention to involve local people in the decision- making processes, and sometimes disregard the people in nearby communities who have needs on the forest resources which may conflict with the conservation objectives of the protected areas (IUCN, 1996). As specified in the problem statements of this research, the existence of conflicts has been challenged and put
40 substantial pressures on the park management especially in developing countries.
Therefore, effective communication skills serve as a key role in improving park- people relationship and resolving their conflicts.
2.3 Perspective-taking Paradigm in Communication
There are many ways of language functions as a medium in human communication, but the major processes of communication are captured by four paradigms.
According to Krauss & Fussell (1996), each paradigm or model focuses on a different dimension of language, used to describe the complexity between communication and conflict, and how they relate to each other. These paradigms argue that the greatest skill that aids in conflict resolution is effective communication.
Communication could reduce conflicts if it has been practised in proper and healthy approaches. The four paradigms are: Encoding-Decoding paradigm, Intentionalist paradigm, Dialogic paradigm, and Perspective-Taking paradigm.
When comparing the value of each paradigm, Krauss & Fussell (1996) state that the encoding-decoding is the most straightforward paradigm used by speakers to encode their ideas in words, phrases and sentences, while the listeners decoded the signals to recover the underlying ideas. It is considered a simple process as for every signal, there is only one meaning; for every meaning, there is only one signal. The second paradigm of intentionalist emphasises the role of the speaker’s communicative intentions to improve the characterisation of human communication. The main idea of this communication model lies on how the speakers impart their words and meanings to be understood. However, a same message could be interpreted in varied
41 way, to mean different things by people from different cultural backgrounds, as it is influenced by different experiences, attitudes and beliefs of both sender and receiver
(Dwyer, 2013). Thus, it can cause a distinction between a message’s intended meaning by speakers and literal meaning by listeners. This may lead to misunderstanding and communication fails because understanding other people’s communicative intention is really not a simple and straightforward matter.
In the third model from the dialogic perspective, participants are view as
“autonomous information processors” (Clark & Brennan, 1991), where the speaker must generate messages that will convey a particular meaning; and the listener must process those messages. Finally, the listener would be able to identify the speaker’s intended meaning (Krauss, 2002). In a different meaning, communication is regarded as joint accomplishment of the participants, who have cooperated to achieve the communication goals together (Krauss & Morsella, 2000). Because the participants are warranted to be clearly understood, the speakers and listeners have to ensure that they own similar conceptions of the meaning of each message before they can proceed to the next stage or other conversation (Clark, 1996).
In the last paradigm of perspective-taking, social behaviour is predicated on the assumptions that an actor perceive towards knowledge, beliefs and motives of others
(Krauss & Fussell, 1991). Krauss & Morsella (2000) continue to elucidate that different people are assumed to have different ideas and perceptions. They do not always see the world in a same way as each individual conveys message with his or her own perspective in mind. Both interpretations are supported by Adler (1991) who comments that the greater of difference in background and the greater the difference
42 in meanings were attached to particular words and behaviours. This is because translating meanings into words and behaviours is based upon a person's cultural background and is different between one people and another.
Compared to other three paradigms of communication, the perspective-taking is adopted to guide this research in integrating local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation into effective communication strategies. As noted by Krauss &
Fussell (1991), the speakers take their listeners’ knowledge, perspectives and points of view into account when they formulate messages. Messages are communicated to be understood by the audiences, and in order to achieve comprehensible, communicators must consider what the audiences do and do not know.
In addition, the beneficial of perspective-taking paradigm is instrumental to recognise the complex interplay between communication and conflict, particularly the park-people conflict, and most importantly how this paradigm of communication is effective in solving the conflicts. In this study, researcher employs the perspective- taking paradigm to recognise local people’ perspectives on nature conservation and to unearth the contributing factors before exerting the communication process to solve the park-people conflicts.
The implications and effectiveness of perspective-taking in building interpersonal interaction and relationship have been tested by scholars in different fields, including sociology, psychology, and communication (Blumer, 1969; Krauss & Fussell, 1991;
Fussell & Krauss, 1992; Batson et al., 1995; Davis, 1996; Parker & Axtell, 2001;
Williams, 2015). In sociology, perspective-taking refers to the cognitive process of
43 imagining other people’s feelings and opinions from their points of view (Davis,
1996) and allows predicting how others will respond to their actions (Blumer, 1969).
On a separate note, scholars in psychology field have examined perspective-taking in the context of empathy and helping positive behaviour. For example, they suggest perspective-taking can evoke positive and cooperative behaviours during interactions
(Batson et al., 1995; Parker & Axtell, 2001), which are linked to restraint and performance (Williams, 2015).
In the communication field, perspective-taking paradigm plays an important role to ensure effective communication as the communicators must consider the listeners’ knowledge, perceptions and points of view when deciding on how to formulate a message (Krauss & Fussell, 1991; Fussell & Krauss, 1992). In conflict situations, however, Krauss & Morsella (2000) argue that communication approach would become worst if the misperception is happened. Sometimes, although the communicators have taken others’ perspectives into account, the problem can still be occurred when there are incorrect assumptions that the speakers have made about what their audiences should know.
Such misperceptions and misunderstandings are common in conflict based on two reasons: First, the magnitude of the perspectival differences that communicators must accommodate may be an important source of conflict. Secondly, conflicts tend to make perceived dissimilarities among the communicators to be more salient, and as the result have caused the complications to categorise themselves as members of in- groups or out-groups. The scholars have also observed a serious complication of such paradigm in solving the conflict situations derives from so-called the “multiple
44 audience problem”. The number of different perspectives and ideas that the communicators must take into account can make public or open negotiations very difficult to be executed (Krauss & Morsella, 2000).
45
Objectives 1 & 2 Objective 3
Objective 4
Park -people Benefits Support for compatible from Harmony nature goals national park relationship conservation
Perspective- taking to
identify local Communication communities’
perspectives, points of view and knowledge Misperceptions
Park -people Costs Not support Disharmony incompatible from Conflicts for nature relationship conservation National park protection and local livelihoods local and protection park National goals national park
Figure 2.2: Proposed conceptual framework for this study adapted from the social exchange theory, conflict theory and perspective-taking paradigm in communication
46 The conceptual framework proposed for this study (Figure 2.2) displays the central concepts of the social exchange theory, conflict theory and perspective-taking paradigm in communication which guide this research. It offers a systematic way to conceptualise the local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation, classifying factors likely to determine their support for conservation activities, the important roles of communication in solving the park-people conflict and promoting local support on nature conservation.
Based on this framework, apparently, the social exchange theory contributes to elaborate two situations: 1) local support for nature conservation is a result of their positive perceptions of national park due to benefits obtained from the park. The benefits include incomes, employments, improvements in facilities and infrastructure services, and 2) lack of support for nature conservation among the local people is based on their perceptions of negative impacts from park establishment. The costs are including loss of right to park resources, loss of crops due to wildlife damage and local participation in decision-making processes.
Meanwhile, conflict theory mainly explains the conflicts between park management and local communities where conflicts could be regarded as incidents occurred between those are in competition over resources and struggle to maximise their benefits. National park protection and local people benefits are always in conflict.
The original purpose of national park is to conserve the wildlife species and their living habitats. However, its creation is considered a threat to the livelihoods of local villagers that are living around.
47 Hence, perspective-taking paradigm is used to perform effective communication for solving conflicts, improving park-people relationship and encouraging local support for nature conservation. Even though communication plays a role to effectively resolve such conflicts; negative patterns of communication are touted to lead to greater frustration and escalation of conflicts (Brower and Darrington, 2012) that could later spark unfavourable local attitudes towards nature conservation.
48 CHAPTER 3
LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 Nature and Nature Conservation: A Contested Theme
What constitutes the nature has been disputed, even in a particular time and place
(Spirn, 1997). Debates over what is meant by nature have escalated in recent years, with different interpretation from various groups of researchers and experts. Spirn extends her elaboration since such conflicts and confusions move around competing sources of authority and conflicting ideas of nature: whether humans are outside or inside of nature, whether human impact is inevitably destructive or potentially beneficial, whether one can objectively know nature apart from one’s own human values. All debates and confusions should be started by answering the key question, what is nature anyway?
Nature is the word that Raymond Williams (1983) calls, “perhaps the most complex word in the language” (p. 219). He argues that nature is an abstraction, a set of ideas for which many cultures have no one name. He also classifies two additional areas of meaning: “the inherent force which directs either the world or human beings or both” and “the material world itself, taken as including or not including human beings” (p.
219). Meanwhile, to Frank Lloyd Wright, nature is the manifestation of God:
Nature should be spelled with a capital “N”, not because Nature is God, but because all that we can learn of God we will learn from the body of God, which we call Nature (Wright, 1987, as cited in Spirn, 1997, p. 249).
49 The word “nature” is derived from the Latin word natura, or “essential qualities, innate disposition”, and in ancient times, is literally meant as “birth” (Harper, 2006).
Thus, nature is linked to other words from the same root, such as nascent, innate, native, and nation. Relatedly, natura is a Latin translation of the Greek word physis, which is originally related to the intrinsic characteristics of plants, animals, and other features of the world, developed from their own accord (Guthrie, 1965). In addition,
The Oxford Dictionary of English (2010) defines the nature as “the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations”.
William Leiss (1972) who is a scientist by profession, explored the intellectual history of nature based on the Western progress from the 17th century to the 19th century through The Domination of Nature. In his study, he supports that nature needs to be separated from human development. The findings also emphasise that the inherent difficulties may exist, in any attempt to overcome the separation between humankind and its natural environment. Some writers have proffered solutions based on different attitudes towards the relationship between humanity and nature. A similar view of Paul Taylor’s Respect for Nature takes a further step in unifying environmental and human ethics through the attitude of respect for nature. His argument explains that one who takes the attitude of respect for nature towards the individual organisms, species-populations, and biotic communities of the Earth’s natural ecosystems, must consider those entities and groups of entities as possessing inherent worth, in the sense that their value or worth does not depend on their being valued for their usefulness in furthering human ends. Taylor elaborates that nature is conspicuously threatened; therefore the mentioned attitude generates morally binding
50 rules to guide human conduct in its treatment of natural life which do no harm to any entity in the environment (Taylor, 1986).
Looking more closely, the views and perspectives made by the above scholars show that the nature is standing apart from human interests. Still, there are other researchers’ arguments that reflect different interpretation, as they seem to include human as a part of the nature. For example, Spirn's (1997) study concludes that nature is a mirror of and for culture. As a landscape architect and environmentalist, she argues that the idea of nature reveals more on human society, in contrast of other counterparts of non-human processes and features. Even human cultures could be described as reflections of nature that denote the generic idea of nature which mirrors the culture. Paradoxically, it creates a strong relationship between human kind and natural environment as they are mutually dependent upon one another.
On the other hand, conservation can best be defined as “the action of preservation, protection, or restoration of the natural environment and of wildlife” (The Oxford
Dictionary of English, 2010 and The Chambers Dictionary, 2010) whereas The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2006) cites the conservation as “the careful utilization of natural resources in order to prevent depletion”. Most people use this term correctly in the right context, but Vinas (2005) believes that using it appropriately in a conversation or text does not necessarily imply a thorough understanding.
For example, McGilvray (1988) (as cited in Vinas, 2005) found that not less than thirty-two notions were used to describe a variety of conservation-related actions:
51 preservation, restoration, rehabilitation, revival, protection, renewal, conversion, transformation, reuse, rebirth, revitalization, repair, remodelling, redevelopment, rescue, reconstruction, refurbishing and so forth. In this case, the preliminary definitions of conservation along with other most suitable derivatives which applicable to the research topic are important to be listed down. Indeed, when discussing the subject of conservation, we must always ask: “Conserving what?”
Maczulak (2009) in her academic work, Conservation: Protecting Our Plant
Resources, defines conservation as the careful and controlled use of natural resources for the purpose of extending the time availability as well as retaining biodiversity.
She elaborates that conservation does not prevent the loss of plants, trees, land, water, or habitat as it simply slows the rate of degradation of these things. This can be related to Earth’s human population that continues to grow, and therefore the forest should be forgone to make room for more people to find a place to live.
Consequently, conservation deals with a notable growth in developed societies, was taken for granted by many people as a result of global warming where more people put more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
According to the United Nations (1992), conservation can broadly be divided into two types: ex-situ and in-situ conservation. Ex-situ conservation entails the conservation of components of biological diversity outside of their natural habitats
(Article 9). In the other way, ex-situ conservation literally means, “off-site conservation”. It involves the sampling and transferring part of the population of a species from a threatened original habitat, and placing it in a new location, which may be a wild area or within the care of humans. Some of this conservation includes
52 botanical gardens, aquaria, and even zoos. In contrast, in-situ conservation encompasses the conservation of ecosystems and natural habitats and the recovery of viable populations of species in their natural surroundings (Article 8). It includes the process of establishing a system of protected areas or areas where special measures need to be taken to conserve biological diversity.
While attempting to link between the nature and conservation, John (1997) claims that natural resource conservation is a political mechanism of intervention between nature and human. This statement that can be explained as political ecology is a field of study that embraces the politics of interactions between the way nature is understood and the impacts of human actions to the environment. In other words, political ecologists argue that the way nature is understood has profound political significance (Neumann, 2004). It also addresses the relationships of social and natural conditions that are deeply and inseparably connected (Adams & Hutton,
2007).
However, the politics of intervention in the relationship of nature and humanity have been changed and rebuilt from time to time according to the relevant social groups.
Callicott et al. (1999) separate the conservation philosophies into mechanisms and norms: “compositionalism” and “functionalism”. Compositionalism norm represents the traditional view of conservation which rests on the belief that humans are not symbiotic components of the ecosystem and are touted as a threat to the nature. This conservation strategy of setting human apart from nature offers inevitable social and economic impacts. These circumstances have long been acknowledged and widely reported as they incur direct costs to neighbours which are including wildlife damage
53 to crops, attacks on people and livestock. It implicitly creates short and long-term impacts on the goodwill of the people, particularly local communities, in their everyday contact with the other natural creatures. The following sections 3.2 and 3.3 will provide the details of this early conservation movement.
Arguably, the future of the nature conservation and the future of the millions of the world’s poorest people are inextricably linked. In relation to that, the other conservation norm stated by Callicott et al. (1999) is functionalism that views human presence within the ecosystem. Ingold (2000) concludes that this mechanism is based on the idea that human is part of, and embedded within natural systems whereby human and other components of natural systems are inseparable. The following section 3.2 will provide the details from traditional conservation to new approach of conservation concept.
3.2 History of Nature Conservation Approaches
The early conservation efforts exclude human from nature. It emphasises the values of natural resources where the people are seen as an adverse impact on these valuable resources and as a destructive element to the natural integrity of ecosystems
(Jeanrenaud, 2002; Adams, 2005). After experiencing the park-people conflicts in a wide variety of situations, more professionals working in the protected areas started to recognise natural resources, people and cultures as fundamentally interlinked
(West & Brechin, 1991; Stevens, 1997; Philips, 2002; Wilson, 2003). This scenario has led the conservation practitioners to seek alternative models for nature conservation that address the conflicts between local people and protected area
54 management while portraying local community development and participation as essential components of the conservation enterprise (Herrold-Menzies, 2006).
First, in the second half of the nineteenth century, nature conservation was deeply rooted within the Western thought. The establishment of national park could be regarded to begin in European countries that reflect a conceptual division between the nature and human society (Adams & Hutton, 2007). According to Neumann
(1998), national parks are “quintessential landscapes of consumption”, in which human beings and any evidence of their activities did not belong. Neumann also argues that the early conservation approach was initially desired to “escape” to a
“pristine” nature. It was founded on a fundamental conception of nature as something pristine that could be distinguished and physically separated from human- transformed lands (Champbell, 2005; Adams & Hutton, 2007).
Historically, the National Park Service in the United States sees this model firstly originates from the loss of the American frontier and the desire to preserve the original resources for the increasingly urbanised public. Therefore, the first national park was established in the United States in 1872 and it was strongly influenced by the European idea of “pleasing prospects” (Cosgrove, 1985). This American notion of national park, often termed as Yellowstone model, remains the model system of conservation for the majority of countries that operate protected areas in the world
(Brechin et al., 1991).
This most influential model for conservation has been also contributed to the establishment of international conservation institutions and networks at a global level.
55 The definition of a national park by IUCN (1975) demonstrates the orthodox conservation concept which the natural ecosystems are to be protected from human disturbance. Also, West and Brechin’s (1991) argument reflects that people have been displaced or prevented from using park resources, left to suffer severe disruption and all without documentary proof that they were harming park resources.
The scholars quotes:
Where the highest competent authority of the country has taken steps to prevent or eliminate as soon as possible, exploitation or occupation in the whole area and to enforce effectively, the respect of ecological, geomorphological or aesthetic features that have led to its establishment (West & Brechin, 1991, p. 17).
The world was considered undergoing a conservation boom after the establishment of the first national park in the late nineteenth century (Neumann, 2002). The number of protected areas has increased rapidly and the idea had been widely copied internationally. Although the growth rate of protected areas is impressive, many of them are not yet fully implemented or managed. It has been argued that the majority of protected areas were established in a hurry, they were often set aside without careful analysis of the skills and capacity needed to manage and maintain them
(Dudley & Parrish, 2006).
Therefore, the significant challenges to maintain functioning nature conservation in protected areas would be twofold. First, Carlos et al. (2013) suggest that capacity building is important to enhance leadership skills and technical abilities for effectively managing the world’s growing system of protected areas. Secondly, which is more important, there is a wide range of different management approaches have been practised in different countries even under the same traditional
56 conservation concept, due to many different terms that are used at the national level to describe the protected areas.
The term protected area is described at national level into different forms, some of the best known are national park, nature reserve, wilderness management area and landscape protected area, but can also include such approaches as community conserved areas (World Conservation Union, 2008). Besides, IUCN (2008) also explains the different management styles that have been practiced, from highly protected sites where few if any people are allowed to enter, through parks where the emphasis is on conservation but visitors are welcome, and lastly to much less restrictive approaches where nature conservation is integrated into the human lifestyle or even take place alongside limited sustainable resource extraction.
Historically, the first effort to clarify the terminology of the term “protected area” was made in 1933, at the International Conference for the Protection of Fauna and
Flora, held in London. Four categories of protected areas have been developed: national park, strict nature reserve, fauna and flora reserve, and reserve with prohibition for hunting and collecting. In 1942, the Western Hemisphere Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation also incorporated four types: national park, national reserve, nature monument, and strict wilderness reserve (Holdgate,
1999). Following in 1958, IUCN established the Provisional Committee on National
Parks, which developed into today’s World Commission on Protected Area (WCPA), for the purpose of listing and classifying forms of conservation (Holdgate, 1999).
Consequently, in 1966, IUCN produced UN List of Protected Areas for classification
57 system that defined different kinds of protected areas: national parks, scientific reserves and natural monuments.
The above statement has clearly described the background of the IUCN to develop a system of categories for protected areas. Anyway, this has been repeated refined and updated over the years. However, IUCN (2008) has reported that the limitations in the system soon became apparent, where it did not contain a definition of a protected area. Thus, in 1994, the guidelines were published by the IUCN and World
Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) to set out a definition of a protected area:
An area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means (IUCN, 1994).
As a result, until currently, areas that meet this definition are then allocated to one of the six different categories of protected areas, including both highly exclusionary
Category I and II, and other types of protected areas that are more inclusive of human activities. These categories are summarised in Table 3.1 whereas the national park which is listed under Category II will be the focus of this study.
58 Table 3.1: The IUCN protected areas management categories (World Conservation Union, 1994)
Category Ia Strict Nature Reserve: managed mainly for science.
Wilderness Area: managed mainly for wilderness Category Ib protection. National Park: managed mainly for ecosystem protection and Category II recreation. Natural Monument: managed mainly for conservation of specific Category III natural features. Habitat/Species Management Area: managed mainly for Category IV conservation through management intervention. Protected Landscape/Seascape: managed mainly for Category V landscape/seascape conservation and recreation. Managed Resource Protected Area: managed mainly for the Category VI sustainable use of natural ecosystems.
By 1980s, the whole conservation paradigm had changed to feature social inclusion rather than exclusion (Hulme & Murphree, 1999; Adams & Hulme, 2001). A shift to a new conservation approach was happened due to the arguments of the traditional concept, from the end of the nineteenth to early of twentieth century, which excluded local communities, revoked human rights, and blamed local people for illegal access into protected areas that have caused poverty and social conflicts. The national parks, local communities and related criticisms will be described in the next section of 3.3.
Along the line of the new conservation approach to integrate the role of nature conservation, social and cultural development processes, IUCN members have worked together to refine and revise the definition of protected area since 1994. The first draft of this new definition was prepared during a meeting on the categories in
Almeria, Spain in May 2007. After that, at the World Conservation Congress in
59 October 2008, IUCN presented its new official definition for the term “protected area” as:
A clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values (World Conservation Union, 2008, p. 8).
According to the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED)
(1988), sustainable development can be defined as the development that satisfies the needs of today without endangering the possibilities of coming generations to fulfil their needs. It promotes the idea of achieving social and economic progress without compromising the natural resources for future needs. Consequently, the contemporary natural resources management was constructed globally with the notion of sustainable development. The governments of developing countries, including Malaysia and Thailand have approved the approaches and policies for natural resources conservation and management that follow the new global conservation concept with the injection of social and cultural sustainable development.
Malaysia was initially positive towards the new concept of nature conservation that leads to sustainable development, after the publication of the World Conservation
Strategy in 1980 by the IUCN, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) (Hasan, 1992). Efforts to protect biodiversity in Malaysia were commenced with the signing of CBD at the Earth
Summit in 1992. Having ratified the Convention, Malaysia has incorporated it into
60 its national policies with the concerted commitments under the new approach of conservation.
According to Hezri and Hasan (2006), two factors have influenced Malaysia to embrace the model of sustainable development. First, the influence of country’s growing diplomatic as economic success had earned Malaysia the respect and confidence from the developing world. Second, the international controversies erupted over wanton deforestation at Baram-Limbang in Sarawak. Since 1982, the plight of the Penan people in Sarawak, whose homelands were being logged, had gained notoriety and became an emotional imbroglio. Therefore in 1988, the
European Parliament decided to suspend all timber imports from Sarawak (Brosius,
1997, as cited in Hezri & Hasan, 2006).
Alike Malaysia, in the late twentieth century, Thailand has showcased its significant efforts in implementing modern conservation approach by paying attention on social and economic development of the local communities. As a UN member, the Thai government has also signed the Agenda 21 agreement. The acceptance of Agenda 21 has compelled Thailand to reformulate its approach towards environmental management (Office of Environmental Policy & Planning, 1997), and led to adjustment in the relevant Acts and organisations in order to facilitate sustainability and local community involvement in natural resources management. The National
Environmental Board and other environmental agencies were restructured to facilitate sustainable utilisation of natural resources through the involvement of public participation (Department of Environmental Quality Policy, 1996). Moreover, to recognise the important role of traditional communities in natural resource
61 utilisation and conservation, the Thai Constitution were updated in 1997, to be known as “the people Constitution” (Barnaud et al., 2008). With regard to this, the
Thai government has put greater emphasis on local participation in nature conservation planning.
3.3 National Parks, Local Communities and the Conflicts
National park is listed under Category II of the IUCN protected area management categories, a key instrument that IUCN recommends to facilitate communication about protected areas (World Conservation Union, 1994). The value of national parks is important because their creation is one of the solutions for the conservation of nature and endangered species since the rise of environmental problems are believed to be related to human activities.
Taman Negara National Park is the first national park in the Peninsular Malaysia, established in 1938/39 as a result of recommendations made by the Wildlife
Commission of Malaya Report of 1932. During the period, Theodore Hubback of the
British Colonial office researched the potential of establishing a national park for extensive protection of the biological resources for scientific, recreational, and educational interests (Steven, 1968). Consequently, in 1938, His Highness the Sultan of Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu have declared their desired to jointly commemorate the silver jubilee of the accession to the Throne of the Majesty King
George V of Britain by the dedication of certain land situated in each of the said states which shall constitute together as National Park (Pakhriazad et al., 2009). This has led to the creation of the tri-state national parks named Taman Negara National
62 Park after Malaysia’s independence in 1957, which was formerly named as King
George V National Parks.
Three similar enactments called the Taman Negara enactments of Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu between 1938 and 1939 were gazetted to provide a solid agreement with regard to the dedication of the lands in the respective states as part of the Taman
Negara. Due to this situation, the National Park Act 1980 endorsed by Department of
Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) on behalf of the Federal government shall not be applied to the State Parks of Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu, which the respective mentioned enactments for each state will govern the management of the parks. The Superintendent of National Park of Pahang is responsible for the National
Park of Pahang, while the National Park of Kelantan and Terengganu are under the administration of the State DWNP (Sulaiman & Mohd Khalid, 2008).
Therefore, the Federal system in Malaysia presents a significant challenge to perform the integrated resource management as the Constitution grants each state control over its land use (Hezri & Hasan, 2006). Malaysia, being a federation of 13 states, the
Federal Constitution provides a system of government levels (Federal and State) which are separate, yet independent. The State governments have major authority over biodiversity resources as embedded under the constitution (Shafruddin, 1988).
The former Lord President, Tan Sri Abbas, postulated the main reason for the
Malaysian Constitution to ensure the State governments have considerable autonomy over many natural resources matters, including land and forests, as such these matters were traditionally administered prior to and during colonial era by the State governments. In contrast, the non-traditional matters such as foreign policy,
63 international conventions, education, defence and internal security were entrusted under the authority of the Federal government (Abbas, 1986).
According to the Federal Constitution 1957, some laws are Federal legislation, and the others are State enactments. Besides, not all enacted legislations will be applied to the whole Peninsular, as well as the state of Sabah and Sarawak. Further, the legislation does not only fall under one single authority as some of them fall under the responsibility shared between Federal and State authorities. These terms are all specified by the Federal Constitution, under the List I – Federal List (Ninth Schedule of Article 74, 77 Legislative Lists), List II – State List (Article 95B (1)(a), and List
III – Concurrent List (Article 95B (1)(b). There are a number of issues, including the management of wildlife and national parks that are placed under the concurrent status of the constitution, which enable both Federal and State governments to own the valid authority to manage them. However, forestry and land fall under the jurisdiction and legislative authority of the State alone in accordance with the
Concurrent List of the Ninth Schedule. The constitution also ensures Sabah and
Sarawak have additional jurisdiction and thereby limiting Federal intervention, including over biodiversity matters in the two Borneo states (Elagupillay, 2009).
Generally, it is paradoxical that in Malaysia, the establishment of Federal protected areas is limited by State right over land ownership. Yet, Law (2000) reports that the management of the national parks faced several problems such as unclear border demarcation, absence of buffer zones and uncoordinated development at the adjacent areas. For example, the Third Malaysia Plan (1976 – 1980) has developed a policy to designate a total of 22 new protected areas, and this was included the creation of the
64 second national park at the Endau-Rompin region located at the border of Pahang and Johor states (Malaysia, 1976). However, a conflict occurred when the Federal policy through the designated new protected areas under the Federal mechanisms that included Protection of Wildlife Act 1972 and National Parks Act 1980 came to a halt as Johor State government decided not to hand over the management of Endau-
Rompin to the Federal government in early 1990s (Elagupillay, 2009). This was followed by the establishment of a state agency in 1989, namely Johor National Park
Corporation (JNPC), under the Johor National Park Corporation Enactment 1989.
JNPC was enacted to develop, manage and supervise the management of the national parks in Johor under the state mechanism. Currently, there are five parks under the supervision of JNPC including Endau-Rompin, Gunung Ledang, Mersing Islands,
Tanjung Piai, and Pulau Kukup (http://johorparks.com.my/about).
To avoid Federal-State tensions, Federal government has increasingly strengthened the efforts by taking several major steps in policy-making and institutions to guide all the government agencies including State governments on nature conservation issues in the country. With the specific strategies and actions stated in the policy, the State governments are encouraged to cooperate in providing direct assistance to biodiversity protection and management (Malaysia’s National Biodiversity Policy,
1998). On 27 March 2004, for instance, the establishment of a dedicated Ministry to enhance environmental management was realised through the creation of the
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) in Malaysia, touted as a milestone for consolidating the environmental legislation and policy. DWNP which is commonly known as PERHILITAN is a governmental organisation under this
Ministry, entrusted for the protection, management and preservation of biodiversity
65 including wildlife and national parks in Peninsular Malaysia.
Meanwhile, in Thailand, the reign of the military government of Field Marshall Sarit
Thanarat (1959 – 1963) had created a kick start for the initial conservation of the forest. At that moment, national parks, as well as the monarchy and the Thai language began to be seen as ideal national symbols. Sarit’s slogan about the forest was clearly stated: “Forests are significant natural resources for the lives of Thai people and the existence of Thailand. Those who destroy the forests are the enemy who destroy the nation’s security” (Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives 1980, cited in Laungaramsri, 2001, p. 75). After that, the ideal model for the forest management and its development was embraced from developed countries, especially the United States. The American concept of national park was introduced in Thailand in the 1960s to separate human from protected areas (Roth, 2004b), in order to overcome the environmental degradation due to the socio-economic development.
Apparently, this was due to the United States - Thai Cooperation Program that happened in 1955, where the American government sponsored several visits of Thai bureaucrats, forestry academics, engineers, and policy makers to America’s first national park. Since then, the United States model of national parks has become an ambitious idea of modern development for the Thai government (Laungaramsri,
2001). Subsequently, the first national park in Thailand, Khao Yai, was officially gazetted on 18 December 1962, in accordance with the Yellowstone model. Barnaud et al. (2008) stated that in 2006, there were 144 national parks established throughout the country. Among these, more than one third of the national parks were set up
66 between the periods of 1962 to 1972 under the traditional concept of conservation that demarcates the notion of nature as human-free; prohibited people to intrude upon natural resources.
However, the meaning of nature in the Thai language has been hypothesised to reveal conflict or different perceptions between traditional Thai and Western thinking about untouched wilderness of conventional conservation approach which was discussed earlier. The translation of the word “nature” in Thai is “thamachat”.
This word which originates in Buddhism brings meaning “things that occur according to forces of the universe such as human beings, animals, trees etc”
(Laungaramsri, 2001). Therefore, thamachat means an ideal that human is a part of nature.
Similar to the condition in Malaysia, international conservation institutions such as
IUCN and the World Bank have also provided Western experts, technologies and funding to support the protection of Thailand’s rich ecosystem in the midst of rapid deforestation (Laungaramsri, 2002; Roth, 2004a). Nevertheless, problems concerning the management of the national parks, the Federal-State conflicts did not happened in
Thailand, but a survey on the effectiveness of protected area management in
Thailand has reported that Thailand lacks a unified policy to guide and manage the protected areas as the Royal Forest Department (RFD) relies mainly on legislations, regulations and also cabinet resolutions (Maneesai, 2003). For example, to enforce the conservation of protected areas, legal mechanisms were enacted under strict laws, including the Wildlife Reservation and Protection Act B.E. 2503 (1960), amended
B.E. 2535 (1992), and the National Park Act B.E. 2504 (1961). In the meantime,
67 other types of protected areas such as botanical garden and arboretum, administered by the RFD under the regulations set by the Ministry of Agriculture and
Cooperatives (MOAC) (Royal Forest Department, 1994) were also implemented. In this context, Maneesai (2003) pointed to the weaknesses of not having a protected area policy at the national level, since relying on legislations cannot keep the country pace with the rapidly changing world. Moreover, depending (too much) on regulations of MOAC is also problematic because they are created by ministers who often pander to certain interest groups within their parties.
Regardless of the laws and legislations, Thailand has its own protected area system according to categories. In reality, Thailand does not classify the protected areas directly as the nation follows the IUCN system by placing them into six categories based on the objectives of management (World Conservation Union, 1994). There are inconsistency in categorising the protected areas among different agencies and institutions in Thailand. For instance, the RFD classifies protected areas into three categories (Royal Forest Department, 1996). However, the Mekhong International
Development Associations (MIDAS) defines two categories in 1993. Therefore, to strengthen the management of protected areas, Maneesai (2003) posits that the RFD may need to re-categorise the protected areas in order to clearly justify the level of protection.
In order to increase the effectiveness of national park management in Thailand, the reorganisation of the Thai government in relation to nature resource management and conservation was initiated in the year 2002. This reformation has caused all government agencies which were related to natural resources and environment to be
68 included under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The National
Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (NPD) was established under this
Ministry. Therefore, the direct power to manage the national parks had been transferred from the RFD to this new established authority (Suwanmanee, 2009).
In order to save the natural resources within the national parks from human exploitations, the conventional conservation concept described in the beginning of section 3.2 was the most dominant approach applied by many authorities, disseminated to many countries around the world until the 1980s. Local communities including the indigenous people have been expelled from the parks or denied to have access to park resources (Muhumuza & Balkwill, 2013). Under this circumstance, the values of natural resources have been upgraded from utilisation to conservation, while the values of local communities have been downgraded reciprocally.
Concerning the local communities, Borrini-Feyerabend (1992) defines a community as:
A human group sharing a territory and involved in different but related aspects of livelihoods – such as managing natural resources, producing knowledge and culture, and developing productive technologies and practices (Borrini-Feyerabend, 1992).
Since this definition can apply to a range of sizes, Borrini-Feyerabend et al. (2004) further specify that the members of a local community are those people that are likely to have face-to-face encounters and/or direct mutual influences in their daily life. In this sense, a rural village or the inhabitants of urban neighbourhood can be considered as “local community”, but not all the inhabitants of a district, a city
69 quarter or even a rural town. A local community could be permanently settled or mobile.
Communities can also be defined as a group of people with diverse characteristics who are linked by social ties, share common perspectives, and engage in joint action within similar geographical locations or settings (MacQueen et al., 2001) to achieve economic development (Beck, 1992). These two definitions are not in conflict, only the participants are varied as they place different emphasis on particular elements of the definition. On a related note, MacQueen et al. (2001) add that community can be defined similarly but experienced differently by people with diverse background.
Hence, in this study, both local villagers and indigenous people are considered as local communities. It is important to include indigenous people in order to recognise their rights for the sake of sustaining their social, cultural, religious and spiritual values in the protected areas. IUCN in the Article 7 and 15 of the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous Peoples in
Independent Countries, adopted in 1989, states that those indigenous peoples’ rights to land traditionally occupied by them and they should participate in the use, management and conservation of renewable and non-renewable natural resources
(Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2004). Among the Asian countries, Nepal is the only country to ratify ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in 2007.
The country lists 59 indigenous nationalities that have their own mother tongue and traditional customs, different cultural identity, distinct social structure and written or oral history (United Nations, 2014). According to the ILO Convention No. 169, indigenous people include:
70
Tribal peoples in independent countries whose social, cultural, and economic conditions distinguish them from other sections of the national community, and whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions or by special laws or regulations; and
Peoples in independent countries who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonization or the establishment of present state boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions (Oviedo, 2003).
In the Malaysian context, the government has introduced the term “Orang Asli” to change the “aborigines” or Sakai used during the colonial British administration.
Officially, Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia are divided into 19 sub-groups, and categorised under three main groups according to their different physical appearances, languages and customs: Negrito, Senoi and Proto-Malay, also called
“Melayu Asli” (Zainal Abidin & Wee, 2013). According to the Act 134 (Aboriginal
People Act 1954), Orang Asli is defined as:
The mother or father or both are indigenous, speaking in Aboriginal language, according to the Aboriginal way of life and believe in Aboriginal customs and beliefs.
Unlike Malaysia, the indigenous people in Thailand have extensively faced severe discrimination by the local Thai society. They also experience non-recognition of their cultural identity. Since the late 1950s, the aborigines of Thailand are most commonly called “chao khao” which means the mountain or hill tribe people. For the
Thais, it has the meaning of “wild” and “uncivilised” (Network of Indigenous
Peoples in Thailand, 2010). Indigenous rights and advocacy groups have tried to
71 promote the term “chon phao phuen mueng” as the translation of indigenous people in Thai language. However, the initiative was rejected by the government of
Thailand and stated that they are ‘not considered to be minorities or indigenous people but as Thais who are able to enjoy fundamental rights and are protected by the laws of the Kingdom as any other Thai citizens (Erni, 2008). Unfortunately, the indigenous people of Thailand, hitherto, continue to suffer from the stereotyping and discrimination as other aboriginal groups in other parts of the world (Cultural
Survival, Network of Indigenous Peoples in Thailand & Asia Indigenous Peoples
Pact, 2015).
The main purpose of the creation of national park is to conserve the landscape and wildlife. Particularly in a rural context, however, the protection of natural resources has resulted negative impacts to local villagers who are dependent on forest for their basic needs (Ghimire & Pimbert, 1997) and has rendered outright conflicts with the park management (Osunsina & Fagbeyiro, 2015). Firstly, population displacement from their traditional territories has a direct and greatest social impact on livelihoods
(Brechin et al., 2003; Adams & Hutton, 2007). Displacement includes loss of rights to residence, loss of rights to use land and resources, foreclosure of rights to future use and loss of non-consumptive use values, for example access to places of religious or cultural value (Adams & Hutton, 2007). Displacement has led to conflict due to unsatisfactory resettlement and inadequate compensation schemes (Mukherjee &
Board, 2004).
In 2004, for example, the forced displacements in Nechasar and Omo National Parks in Southern Ethiopia were swiftly condemned by the international human rights and
72 NGOs (Pearce, 2005). Two years later, on 13 December 2006, the Botswana High
Court ruled that the Botswana government’s eviction of Bushmen was “unlawful and unconstitutional”, and that they had the right to live on their ancestral land inside the
Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Accordingly, to introduce the emergence of human rights, the Article 16 of ILO Convention No. 169 of IUCN states that the indigenous people shall not be removed from the lands that they occupy and, if this is necessary as an exceptional measure, relocation shall take place only with their free and informed consent and with the assured right of return and proper compensation
(Oviedo, 2003).
Secondly, the economic impacts of wildlife protection are related to the direct cost to local residents such as wildlife damages to people and property, including losses of livestock and agricultural crops (United Nations Environment Programme & World
Conservation Monitoring Centre, 2008) that have led to people having negative attitudes towards nature conservation. In Sabah of Malaysia, a research by Hussin and Mat Som (2008) discloses that there are six main species of animals that eat and damage oil palm seeds, fruit and crop trees that have threatened the everyday life and the safety of the surrounding communities. They are elephants, orang utans, wild boars, porcupines, pig tailed macaques and long tail macaques. Apart from this, other studies have also recorded that elephants are the most difficult and damaging species to defend against (see Bauer, 2003; Madhusudan, 2003; Kideghsho et al., 2007).
This issue of human-wildlife conflict is among the major challenges facing the wildlife conservation particularly in African and Indian countries. Negotiation with indigenous people seems to present one of the most critical challenges for the long-
73 term future of ecosystems in the regions. Interestingly, however, a case study in
Kenya and Botswana reported some dramatically differences in public perceptions of wildlife conservation, whereby in Kenya, they are generally negative and in
Botswana, they are remarkably positive (Sifuna, 2010). He concluded that the major cause for this variance of perception is that in Kenya, wildlife conservation is more often thought of in terms of wildlife welfare and hardly in terms of human welfare, while in Botswana human welfare concerns have been mainstreamed in conservation efforts.
In Southeast Asia, the local involvement and the protection of their traditional rights have not always been a feature for the conservation policy. The rapid expansion of national parks has often resulted in conflict with local residents that compete for the land use demands (Eaton, 1996). With respect to the literature that retrospectively assesses the socio-economic impacts of protected lands, many studies have been done in both Malaysia and Thailand. For instance in Malaysia, a case study in Taman
Negara Pahang National Park which involved indigenous people, called Batek community, reveals local support for conservation policy, but conflicts have arisen over restrictions of individuals and communities’ privacy rights to resource use. The
Batek people claimed that the establishment of national park in Kuala Tahan has deprived their freedom of movement in finding their source of livelihood (Man et al.,
2009).
Within the Kinabalu Park in Sabah and its surrounding indigenous communities, not much protest was transpired. However, this does not take into account the boundary disputes, which are numerous and still on-going. When the park was gazetted in 1964,
74 an approximate boundary on the ground was demarcated on the map. Even though the plot is not precise, the local villagers took the marked boundary as a permanent boundary, seeing that they started to occupy the areas outside the marked boundary for their own agricultural development. Hence twenty years later, the Parks
Enactment 1984 came into picture with certain amendments being made. Due to this situation, the Kinabalu Park was contracted to licensed surveyors to survey the exact and legal boundary of the park. The old boundary with the lands developed or even inhabited by the local people turned out to be inside the proper and legal park boundary. It has created the conflicts of dispute between the park and surrounding communities (Nais, 1996), because buffer zones restrict traditional access rights and land use that may subsequently cause economic loss.
Several studies have also revealed that the Western Yellowstone national park model has resulted in tensions in the forms of conflict, competition, and incompatibility between national park officials and the local communities in Thailand, particularly in regard to the land rights issues (Roth, 2004a; Sato, 2000), and differences of environmental knowledge (Wong et al., 2007). In the Northern Thailand, where a number of ethnic minority groups inhabit the mountain forests, there has long been conflicts between the RFD and highland farmers especially on the strife between highland and lowland farmers over the issue of watershed protection (Roth, 2004b).
Another study in Kaeng Krachan National Park which is located in the south-western region of Thailand, many dissensions and discords were occurred between different cultural social groups including national park practitioners, NGOs and the Karang community at the local level (Suwanmanee, 2009).
75 There are ample field-based evidences that conventional conservation concept has harmed many local communities, including the world poorest and most marginalised groups, but some of the conservationists are still holding the different perspectives in the debates over poverty that linked to exclusionary park management (Adams &
Hutton, 2007). They argue that some conservation biologists claim that national park implementation cannot be a cause of such poverty because conservation and poverty are different issues. Furthermore, Brandon (1998) contends that parks are unfairly being made responsible for curing structural problems such as poverty, unequal land and resource allocation, corruption, injustice and market failure. To summarise, the issue still remains arguable and warrants further justification.
3.4 Crisis Management in National Parks
There are various definitions of crisis and many highlight the importance of subjectively perceived uncertainty, time pressure, iteration nature of escalation, intersection of “information noise” overload with lack of reliable data, threats to significant values and the necessity of taking additional risks for decision makers
(Gareev, 2014). Ritchie (2009) and Dayton (2013) respectively argue that all crises have three elements in common. First, each crisis threatens core societal values, including human life, organisational survival, environmental security, or political reputation. The second key point in crisis situations is the urgency and speed of dealing with the incidents. Third, both scholars also point out that crisis is described as surprise, and hence contains a high degree of uncertainty about “what’s going on”.
This is why a proactive approach to crisis management is crucial.
76 Accordingly, crisis management could best be referred to the set of decisions made and actions taken by decision makers to assess, mitigate, prepare for, respond to, recover from, and learn from crisis situations (Dayton, 2013). It is the process by which an organisation deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens the organisation, its stakeholders or the general public (Bundy et al., 2016). Strategic preparedness and management of crisis could improve an organisation’s ability to identify, analyse, control, finance and manage a wide range of risk and crisis, whilst at the same time fulfilling its social responsibility and ensuring survival of business
(Mohd Dahan et al., 2010).
This section discusses various crises that have occurred in the national parks in many developing and less developed countries, with specific focus on crisis management plans for resolving park-people conflicts and promoting local support for conservation activities. In order to stop the growing loss of natural resources, global conservation efforts have mostly focused on creating protected areas that are free from human activities. Unfortunately, many of them are still in crisis (Hogkins et al.,
2006). There are invariably conflicting interests between biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods. However, such conflicts that compromise the people’s livelihoods and solutions to conflicts are inadequate as it generates their opposition to park management.
Painilainen (2011) opines that crisis could appear in the national parks in various forms and could influence the success of conservation and also its tourism activities through negative impacts on visitors and their visitation. For example, a study conducted by Mohd Dahan et al. (2010) in Taman Negara National Park in Kuala
77 Tahan, Pahang Malaysia that investigates the crisis prevention and preparedness towards safety and security issues in the park found that the crisis management plan requires the national park authority to ensure that the place is safe and well-secured for tourists whilst protecting the nature. Yet, the findings reveal that the park’s effort in managing crisis is still fragmented as most of the service providers are not well informed of the basic emergency preparedness. The study also suggests the involvement of all relevant stakeholders in the crisis management team to be vital and required. In general, all boat operators, tour guides, food providers, rescue team, hospital, park authority, and neighbouring communities must be a part of the crisis plan and strategy.
In a study on conservation crisis in Nepal, Budhathoki (2003) recognises the rising trend of animal poaching, uncontrolled extraction of forest products, and the destruction of park infrastructure that have threatened the effectiveness of nature conservation activities in the national parks of Nepal. Therefore, the parks are inextricably in critical conditions. Also, these problems are associated with army approach which has caused many national parks are slowly turning into “paper parks”. The parks are only protected on paper due to difficult and dangerous working conditions.
As the result, the level of activity of park management is slowly decreasing. Due to security reasons, the park offices of many protected areas in Nepal including
Kanchanjunga Conservation Area, Mannaslu Conservation Area, Dhorpatan Hunting
Reserve and Makalu Barun National Park have been forced to move to respective district headquarters. Moreover, in many areas, the park infrastructures have been
78 destroyed as the army has occupied the park headquarters as part of the defence strategy. Lack of protection of forest and their biodiversity has created opportunities for poachers and timber smugglers. According to Yonzon (2002) (as cited in
Budhathoki, 2003), conservation effectiveness has been blocked in many protected areas over Nepal and the breakdown of forest protection law is widespread. The country has lost 38 endangered one-horn rhinos in Chitwan National Park in a year due to uncontrolled animal poaching.
In terms of socio-economic risks which are associated with national park protection,
Budhathoki (2003) claims that nature conservation approach in Nepal is based on traditional concept whereby people are excluded or prohibited to intrude upon natural resources. To realise the implementation, Nepalese army has been regularly deployed for park protection. Consequently, the armed conflict often reduces the human access to park resources and has threatened the survival of marginalised and poor communities who are living around. Property damage and injury from wildlife attacks resulted in the expression of negative people feeling, violent resentment and hostility against the wildlife. Hence, human-wildlife conflicts have been a major challenge in recent years and have caused Nepal’s conservation in crisis (Acharya et al., 2016).
Essentially, crisis eruption demands the conservation agencies to reassess their policies, practices, and priorities and identify better options that could overcome such circumstances. An academic research by Budhathoki (2003) suggests some alternative mechanisms for long-term natural resources conservation of the country.
The management and planning of national parks shall take a broader approach with
79 greater emphasis on the incorporation of local livelihood concerns, as this will allow the local people to develop a sense of “ownership” towards the resources. In reality, the participation of local communities is more important than the mere presence of conservation agencies and armed militaries.
In a similar vein, Macura et al. (2010) also support the view that empowering local people is the best option for solving conservation crisis. Illustration-wise, Djerdap
National Park is the national largest park in Serbia, rich in biodiversity and cultural heritage. However, the construction of a dam with the largest hydropower plant system on the Danube River has resulted social and economic problems to the local communities. A complex combination of factors including the dam-building and subsequent national park policy have led to the destruction of natural resources and cultural heritage, depopulation and impoverishment of local communities.
The economic impacts which are linked to inadequate park management and restrictions on resource use have contributed to unauthorised activities such as logging, fishing and hunting, collecting forest products and illegal construction of tourist facilities. This has resulted in serious conflict between the park management and neighbouring communities. Macura et al. (2010) argue that the local people have not been properly included in park management and were therefore unable to articulate their problems and needs. Hence, the future actions and long term crisis management plans for Djerdap National Park aim to put theoretical knowledge of participative democracy into practice. The first step would be to foster local community involvement in decision-making and management.
80 Conservation efforts gradually look forward to involving the local communities in planning and executing the conservation activities, and most importantly in sharing the benefits (Falloux & Talbot, 2013). A case study in Liuwa Plain National Park in
Western Zambia verifies a proactive attempt in risk management through benefit- sharing and collaborative governance to gain local support for conservation activities
(Nyirenda & Nkhata, 2013). A range of benefit-sharing schemes through local employment and development projects could play an important role in reducing conflicts and improving local attitudes towards conservation (Hockings & Humle,
2009).
3.5 Previous Studies on Local Communities’ Perspectives on Nature
Conservation
Previous studies on nature conservation have recognised local communities as the key focus to increase effectiveness of national park management (Ozturk et al., 2010;
Vodouhe et al., 2010; Mamo, 2015). This is also in resonance with the observation made by Mascia et al. (2003) that conservation policies and practices are inherently social phenomena:
Although it may seem counterintuitive that the foremost influences on the success of environmental policy could be social, conservation interventions are the product of human decision-making processes and require changes in human behaviour to succeed (Mascia et al., 2003, p. 649).
As a result, over the past few decades, understanding local communities’ perceptions of national parks and knowing their support for nature conservation is critical for improving the park-people relationship (Weladji, Moe & Vedeld, 2003; Allendorf,
81 Smith & Anderson, 2007). It is also fundamental to ensure the effectiveness of conservation efforts, because it can provide the guidance for policy and management decision of the national park. Having said that, the importance of understanding local communities’ perceptions and attitudes, their needs and aspirations have received profound attention among the researchers, conservation practitioners and park authorities (Kideghesho et al., 2007).
Previous literature demonstrates that many scholars appear to have different interpretations towards the terms perceptions and attitudes in their studies. On one hand, evidence exists that these two terms have been used interchangeably since perceptions are epistemologically related to attitudes (Chen & Raab, 2009). Both elements could be very difficult to distinguish because perceptions and attitudes are interwoven and mutually influenced. On the other hand, conflicting issues regarding the understandings of these two concepts also have been reported.
As highlighted by Ap (1992), there is a vivid distinction in the exact definition between perceptions and attitudes. In his study on residents’ perceptions towards tourism impacts, perception implies a people’s knowledge of or beliefs towards tourism. Meanwhile, attitude refers to emotive component in the person’s responses and is described as an individual’s relatively consistent evaluations and feelings towards tourism. Eagly and Chaiken (1993) also define attitude as:
A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degrees of favour or disfavour... evaluating refers to all classes of evaluative responding, whether over or covert, cognitive, affective or behavioural (p. 1).
82 According to Pickens (2005), attitude can be defined as a mind-set or a tendency to act in a particular way due to an individual’s personality and experience. Meanwhile,
Willams and Lawson (2001) postulate that there is no universally accepted definition of attitude, and there is a considerable debate regarding the basic conceptualisation.
They have stated, “overall attitude towards an object is taken to be (some function of) the aggregate of beliefs about the object and the corresponding evaluation of them”
(p. 272). Together with Ap (1992) and William and Lawson (2001), the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Azjen, 1975) suggests that attitude towards behaviour is obtained by summing up the behavioural beliefs and the evaluation of outcomes.
Various kind of research initiatives have been undertaken to enhance understanding of the perceptions of rural stakeholders on nature conservation and their attitudes whether to support or not the conservation activities in and around the national parks.
Many results indicated that the majority of local people held favourable attitudes towards these national parks mainly due to the benefits generated from tourism development (Mehta & Heinen, 2001; Walpole & Goodwin, 2001; Chen et al., 2005;
Eraqi, 2007). In different words, benefits impact people's attitudes on nature conservation (Sekhar, 2003). These researchers have suggested that direct and indirect benefits which local residents could exert from the conservation areas would promote incentives for people to perceive nature conservation positively, and therefore allowing forest to regenerate. For example, tourism activities have successfully offered various kind of employment opportunities and additional income to the rural residents through homestay programme, restaurant, shopping and recreational activities (Chen et al., 2005; Razzaq et al., 2011).
83 In Malaysia, the argument of local support for national park preservation is often interlinked with the socio-economic benefits from tourism development that have been delineated in a study conducted by Jaafar et al. (2015) in Kinabalu National
Park, Sabah. Their result shows that rural tourism has benefited local communities by improving their standard of living through stimulating the economic growth, valuing social cultural heritage, and promoting the growth of service industries.
These tourism benefits have definitely encouraging positive attitudes and behaviours among the rural communities (Jaafar et al., 2013).
On a contrary, other past studies have documented that local residents pose negative perceptions and attitudes of nature conservation within the national park due to losses of crops to wild animals and restrictions imposed on access to traditional resources in the forest (Jim & Xu, 2002; Bajracharya et al., 2006; Rinzin et al., 2009;
Sifuna, 2010; Szell & Hallett IV, 2013). Both Malaysia and Thailand are also threatened by conflicts between park authorities and surrounding populations due to the loss of economic resources from the forests. These have been reported in the cases of Taman Negara Pahang National Park in Malaysia (Man et al., 2009) and
Wat Chun forest in Chiang Mai, Thailand (Yamauchi, 2005). Besides that, there is clear evidence that suggests wildlife conservation has also affected the safety of the local people. Jenks et al.'s (2014) survey on local people’s perceptions and attitudes of dholes (Cuon alpinus) around protected areas in the south-eastern Thailand reports that majority of the interviewees agreed with the statement that “dholes are dangerous”, where they believed that dholes will attack people and livestock.
84 Socio-demographic variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, level of education, and household structure have been regarded as factors that influence the perceptions and attitudes of local people on conservation efforts. For example, attitudinal survey by
Mehta and Heinen (2001) indicates that in contrast to people with little or no education, high school graduates were in much better position to comprehend the importance of the conservation area, therefore resulting in more positive attitudes.
Jacobson (1995) and Kellert (1996) also propose that environmental education can be very instrumental in contributing stronger environmental attitudes and behaviours among rural people.
Another factor is the influence of wealth on conservation attitudes and this facet has caused a slew of arguments. Infield (1988) and Hackel (1999) discover that wealthier households are more willing to abstain from resource extraction. This finding stands in contrast to poor households who are mostly depending on the natural resources for their survival. However, Holmes (2003) elucidates different points of view regarding this matter. He suggests that resource-use interests are largely dependent upon expected individual gains, which vary according to household needs and ability to process these resources for potential local sale or trade. His study in a protected area of Western Tanzania reports that wealthier households (with both material wealth and land wealth) shown greater interest in gaining access to the wood resources in
Katavi National Park. It was found that the poorer households were only interested in fuel wood collection, while the wealthier households would use the access to extract trees that are suitable for sale or trade as a timber. This is because it is the wealthier minority with sufficient means at their disposal such as labour, equipment and capital that can afford such profit-driven activities. This argument is supported by Songorwa
85 (1999) who found similar effects of wealth on resource-use interests and has concluded that wealthier households could reap more profits from access to the protected area’s resources, because only they had the resources at their disposal that enabled them to absorb any costs associated with revenue-generating projects.
Low level of awareness and limited knowledge about the importance of nature conservation among the communities could influence their perceptions through a negative side (Szell & Hallett IV, 2013). In this case, Sesabo et al. (2006) expound that the existence of rules and regulations on marine resources management including the enforced formal and informal rules depends on the awareness of rural people regarding the resources management. Moreover, their research proves that the households’ knowledge about the reasons behind the establishing marine protected areas is heavily depending on the understanding and awareness of the objectives of protected area establishment. With respect to this context, the rural households who are more aware of the existence of rules and regulations will be more supportive to the establishment of protected area than those without such awareness.
Similar to this finding, a study conducted by Ormsby and Kaplin (2005) in Masoala
National Park, Madagascar also unveils that the residents’ perceptions are affected by the awareness of the park’s existence and goals, as well as the distance of village to the park. They found that generally residents who express greater park awareness will also deliver positive sentiments towards the park, while residents with minimal or no knowledge of the park would convey ambivalent outlook, but not necessarily negative attitudes towards the park. The local people’s degree of knowledge and awareness of the park’s existence were found to be influenced by few factors
86 including attendance at past meeting, interaction with park staff, and participation in park programmes such as community development and education efforts.
Past studies have also described the familiarity with park staff can be seen as an effective tool to build good relationship between park managers and local communities, and hence could increase local support for conservation activities
(Newmark et al., 1993; Fiallo & Jacobson, 1995; Infield & Namara, 2001).
Nevertheless, restrictions on natural resource use, lack of trust between park authorities and local people, lack of local participation in conservation and the difficulty of communication can lead to conflicts and poor relationship between these two groups (Hough, 1988). In contrast, Holmes (2003) found a link between increased familiarity and interest in accessing park resources that could be associated with greater potential for illegal entrance and resource extraction.
Besides, the uniqueness of this comparative study between Malaysia and Thailand lies at how the people of two countries with different cultural and religious backgrounds perceive nature conservation. There are relevant past literatures which have debated the importance roles of cultural values, traditions and beliefs in moulding the local views and attitudes towards environmental issues. For example,
Park (2005) affirms that, a person’s personality or attitude has been sometimes described as the individual and subjective aspect of culture. According to Anderson and Gale (1992), culture is seen as “a dynamic mix of symbols, beliefs, languages and practices that people create, but not a fixed thing or entity governing humans” (p.
3). The concept of cultural traditions in anthropology has historically denoted a broad
87 body of beliefs, customary behaviours and modes of social organisation that are transmitted over generations (Head et al., 2005).
In relevant to this, a previous research conducted in China records that the sacred natural sites plays an important cultural role and offers religious meaning for the rural communities around the region of northwest Yunnan (Allendorf, Brandt, &
Yang, 2014). Their study indicates local people’s appreciation towards the existence of forests near to their villages and they primarily view the sacred forests as religious sites. Another recent research was carried out in Malaysia to study the local participation in national heritage conservation including cultural and nature attractions. The authors believe that the public perceptions on cultural attractions will give tremendous boost to sustainable development (Idilfitri et al., 2015).
Although substantial studies have been conducted to focus on local perspectives of conservation activities and contributing factors that influence their perceptions, little work has specifically implemented to examine and compare the environmental attitudes of villagers from different cultural and religious groups. Hence, this research which is conducted in Malaysia and Thailand contributes to narrowing the gap by comparing the perspectives on nature conservation among the local communities from two different countries who are respectively practicing Buddhism,
Islam and animism.
88 3.6 Communication, Conflicts and Nature Conservation
This section focuses on the roles of communication strategies in nature conservation activities with aims: (i) to solve the conflicts between national park management and local communities living in and surrounding the parks and, (ii) to raise awareness of local communities towards the importance of nature conservation for the sake of achieving park effectiveness. Many researchers claim the conservation rules and regulations of displacing locals from parks have caused a variety of social conflicts and poor relationship with the neighbouring populations. Therefore, the discussion below leverages on how communication can work towards conflict resolution and improves the park-people relationship. Second, it also narrates different kinds of communication approaches and strategies through effective awareness-raising campaigns, and how it is important to meet the conservation goals. The three important elements of communication, education and public awareness will be accordingly debated.
It has been argued earlier that nature conservation efforts and local people benefits are always conflicting, neither for traditional nor contemporary conservation approaches. Conflict can arise when access to natural resources is prohibited or resulted from human-wildlife conflict (Baker et al., 2013). To that extent, Baker et al.
(2013) also claim that achieving a balance of improving park-people relationship while enforcing conservation laws can be a significant challenge, particularly at the national parks surrounded by residents who are traditionally depending on the natural resources to sustain their livings. This is because whenever the conflicts were not
89 handled properly, they may threaten or even damage the existence of such relationship.
Many experts and researchers concurred that communication remains the central aspect in managing and eliminating different kinds of conflicts between national parks and local villagers especially regarding the issues of resource protection and human rights. For instance, Krauss and Morsella (2000) state when neighbours feud, lovers' quarrel or nations war, the predictable remedy prescribed by the voices of reason is communication. Their proposal is that when facing with terrible conflicts, communication is always the right thing to do. Northouse (2011), likewise, proclaims when conflict exists in leadership situations, it can be recognised and expressed through communication. He also agrees that communication plays a chief role in handling the conflicts. However, on the other hand, the scholar also treats communication as the means that people use to express their disagreements or differences. The reason behind this verdict is that communication provides the avenue by which conflicts can be successfully resolved, or worsened, or even produce negative results.
Similar to what have been discussed in the problem statements of this study, one of the possible causes for conflicts between the parks and local populations is lack of communication (Ruschkowski, 2010) and therefore has caused lack of opportunity for the residents to participate in the decision-making process (Fennell, 2003).
Notwithstanding the obvious predicaments, effective communication contributes to the improvement of park-people interactions and successful in achieving conservation goals.
90
In short, to achieve effectiveness within the conflict resolution, the critical approach is to practice positive communication skills. But how can people communicate effectively? And under what conditions will communication reduce conflict? In an attempt to answer such questions, the principles of communication, and what communication actually is, should be firstly described. Fiske (1982) alluded to communication as “one of those human activities that everyone recognizes but few can define satisfactorily”. The field of communication is abundant with definitions, as many scholars have made umpteen attempts to define the meaning of it.
For social psychologists, communication remains as an indispensable concept
(Krauss & Fussell, 1996) especially within the lens of social science. According to
Visamaki (2012), for example, communication constitutes a strong base of human interaction, where people communicate constantly and inevitably every day in various ways. Hence, communication is essential for any form of social life. The clear view of communication was portrayed by a renowned sociologist, Thomas
Luckman, seems to be in tandem with what Visamaki (2012) has accentuated.
“Communication has come to mean all things to all men” (Luckmann, 1993), as it is a very common human activity that has been used in many ways and contexts.
Despite this, common to all conceptualisations, communication is the idea of information transfer: Information that originates in one part of a system is formulated into a message which can be transferred to another part of the system (Krauss &
Morsella, 2000). In other words, communication is a process of transferring the information from sender to receiver, implying that the receiver understands the
91 message (Spaho, 2013). Needless to say, human communication may be understood by the process of message transmitted from one person to another, the idea of how information and knowledge is shared and transferred within the family, community and society.
It is, however, being argued by other scholars in different way. Tim O’Sullivan et al.
(1983) define communication as “a negotiation and exchange of meaning, in which messages, people-in-cultures and reality interact so as to enable meaning to be produced or understanding to occur”. The gist is that communication in real life is more complex than relaying messages from the sender to the receiver. Alike with this argument, Adler (1991) stresses that generally there are cross-cultural barrier which may occur at any stage of the communication process when a person from one culture sends a message to a person from another culture. In order to overcome this cross-cultural miscommunication, effective communication should be employed to surmount this barrier by conveying a concise and clear message from the sender to receiver.
For example, effective interpretive communication was emphasised in a study conducted by Lackey and Ham (2004) in Yosemite National Park, Central California on how to solve the conflicts between human and black bears. Information delivered from park employees to visitors to increase visitors' compliance with food storage regulations is considered as a strategy for reducing human-bear conflicts. The effectiveness of this interpretive programme has been proven to influence the behaviour of visitors with regard to proper food storage and what they should do if they encounter a bear.
92
Besides its important role in solving the park-people conflicts and improving their relationship, communication strategies also are critical to successful nature conservation. The next question then is how communication could be an instrumental device to achieve nature conservation goals? Strategic communication tools play an indispensable role in conservation efforts by providing information to educate the public and create their awareness, in order to influence them to change their perceptions and attitudes on conservation practices. Otherwise, it could be perceived that one of the best ways of promoting nature conservation is to raise people awareness on the importance and impacts of biodiversity loss. People are likely to support conservation when they understand that the protection of biodiversity can be crucial to them and their future generations (Meribe, 2014).
A study by Jacobson (2009) has tested the use of communication as a tool to meet specific conservation goals. For example, park visitors who were reached by communication efforts express greater concern to achieve management objectives.
The researchers also found that both brochures and personal interaction with park staff have enhanced the visitors’ knowledge about the park management objectives and have resulted in more positive attitudes towards environment protection. Another example of successful application of communication strategy in nature conservation activities was performed at Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica when a tour- guide training program was developed to keep eco-tourists from harassing nesting sea turtles. The park management achieved their conservation goals through the use of communication programme for tourists and local residents (Jacobson & Robles,
1992).
93
Conservationists also tend to utilise the mass media to boost public awareness on environmental issues because mass communication is always the most efficient strategy of communicating a message widely (Sayers, 2006). The public receives much of its environmental information through mass media channel (Jacobson, 2009).
Information that are available from the communication media include television and radio broadcasts, internets and websites, social media posts, printed materials such as newspapers, magazines and others.
Thus, environmental communication should be defined as a planned and strategic use of communication processes and media products to support effective policy making, public participation and project implementation geared towards environmental sustainability (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1999).
More generally, it is the communication of environmental information between communicators and audiences using different media for augmenting public knowledge and awareness towards sustainable environmental practices
(Environmental Communication Resource Centre, 2000, cited in Pillmann, 2002). In essence, Pillmann (2002) avers that environmental communication is closely related to sustainable development. Through a strategic communication process, responsible behaviours towards social, economic and ecological concerns would be stimulated.
As a result, it can encourage a positive change and paradigm shift in attitudes on environmental conservation efforts and achieve sustainability of natural resources
(Ismail Khan, 2003).
94 Ismail Khan (2003) further highlights two main approaches of communication which are generally practised among the governmental and non-governmental organisations: vertical and horizontal approaches. The vertical approach is also regarded as traditional flows of communication process which is based on the assumption that people are looking for information, knowledge and skills, in order for them to form attitudes and behaviours accordingly. Lunenburg (2010) views this pattern as a downward communication because it transmits information from higher to lower levels of the organisation. On the other hand, horizontal communication approach is useful in solving the conflicts and decreasing the misunderstanding. It is valuable to build the existing knowledge for conflict resolution and change the people’s attitudes through dialogue and interaction.
IUCN (2007) also reports, in order to effectively communicate the environmental issues, communicators must adopt science and policy wisely to develop messages that inspire people about life on Earth. With the aim of bringing science to life, the role of effective communicators is to translate complex science into compelling messages that will instigate the public actions, required to conserve natural resources.
Whilst many studies have been conducted to link the role of communication in environmental conservation efforts, there is still a scarcity of published literature on nature conservation, people and communication strategies in Malaysia and Thailand.
In the absence of such literature, this research aims to fill in the gap by proposing strategic communication framework for national parks in both countries.
95 CHAPTER 4
METHODOLOGY
This chapter characterises the three methods that have been used in this study: focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and observations. Focus group discussions were applied to get respondents to discuss on their perspectives on nature conservation. It also aims to identify possible factors that influence their perceptions.
These factors were then further explored in detail by using in-depth interviews.
Comparatively, the observation is another way of collecting qualitative data to support, clarify and confirm the data from the interviews.
4.1 Study Areas
4.1.1 Study area 1: Taman Negara Pahang, Kuala Tahan Malaysia
Being the first and largest national park in Malaysia, Taman Negara covers an area of
4,344 square kilometres and constitutes the central spine of the Peninsular Malaysia through a combination of three protected areas in three states, Pahang, Kelantan, and
Terengganu (Department of Wildlife and National Park, 1987). It was established in
1938 as King George V National Park by the Sultan of Pahang in cooperation with the Sultan of Kelantan and Terengganu, and was then renamed as Taman Negara after Malaysia’s independence from British rule in 1957, which literally means
“national park” in Malay (United Nations Environment Programme, World
Conservation Monitoring Centre, 1992). With a reputation as the World’s oldest tropical rainforest, Taman Negara is estimated to be more than 130 million years old.
96
Taman Negara Pahang covers the largest area at 2,477 square kilometres or 57 per cent of the whole Taman Negara. Majority of the land area of Taman Negara Pahang is mountainous with peaks such as Gunung Teku, Gunung Tangga Dua Belas and
Gunung Tahan (the highest peak at 2,187 metres). The park is drained by the main river of Sungai Tahan which is originated from Gunung Tahan, as well as Sungai
Tembeling (Pakhriazad, Hasmadi & Aida, 2009). The vegetation of Taman Negara
Pahang is made up of tropical rainforest include lowland dipterocarp forest, hill dipterocarp forest, montane oak and laurels forest, and montane ericaceous forest
(Kochummen, 1990). The great diversity of flora in the park maintains a natural habitat for around 250 to 300 species of birds and large mammals such as tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses, gaurs and others (United Nations Environment Programme
& World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 1992).
Kuala Tahan is a village located at the confluence of the Sungai Tahan and Sungai
Tembeling in the state of Pahang. The administrative centre at Kuala Tahan is also the main entrance to the Taman Negara Pahang (Pakhriazad, Hasmadi & Aida, 2009).
In Kuala Tahan, local communities include the local Malays and aborigines called
Batek people, descendants of Negritos (Abidin, 1999). The Negritos are regarded as one of the earliest ethnic groups who inhabit the Peninsular Malaysia for at least
25,000 years. Among 2,000 people of them in the country, there are about 700 to 800
Batek people who have settled down their lives in the forests especially in Taman
Negara and the nearby areas (Haron et. al., 2012).
97 The Malays in Kuala Tahan are Muslims while the Batek tribe are mostly without organised or codified religious beliefs as they used to believe in animism and worship their ancestors. At present, they still hold with traditional practices interrelated with the natural environment. However, as processes of globalisation have transformed the Malaysian landscapes, many Batek groups have been relocated to the forest fringes where they are often pressured into conversion from their predominantly animist beliefs to other religions, particularly Islam (Tacey, 2013).
The local communities who live in villages around Kuala Tahan, along the Sungai
Tahan and Sungai Tembeling, have a rich historical and cultural background. Bronze
Age articles have been recovered from the Sungai Tembeling which was regarded by archaeologists as one of the richest prehistoric sites in the country (Word
Conservation Monitoring Centre, 1997).
Generally, the local people are working as agriculturalists and depending on forest products. The Batek economy is based on the mixture of hunting and gathering the forest resources (Lye, 2002; Endicott & Endicott 2008; Endicott & Endicott, 2014).
Apart from that, the local Malays and Batek are also involved in ecotourism business by becoming the tourist guides, porters, jungle trackers, mountain climbing guides, recreation outfitters as well as chalet and food service operators. Also, there are villagers who sell handicrafts and souvenirs, local food products, vegetables, fruits, and fishes to the local businesses and resorts (Abidin, 1999). Some of them are employed by DWNP to engage in certain aspects of park management such as park rangers, maintenance crews, and general workers. Since the establishment in 1938, nature tourism within Taman Negara has provided a direct economic benefit to the park and also to the local communities (Abdullah et al., 1992; Shuib et al., 1994).
98 4.1.2 Study area 2: Khao Yai National Park, Thailand
Khao Yai National Park in Thailand is a national symbol of nature conservation, being Thailand’s first national park which was established in 1962, located near to
Bangkok and is well promoted for tourism (Chape, 2005). The park was designated as an ASEAN Heritage Park in 1984. In 2005, together with three other parks in the same range of the Dong Phayayen Mountains, Khao Yai National Park was proclaimed as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) World Heritage Site under the name “Dong Phayayen - Khao Yai Forest
Complex” (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 2013).
As the third largest national park in Thailand, blessed with rich biodiversity such as the lush and mountainous landscape as well as the pounding waterfalls and creeks, the Khao Yai National Park is named after the large mountain range that divides the central Thailand from the north-eastern Thailand. Previously, Khao Yai was considered as a dangerous area to travel through. This area was a wildlife habitat and undesirable for human settlement due to the high risk of drought, fever infection, and wildlife attacks. Later, tax exemption for agricultural land use announced by His
Majesty the King had promoted human settlement in Khao Yai after the completion of the railway construction that gave easier access to this area. Afterwards, the establishment of the Khao Yai forest as a national park was begun in the year 1959 when the Prime Minister, General Sarit Thanarat proposed to the cabinet on the reservation of forest for natural resources conservation (National Park, Wildlife and
Plant Conservation Department, 2007).
99 The national park is located in the north-eastern of Thailand, covers four provinces:
Nakhon Nayok, Prachin Buri, Nakhon Ratchasima and Saraburi. The park is generally mountainous, encompasses an area of 2,166 square kilometres, with its highest peak is Khao Rom at 1,351 metres above sea-level. There are three main types of vegetation dominant in Khao Yai National Park that include tropical rainforest, hill evergreen forest, and grassland or secondary forest (Khwaiphan &
Boonkerd, 2008). The forests provide a wide range of ecosystems and habitats for at least 2,500 plant species, which 16 being endemic (MacKinnon, 1997). From the wildlife resources survey reported by NPD (2007), there is a total of 296 wildlife species found in Khao Yai National Park including 31 species of mammal, 221 species of bird, 32 species of reptile, and 12 species of amphibian.
Khao Yai has villages within the national park and confronts heavy settlement pressure from 104 villages along its borders. The local communities are all local Thai people; with nearly 95 per cent of the population is Buddhist. The majority of the local people around the national park involve in the agricultural sectors such as maize cropping, orchard farming, flower farming, mushroom farming, and chicken farming. Also, they are employed by NPD to be involved in conservation management such as park guards (National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation
Department, 2007).
100 4.2 Research Design and Method
Qualitative research methods were employed for this study because they are relevant in providing an understanding of human experience, interactions and behaviour patterns (Bursztyn, 2006). From its essential nature, qualitative research recognises the value and validity of personal experience and the existence of competing ways of understanding social realities. Furthermore, Rubin and Babbie (2011) also illustrate that qualitative research is indeed effective for studying subtle nuances in attitudes and behaviours with specific aim to investigate social processes over time. In comparison to quantitative method, the qualitative approach often expands upon what has been found in surveys and attempts to explain why the audience or public thought or behaved as it did (Stacks, 2004).
As such, the strength of the qualitative method towards this research lies in the depth of the understanding of the points of view of different people, and the social and cultural contexts within which they live (Myers, 2013). In other words, its key contribution is to produce culturally specific and contextually rich data (Mack,
Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest & Namey, 2005). Besides that, flexibility is another advantage of qualitative research where the researcher may modify the research design at any time. For example, qualitative research can be engaged whenever the occasion arises, whereas a survey or an experiment cannot be initiated easily.
Moreover, other social scientific research methods may require expensive equipment or an expensive research staff, but qualitative research can be relatively inexpensive where it can be undertaken by one researcher with a notebook and pencil only (Rubin
& Babbie, 2011).
101
There have been different approaches used for collecting qualitative data particularly applicable to social works such as interviews and questionnaires, observations and participant observations (fieldwork), documents and texts, and the research’s impressions and reactions (Myers, 2009). In this study, qualitative data were derived from focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and participant observations, which were conducted in two phases. All the three sources are able to provide profound details of the participants’ viewpoints from their words and images (Daly,
1992).
In the first phase of this research, focus group discussions were used to obtain quick information on how the respondents perceive nature conservation efforts and the reasons of having such perceptions. The findings from focus group were important to build interview questions to be used in the in-depth interviews. This is because in the second phase, it was all about exploring deeper insights into particular phenomena.
In-depth interviews were conducted with the purpose of gathering an in-depth understanding of respondents’ perspectives and attitudes, by providing answers of how and why the people perceived certain opinions and have such attitudes.
102
Focus group discussions
Phase 1 Thematic Data collection analysis
Data analysis
Identification of themes and sub-themes
In-depth interviews Non-participant observations Phase 2
Narrative Data collection analysis
Data analysis
Findings interpretation
Figure 4.1: Research design based on Creswell’s (2003) qualitative research methods
103 4.2.1 Focus group discussions
Kreuger (1988) defines a focus group as a “carefully planned discussion designed to obtain perceptions in a defined area of interest in a permissive, non-threatening environment” (p. 18). Following and extending the ideas of Krueger, Lederman (as cited in Thomas et al., 1995) states, focus group is a technique that involves the use of in-depth group interviews in which the participants are selected because they are a purposive, although not necessarily representative sampling of a specific population, and this group was being “focused” on a given topic. Hence, a focus group is also referred as group interviewing which based on structured, semi-structured, or unstructured interviews. It has been increasingly popular among the qualitative researchers for exploring what individuals believe or feel, as well as why they behave in the way they do (Rabiee, 2004).
Focus group discussion method is applauded and widely used in recent times mainly because of its strength of convenience, economic advantage, high face validity, and speedy results (Krueger, 1988). It offers the opportunity to interview several respondents systematically and simultaneously (Babbie, 2011) to provide information about a range of ideas and feelings that individuals have on certain issues, as well as illuminating the differences in perspectives between groups of individuals (Rabiee, 2004). Apparently, the reasons of conducting focus groups in this study are also mainly associated with the advantages of this method. This method was employed in order to generate diverse perspectives about nature conservation among the respondents with various backgrounds.
104 In relation to this, many authors adhere to the idea that focus group discussion is advantageous because of its purposeful use of social interaction in generating data
(Merton et al., 1990; Morgan, 1996). The application of the focus group technique allows researchers to collect a large amount of data in a short period; at the same time permitting spontaneity of interaction among the participants (Freitas et al.,
1998). As a consequence, Green et al. (2003) (as cited in Rabiee, 2004) elaborate that the uniqueness of a focus group is its ability to collect data based on the synergy of the group interaction. The participants of the group should, therefore, feel comfortable with each other and engage in discussion.
However, conducting a focus group is an art that requires considerable experience and training. The role and responsibility of the moderator is important to build rapport in the group (Stewart & Shamdasani, 1990). They recommend all the participants to introduce themselves before conducting the discussion, which is called as “break the ice”. Krueger (2002) also contends that the opening part to introduce a focus group is critical. The success of a focus group discussion is the direct result of how well this open environment is developed. Krueger proposes that the pattern for a good opening includes a welcome, overview of the topic, ground rules, and the first question.
4.2.2 In-depth interviews
In this study, in-depth interviews is useful for obtaining insights into the person’s own beliefs, perceptions, attitudes, and accounts about the nature conservation. This exhaustive interview is an effective qualitative method for getting people to talk
105 about their personal feelings, opinions and experience rather than collecting numerical data. According to Seidman (1991), in-depth interview is suitable and very effective to study the ideas and perspectives of the particular groups, including indigenous people. This interview approach is an effective way of looking at what people feel and think about their worlds (Rubin & Rubin, 1995). It helps the researcher to gain an insight into individual evaluations of the research topic.
In addition, as mentioned before, the qualitative interviewing design is flexible, iterative and continuous, rather than prepared in advance and written in stone (Rubin
& Rubin, 1995). They had also detailed on this characteristic:
Design in qualitative interviewing is iterative. That means that each time you repeat the basic process of gathering information, analysing it, winnowing it, and testing it, you come closer to a clear and convincing model of the phenomenon you are studying (Rubin & Rubin, 1995, p. 46, 47).
The in-depth interviews were conducted face-to-face for this study. The aim of this method was to lay out the perspectives concerning nature conservation among the local communities living near to a national park. As discussed in Chapter 3, many factors were predicted to influence the perceptions and attitudes of the rural people.
Therefore, in-depth interviews were also used to assess the overriding factors which might determine their perspectives and the possible reasons behind them.
106 4.2.3 Observations
Marshall and Rossman (1989) define observation as "the systematic description of events, behaviours, and artefacts in the social setting chosen for study" (p.79). Hence, a field research requires the techniques of observation and analysis in a natural setting in order to capture a real picture of human social behaviour (McCarthy &
Robinson-Caskie, 2005). Observation is becoming one of the most fundamental and useful research method employed by both quantitative and qualitative researchers. It is often used with other methods such as interview and document analysis. However,
McKechnie and Lynne (2008) contend that observation is very dependent on the ability of the researchers as it is subject to bias that may occurs when researchers channel both their observation and interpretation of data through what they know.
Several types of observations can be employed in research depending on the purpose of the evaluation, for example participant observation, non-participant observation, structured observation and unstructured observation. In this study, non-participant and unstructured observations were applied concurrently with the in-depth interviews because they provide data that cannot be directly collected from interviews. They are also helpful in confirming the reliability and validity of data from the interviews
(Rubin & Rubin, 1995).
Sampieri et al. (2006) define non-participant observation as “the process of look over a situation without changing it or interfering in the events that are taking place”.
Conversely, while implementing the participant observation, a researcher has to interact with participants and become part of their community to observe their
107 behaviours (Kawulich, 2005). It requires the researcher to be an active participant in the social network being studied (Salkind, 2009). In this research, non-participant observation was used as the researcher did not participate in the local people’s daily activities such as farming, fishing, hunting and others. Thus, non-participant observation was carried as one of the variants of direct observation which is useful for gaining an understanding of the facts, gestures, events, behaviours and actions, physical, social, and cultural contexts of the people living (Sampieri et al., 2006).
Besides, there are also unstructured observations used in this research to supplement the data from the in-depth interviews. Unstructured observation is very useful in exploratory research as it is a direct observation of the interviewees’ actions which is unstructured, unfocused and is not constrained by any checklist or coding schemes. It involves collecting impressions of the world by looking and listening in a systematic and purposeful way, to learn about the respondents’ on-going behaviours. It assumes that behaviour is purposeful that reflects deeper values and beliefs (McKechnie &
Lynne, 2008).
4.3 Pre-test Results
The pre-test of this study was conducted earlier in Taman Negara Penang, Malaysia with seven respondents and eight respondents in two focus groups. The result of pilot test indicated that the local villagers would have uncomfortable feelings in expressing their opinions and ideas if they were being interviewed in the same group with the government officials. Based on this result, the researcher identified three
108 groups of local stakeholders for this study. They were local villagers, government officials and non-governmental players.
In order to enable the participants of focus group discussion feel comfortable and engage in discussion, Krueger and Casey (2000) recommend the researchers to invest extra time and effort in selecting members of the group. Likewise, Krueger (1994) advocates the use of a homogenous group and suggests that participants should share similar characteristics such as gender group, age-range, ethnic and social class background. Based on these profiles, researcher had considered the differences of individual occupational and responsibility backgrounds during the sampling process of selecting appropriate respondents for each focus group conducted in two countries.
This step is important to achieve the data reliability.
In addition, pre-test application was important in this study for questions construction and to evaluate how the participants responded to the questions asked. It was particularly helpful to test if their answers could fit with the objectives, and to detect any notable weaknesses in certain questions (Ghiglione & Matalon, 2001, as cited in Amador, 2014). The pre-test findings showed that some of the questions did not provide answers that meet the research objectives, because the questions were too vague and not straightforward. Thus, the researcher had done the necessary adjustments to modify the final set of questions, and a few of the unusable questions were removed to avoid confusing the respondents.
109 Table 4.1: Examples of the unusable and new questions construction after pre- test
Unusable questions New questions
What is your opinion about the ecotourism? What is your opinion about the national park? Why? Why?
Do you think the ecotourism is important? Do you think the national park is important? Why? Why? How does the national park affect your job and What are the impacts of ecotourism on local daily life? villagers?
4.4 Sampling Procedures
4.4.1 Identify the target population
In order to identify research population, certain criteria for selecting the target villages in Taman Negara Pahang, Kuala Tahan in Malaysia and Khao Yai National
Park in Thailand were set to determine their appropriateness. The careful selection of villages for both studied countries is very important to gain rich data and to ensure a proportional representative of their local communities.
The criteria for selecting the target villages are as follows: (i) the villages should be located in and near to the conservation area which is not more than five kilometres from the national park; (ii) the socio-economic activities of local people must depend on ecotourism development either employed or involved in tourism business such as park rangers, park guards, tourist guides, boat drivers, chalet and food service operators; (iii) the respondents selected should be willing to provide information voluntarily, and (iv) the personal safety of the researcher during the fieldwork must clearly be protected.
110 According to the aforementioned criteria, the target villages were selected in consultation with the park rangers and the heads of village. The underlying reason of why the villages were selected using these criteria and justifications was due to the local communities who live nearby to the national park may experience livelihood activities changes in terms of economic, social and cultural incurred from massive tourism development. Hence, they could provide relevant information and responses to the matters addressed by this study.
In Kuala Tahan, there are several small Malay villages that make up Kampung Kuala
Tahan. The small villages which fulfil the criteria of target population selection were
Kampung Padang, Kampung Tekah Tuit, Kampung Teresik, Kampung Belebar,
Kampung Rempai, Perumahan Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation
Authority (FELCRA) Tembeling Tengah, and Kampung Kuala Tahan Seberang.
Meanwhile, there are four Orang Asli’s villages located near to the Taman Negara
Pahang which include Kampung Dedari, Kampung Sungai Yong, Kampung Jeram
Aur, and Kampung Tabong. However, Kampung Dedari is the only village being selected, because it has been promoted as Orang Asli settlement for the tourists.
Surrounding the Khao Yai National Park, a total of nine villages were selected as target population in the study area of Thailand: Moo 3, Moo 4, Moo 5, Moo 6, Moo
10, Moo 11, Moo 13, Moo 17, and Moo 18. In Thai language, Moo means the
“village”.
111 4.4.2 Sample selection
The sample is the segment of the population that is selected for investigation
(Bryman, 2001). Three groups of local stakeholders were identified for this study: local villagers, government officials, and non-governmental players. Identifying the stakeholders was based on their expertise, knowledge, and experience dealing with local nature conservation activities. The various interviewees from different backgrounds and responsibilities could provide diverse and valuable data about the issues related to this study. Again, with the help of the village chiefs and national park rangers, the respondents were selected according to the following groups of stakeholders:
Local villagers: The respondents were chosen among those who have been living in the study area for more than ten years. They have their traditional ways of life that could not be separated from the national parks. Their local knowledge and experience around the study areas would generate very useful information for this study. The respondents were also selected from different occupational backgrounds because people with various responsibilities and knowledge backgrounds would also reveal different perspectives and understandings towards conservation attempts.
Therefore, the local villagers who were considered appropriate to be the respondents include the heads of village, elders, agricultural producers such as gardener, farmer, fishermen, and people involved in tourism business such as tourist guides, boat drivers, chalet and food service operators, producers of handicraft and cultural products.
112 Government officials: This group of stakeholders was selected from people employed by DWNP in Malaysia and NPD in Thailand such as park managers and park staffs.
They were chosen due to their opinions, experiences, and knowledge dealing with conservation management.
Non-governmental players: The last group of stakeholders was sampled from environmentalists and NGO officers who are working for natural resources or wildlife conservation activities in or surrounding the national park. The main criterion for this group is that they must have related knowledge and experience in association to the conservation efforts.
4.5 Data Collection
4.5.1 Focus group discussions
Among the selected target villages, in each country, purposive sampling was applied to select 24 respondents according to the three groups of respondents identified earlier. Then, theyy were formed into three focus groups with eight participants in a group. For both study areas in Malaysia and Thailand, therefore, a total of six focus groups with 48 respondents were assembled.
For Taman Negara Pahang, the first two discussion groups comprised all the Malay respondents while the last group consisted of Batek Negrito. In group one, six respondents under the category of local villagers were selected from different occupations including nature guide, restaurant chef, farmer, resort staff, housewife
113 and nanny. The other two government officials are the rangers of the national park.
Although these two respondents were classified under the category of government officials, they were arranged by the researcher to join this focus group because they are also the local villagers who have been living in Kuala Tahan for more than 30 years.
In the second focus group, three local villagers, three government officials, and two non-governmental players were designated as participants. For the category of local villagers, it was expected that the three chairmen from the Tourist Operators
Association, Nature Guides Association, and Boats Association would feel comfortable to join this discussion group since their associations are affiliated under the national park. Meanwhile, under the category of government officials, three national park staffs were appointed. One of them is the park’s new Deputy
Superintendent who has served Taman Negara Pahang for less than a month, but she has wide experience in dealing with environmental conservation issues. The last two respondents of this focus group were selected from NGO officials who work as the district (daerah) and sub-district (mukim) coordinators for Temenggong Initiatives.
Both of them were selected on the assumption that their various opinions and perspectives would provide useful data for the study due to their substantial years of experience in conservation activities surrounding Kuala Tahan.
The last focus group was conducted in the village of Batek people, Kampung Dedari.
All the respondents were classified under the category of local villagers. The group covers three hunters, two boatmen, a nature guide, an elder, and a housewife who is also working as a producer of handicrafts. The researcher purposely arranged all the
114 Batek respondents in a same group, because it allows them to freely present their own ideas and perspectives for them to be more comfortable so that they will be able to share and articulate their experience and comments with each other. Among them, the Batek men were found to be more receptive and approachable while the women were shy and reluctant to participate in the focus group discussion. The reason could be the men are always exposing themselves with the outside community because many of them are working as boatmen and nature guides. Conversely, the married women do not go outside of their homes or because they tend to isolate themselves from others which may be related to the customs and traditions of the indigenous people. Fortunately, the researcher managed to get a Batek woman who was more open to being interviewed. She explained her ability to communicate with local and foreign tourists in Malay and English languages came from the need to market her handmade products.
On the other hand, different from Malaysia, all the Thai respondents selected to participate in focus groups are the local villagers and their village heads, without the participation of governmental and NGO officials. The reason was related to traditional and cultural practices of Thailand. In all Thai villages, the headman is very important due to their legal duties concerning order and regulations. He or she gains the respect and trust of people in the village, therefore the villagers would feel comfortable, relaxed and encouraged to exchange feelings, opinions and ideas.
In order to adapt to this Thai culture, target respondents for each focus group in Khao
Yai National Park were selected with the assistance of the headmen in each village.
Those from the same village were arranged in the same group. A total of three focus
115 group discussions were conducted in Moo 6, Moo 10, and Moo 17, with seven villagers and one headman in each group. The participants were from different occupational backgrounds that include elders, teachers, housewives, farmers, gardeners, hotel and restaurant operators as well as employees, hawkers and vendors.
Table 4.2: The breakdown of the participants for focus group discussions in Malaysia and Thailand
No of respondents No of respondents Stakeholders (Malaysia) (Thailand) Focus groups G1 G2 G3 G1 G2 G3
Local villagers 6 3 8 8 8 8
Government officials 2 3 - - - -
Non-governmental - 2 - - - - players (NGOs)
Total of respondents 8 8 8 8 8 8
As stated before (p. 105), a good opening is a key to determine the success of a focus group. Therefore, after welcoming the participants, the overall purpose of this study was immediately conveyed. They were also informed of confidentiality issues that whatever they say will be kept strictly confidential and only be used for the purpose of this study. It is important to explain before an interview in order to earn their trust and to gain good data.
Table 4.3 presents a list of questions designed for focus groups based on the research questions and literature review of this study. However, it was only used as a guideline where all the questions were entirely open-ended and they could be asked in flexible sequence during the discussion.
116 Table 4.3: The semi-structured questions used for focus group discussions
Main questions Sub-questions
Do you think the natural resources are important? Why?
Do you think the forest and wildlife protection are What is your opinion about the important? Why? natural resources conservation conducted in the national park? What are your concerns for natural resources loss? Why? What are you doing in daily life to conserve the natural resources?
Do you think the national park is important? Why? What factors determine your perspectives on natural resources How does the national park affect your job and daily conservation conducted in the life? national park? Are you satisfied that your village is located near to the national park? Why? Does the park management understand the problems and the needs of the villagers?
How does the park management communicate with the villagers and how often is the communication?
How is the relationship between the Does the park management invite the villagers for national park management and local meeting to provide their suggestions or to make villagers? decisions?
Does the park management encourage the villagers to participate in conservation activities?
Do the villagers support the park management by participating in conservation activities?
4.5.2 In-depth interviews
The main purpose of applying in-depth interviews is to explore a deeper understanding on respondents’ perspectives, opinions, experience and knowledge of the nature conservation. Purposive sampling was used to sample out a total of 30 respondents from Malaysia and Thailand for in-depth interviews: 15 respondents
117 from each country. The respondents were also classified according to the three groups of identified stakeholders which had also been applied for focus group discussions.
The respondents in Taman Negara Pahang comprise 10 individuals of local villagers, four representatives of government officials, and one participant of non- governmental players. They encompassed boatman, fisherman, farmer, housewife, restaurant operator, resort staff, member of the Village Development and Security
Committee (JKKK) Kuala Tahan, two Batek villagers (boatman and nature guide), government health official, national park ranger, park Superintendent, JAKOA officer, and the NGO officer of Temenggong Initiative.
In Khao Yai National Park, 15 respondents for in-depth interviews were involved including 10 members of local villagers, four representatives of government officials, and one participant of non-governmental player. The respondents were selected from different occupational backgrounds comprising village headmen, elder, farmers, resort operator and staff, restaurant operator, teacher, nature guide, park ranger, park
Deputy Superintendent, and the NGO officer of Rao Rak Khao Yai (We Love Khao
Yai).
118 Table 4.4: The breakdown of the respondents for in-depth interviews in Malaysia and Thailand
No of respondents No of respondents Stakeholders (Malaysia) (Thailand)
Local villagers 10 10
Government officials 4 4
Non-governmental players 1 1 (NGOs)
Total of respondents 15 15
During the interviews, conversation was started with the leading questions on daily lifestyles such as their food, crop and livestock production, cultures and traditions. In this way, the interviewees would feel free and relaxed to share their stories and life experience. After the respondents were comfortable with the conversation, the interview was then indirectly turned to the research topic.
Each of the questions asked during the in-depth interviews was adapted from
Labov’s (1982) evaluation model of narrative. The importance of the narrative model is to lead the respondents to tell their views and experience into a story-line. This model is based on the sequence, narratives being “one method of summarizing the past experience by matching verbal sequence of clauses to the sequence of events that actually occurred” (Labov & Waletsky, 1967, p. 12). It helps researcher to develop a series of questions systematically.
As shown in Table 4.5, the list of interview questions was established based on the four research questions discussed in Section 1.3 of Chapter 1. This sample of questions offers the model of structural analysis, which contains the following parts:
119
a. Abstract (summary and/or point of the story): what was the story about?
b. Orientation (time, place, characters and situation): who, when, what, where?
c. Complicating action (the event sequence, or plot, usually with a crisis and
turning point): then what was happened?
d. Evaluation (where the narrator steps back from the action to comment on
meaning and communicate emotion – the “soul” of the narrative): so what?
e. Result (the outcome of the plot): what was finally happened?
f. Coda (ending the story and bringing action back to the present): what does it
all mean? (Labov, 1982)
Table 4.5: The semi-structure questions used for in-depth interviews adapted from Labov’s (1982) evaluation model of narrative
Questions Structure
How do you understand about the natural A resources conservation?
What are the natural resources that we should conserve? Where are the suitable places for natural O What is your opinion about resources conservation? the natural resources Who should take part in the conservation conservation conducted in the activities? national park? How important or unimportant to you is C natural resources conservation?
What are the implications for natural E resources loss?
How do these implications affect your R perspectives towards nature conservation?
How would you describe your concern for C* natural resources loss? Why?
120 Table 4.5. Continue
Questions Structure
How do you feel about the national park? A
What are the roles of the national park? Who receives the benefits / costs from the O national park?
How does the national park affect your C daily life? What is your opinion about What are the implications of the national the national park park establishment to the local E establishment? community? How do these implications affect your R perspectives towards nature conservation?
How would you describe your concern for C* national park? Why?
How do you think about the relationship A between park management and villagers?
What are the roles of the communication? Who will communicate with the villagers? How does the park management O communicate with the villagers? How often is the communication? How is the communication between the national park How does the communication effective to management and local promote participation of villagers in C villagers? conservation activities? What are the implications of effective and E ineffective communication? How do these communication approaches affect your perspectives towards nature R conservation? How would you describe your concern for C* park-people communication? Why?
A = Abstract; O = Orientation; C = Complicating action; E = Evaluation; R = Result; C*=
Coda
121 4.5.3 Observations
Non-participant and unstructured observations were applied concurrently during the in-depth interviews. I did not directly involved in the situation to become part of their community but rather observed and recorded the respondents’ behaviours. I only looked from outside and there was no direct interaction with the respondents (Borg &
Gall, 1989; Sampieri et al., 2006). I observed the respondents’ actions and behaviours, the physical and social environment of the village areas, ways of living and traditional practices of the local people, as well as other daily activities related to natural resources.
I took note on the thematic and narrative data gathered from focus groups and in- depth interviews. Observation is important in giving the study higher accuracy and reliability by confirming the information obtained from interviews. It helps to clarify certain issues that could not be gathered by the interview approach alone. This is because some interviewees would not be able to explain issues clearly, or sometimes they may show items or places to express what they wanted to talk.
4.5.4 Data recording
The focus groups and in-depth interviews were recorded by using two recording devices: an audio recorder and a video camera. The data were then saved to CDs.
During the interviews, backup notes were taken to summarise key data delivered by the respondents. Besides, field notes were also written to note down the observations.
122 All the notes were expanded and rearranged as soon as possible after each interview and observation while the memory was still fresh.
4.6 Data analysis
4.6.1 Data transcription
In order to analyse the data, all the recorded interviews were transcribed to a written text. Interview transcription is a process of converting an audio interview into a written transcript. The transcript is a tool that helps qualitative researchers make sense of and understand the interviewees’ experience, opinions and perceptions
(McLellan et al., 2003).
Although there is no standard universal transcription format that would be adequate for the qualitative interviews, Drisko (1997) concedes that the level of transcription should complement the level of the analysis. As this study focuses on exploring an in-depth description of the knowledge, beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes of the rural villagers, the transcript therefore requires a greater number and possibly lengthier units of textual data (McLellan et al., 2003).
4.6.2 Footing
Some Malay and Thai words were retained and maintained in the interview transcripts because those words were sometimes used by the respondents as another way to express themselves, or to stress and highlight some important facts.
123 4.6.3 Data reduction
Data reduction is identified as one of the main components of data analysis according to the Huberman and Miles's (1994) framework for qualitative data analysis. The purpose of applying data reduction during the analysis process of this study is to reduce the data without significant loss of information. Huge qualitative data have been reduced through summarising, segmenting, finding the patterns and developing the abstract concepts (Punch, 2009).
4.6.4 Thematic analysis
Thematic analysis was chosen to analyse the data from the focus groups for two main reasons. Firstly, focus group is capable to generate information about a wide range of ideas and perspectives that individuals have about nature conservation. Having said that, a large amount of data is required when thematic analysis is used whereby the theme must “describe the bulk of the data” (Joffe & Yardley, 2004, p.67). Alhojailan
(2012) also admits that this analysis method is capable to discover and identify the variables or factors that give the most appropriate data interpretations about people’s thoughts, actions and behaviours. Secondly, as this is a comparative study between
Malaysia and Thailand, it therefore makes the process of thematic analysis more appropriate for analysing the data in order to determine precisely the relationship between variables and to compare different sets of evidence that pertain to different situations in a same study (Alhojailan, 2012).
124 According to Braun and Clarke (2006), thematic analysis should be seen as a foundational method for qualitative analysis to identify, analyse and report emerging patterns or themes within the data. However, it frequently goes beyond this objective as it tends to interpret various aspects of the research topic (p. 79). Another similar view by Hayes (1997) suggests that thematic analysis is a comprehensive process where researchers are able to identify numerous cross-references between the data and the research’s evolving themes. It is considered as the most appropriate data analysis strategy that seeks to discover the findings by using interpretations and gives opportunity to understand the potential of any issue more widely (Boyatzis, 1998).
Appendix A and B presents the evidence on how to analyse the focus group findings based on thematic analysis process suggested by Braun and Clarke (2006). The process proposes that after becoming familiar with the data in the transcripts, the codes and themes were created in a few steps. First of all, initial codes were generated by collating data relevant to each code. Codes refer to the most basic segment or element of the raw data or information that can be assessed in a meaningful way regarding the studied phenomenon (Boyatzis, 1998, p. 63). Next, the codes were organised in order to search for the correct themes. Lastly, the themes were defined and named to complete the overall story that the analysis tells.
4.6.5 Narrative analysis
Narrative analysis method has been widely used by many researchers as being of fundamental importance to learn, examine and analyse the perspective of participants in order to understand their experience (Richmond, 2002). Cortazzi (1993) also
125 posits the narrative analysis as an innovative technique used to interpret an ever- widening range of human experience. In short, this analysis method has been proven for its effectiveness in accessing people’s points of view, culture and experience in real life, which is the aim of this study.
As stated earlier, Labov and Waletzky (1967) define narrative as a sequence of two clauses that are temporally-ordered, and usually in the past tense. In other words, narrative represents a story way of knowing and communicating (Hinchman &
Hinchman, 1997) where the clauses cannot be moved in the story without changing the order of the events (Labov, 1982). Meanwhile, according to Mertova and
Webster (2007), narrative inquiry is set in human stories of experience. It records human experience through the construction and reconstruction of personal stories.
Narrative is also well suited to address issues of complexity because of its capacity to record and retell those events that have been of most influence on people. Therefore, narrative analysis places a great emphasis on recounting past events and personal experience through storytelling whereby it has received much attention from academic scholars, particularly linguistics and education, anthropology, psychology, and sociology (Polkinghorne, 1988; Cortazzi, 1993).
There are different models of narrative analysis including thematic analysis, structural analysis, interactional analysis, and performance analysis. For this study, structural analysis of narrative was used to interpret the qualitative data. Historically, the structural analysis was the first model of narrative analysis developed by William
Labov and his colleagues to analyse the function of a clause in the overall narrative
(Riessman, 2005). Labov (1982) later modified this model to examine first person
126 accounts of violence-brief, topically-centred and temporally-ordered stories, but he retained the basic components of the narrative’s structure. Moreover, he also argues that not all stories contain all elements, and they can occur in varying sequences.
As shown in Appendix C and D, the qualitative data collected from in-depth interviews were extensively analysed according to the structural analysis of narrative derived from Labov (1982) in order to investigate the ways of participants’ experience through their stories telling. The researcher explored and arranged the stories told by the interviewees into general structure of narrative. Such stories have a basic structure that includes abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, result, and coda. The below explains the six basic steps of storytelling.
Step one - Abstract
The researcher organised the data from various participants according to the interview questions. Then, the story told by the participants was summarised in an abstract to tell what the story was about and how does it begins. The abstract, consists of one or two clauses at the beginning is actually the summary of the entire story; that is, it encapsulates the point of the story (Labov, 1982).
Step two - Orientation
A narrative normally begins with an orientation. In this step, the answers to the potential questions, “Who? When? Where? What were they doing?” were provided.
The action of the participants was introduced and identified according to: place, time, characters and situation (Labov, 1982).
127 Step three - Complicating action
The sequence, a crisis or turning point of the events was recorded. Complicating action tells “And what has happened in the next?” (Labov, 1982).
Step four - Evaluation
In this step, the human consequences of the event and what the story 'means’ were described. Evaluation is particularly important as the ‘soul’ of the narrative because the researcher steps back from the action to comment on meaning and communicative emotion (Labov, 1982).
Step five - Result
The ending and outcome of the story was described in result. It illustrates “what has finally happened?” (Labov, 1982).
Step six - Coda
During the last step of ending a story, a coda was recorded. Codas are free clauses that signal the end of a narrative. It is a linking section that returns the story to the present. It also tells “what does it all mean?” (Labov, 1982).
4.6.6 Analysis of observational data
Driscoll (2011) states that during recording and analysing the observations, the ethical concern of being unbiased is very essential to be heeded. Bias might be happened when the observer demonstrates judgement about the event from his or her standpoint. To avoid the bias, in this study, the researcher used a “double-entry
128 notebook” suggested by Driscoll (2011) for recording and analysing the observations.
In this type of observation log, two columns were made to clearly separate: 1) the details and facts that were observable, and 2) the assumptions and judgements about the facts.
In the first column, the descriptions of what had been observed such as the scene, behaviours and actions of respondents were written. Afterwards, the assumptions and interpretations of those observations were filled in the second column. However, the judgements and overall conclusion about the facts or events were made based on the researcher’s own feelings.
129 CHAPTER 5
FINDINGS: TAMAN NEGARA PAHANG, MALAYSIA
This chapter dwells on the findings in the Malaysian context gathered from focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and observations. Focus group discussions were firstly employed to learn about the group or community perspectives on the conservation efforts in Taman Negara Pahang. Getting a group of people for discussion is also crucial to gain more information about the possible factors determining their perceptions. The second method, in-depth interview, aims to explore in detail of each factor in order to understand how the respondents perceived nature conservation and why they behaved such attitudes. During the fieldwork of in- depth interviews, observations were conducted concurrently to triangulate the thematic findings of focus groups and the narrative findings of in-depth interviews.
Therefore, this chapter consists of three main parts: (i) focus group discussions, (ii) in-depth interviews, and (iii) observations.
5.1 Focus Group Discussions
The overall results of focus groups show that all the Malay respondents held positive perspectives on nature conservation and strong support existed within the national park establishment. They expressed their appreciation to the park as the world’s oldest tropical rainforest in conserving a variety of wildlife species. Similarly, majority of the Batek respondents also demonstrated positive perspectives on forest protection because the aborigines identify themselves as forest people; they are largely dependent on forest products for their food supply, as well as shelter.
130 However, a conflict was discovered between the park management and the Batek because the aboriginal people were prohibited from selling the park resources to earn additional income.
The findings confirmed the ample opportunities for income and employment surrounding the park strongly increases the local support for nature conservation, where the respondents were aware that a well-conserved national park is important to earn benefits from tourists. Other factors like appreciation of nature, improvement of local transportation and infrastructure facilities, local knowledge and park awareness, community survival, cultures and traditions, good relationship with park management, other socio-cultural benefits, resource conflict between the park management and Batek, and high cost of living were also found to have impacts on locals’ views on preservation activities surrounding Kuala Tahan.
From the perspectives of the government and NGO officials, the involvement and participation of local villagers in conservation activities is found to be encouraging.
The analysis suggests that both Malay and Batek respondents were generally supportive towards the nature conservation programmes in and surrounding the park, for example the collaborative activities of cleaning and maintaining trails in the park and the Gunung Tahan.
In order to win the local support for the sake of achieving the conservation goals, the results of three focus groups in Malaysia recommends the promotion of nature tourism activities to be further enhanced by the state government while the local infrastructure should also be improved to attract more tourists to Kuala Tahan.
131
5.1.1 Themes of local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation
Sources of income
Economic values Employment
National treasure
Uniqueness of National heritage species
Valuable asset
Hometown Sense of belonging Local communities’ Lots of memory perspectives on nature conservation Source of food
Source of forest Place of survival supplies
Forest is true home Native to lands Aboriginal rights Rights for hunting
Figure 5.1: Emerging themes of local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation
5.1.1(a) Economic values
All the Malay respondents attributed their thankful, appreciation, and satisfaction to the existence of the national park which is near to their village area. They were proud of staying next to the oldest protected area in Malaysia. They highlighted the economic values of the park in developing Kuala Tahan as a famous tourism destination by providing sources of income and employment opportunities for local villagers in this area. One Malay resident said:
132
Without the national park, our village will not be developed as what we can see today… Kuala Tahan is one of the tourist destinations, and it has generated employment opportunities and become a source of revenue for the local villagers.
5.1.1(b) National heritage
When answering to my question, “Do you think the national park is important?
Why?”, the respondents presented strong views about the protection of natural resources in the park as a key component of national heritage protection. The national park was referred by the local villagers as a “precious national treasure”, due to the unique species of flora and fauna in the park as it could only be found in Kuala
Tahan. As Taman Negara Pahang encompasses a 130 million years old tropical rainforest, two respondents expressed their appreciation to the national park establishment. One of them acknowledged:
As a villager in Kuala Tahan, I am really proud and grateful to be a native here because I can protect the national treasure that we have today and I will continue this culture to the next generation.
On a related note, the second respondent told:
I am very much satisfied with the national park because it is one of the treasures of our country, a national treasure that could not be found everywhere, you know?
Another villager continued to describe the park as the most valuable asset of the country. Several words used in his answer, such as “keep”, “continuously”,
133 “preserve”, and “conserve” reflected his positive perspectives on nature conservation.
His answers too suggested his awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of natural resources because he has argued the importance of conserving the diverse biological resources in the park for our children’s future. His quotation is:
The national park is the most valuable asset of the nation because of its oldest nature. It is more than 130 million years. The most important thing is we have to keep the treasure that we have now until our children and grandchildren in the future. We should continuously preserve and conserve them.
5.1.1(c) Sense of belonging
The Malay villagers expressed their favourable perceptions on national park because the park is important to fulfil their sense of belonging as their home and recall their childhood memories and experiences. The chairman of the Nature Guide Association claimed, “Taman Negara Pahang is our hometown, a place where we grew up” to show that he has a “close and special” relationship with the park. He was born in the staff quarters within the national park where his father was a former ranger of the park. When he was four to five years old, he managed to encounter and see wild animals such as tiger and buffalo at the surrounding of the quarters. With plenty of past childhood experience, there is a very special feeling towards the national park, he said.
… Last time, we were staying in the park quarters. I could still remember a tiger was in front of my house, and a buffalo was at the backyard of my house… The national park is our hometown; it is the place where we grew up.
134 Similarly, the chairman of the Boats Association described his “special” relationship with the national park by saying that he was also born in the park in 1970. His family were staying in the park quarters during his father's tenure as the Deputy
Superintendent. They moved out from the national park after the new quarters were built outside the park. He shared his past memories with regard to the previous environment especially concerning the big flood happened in Kuala Tahan in 1971 when he was only one year old.
When I was just a child, I had experienced a flood which happened in 1971… I was born in the park, I really love the park, I know how the park grew up and the park also knows how I grew up.
5.1.1(d) Place of survival
Living in the remote forest area is one of the traditional practices of the aboriginal people or in Malay called Orang Asli. When put in comparison to Malay respondents, there are stark differences of the Batek people in describing their special relationship with the national park. The most significant dissimilarity is that the forest is the very fundamental surviving tool for the indigenous people, where this group of people are almost entirely dependent on the forest resources for daily needs.
Although the Batek respondents could not speak Malay language very fluently, I found that they constantly mentioned that the park is important for “food searching”
(pencarian makanan). One respondent said:
I have been staying in the national park since I was born in 1985… I think it is easy for hunting and
135 searching for food [pencarian makanan] in the national park.
A Batek hunter mentioned that he love the national park because of the memories and experiences of searching food and hunting wildlife there. As seen in the statements below, the phrase “forest is always there” illustrates his concept of
“national park” was mainly referred to the “forest”. According to this man, the national park contains a wide range of wild animal species and makes the hunting easier for him. In other words, staying close to the park makes him closer to various forest resources as he said.
I really love the national park because it brings a lot of memories especially my experience in searching the food and hunting wild animals… With the establishment of national park, the forest is always there. It is the easiest place for me to get the food as we find it easy to get the birds and monkeys within a short period.
The above citations reveal that the Batek interviewees have expressed positive perceptions on national park because their community survival is very much depending on the rainforest specifically for food and shelter provision. They hunt for food such as birds, little monkeys and gibbons by using their blowpipes. They have also participated in other economy activities including farming, gathering and bartering jungle products. As one of the factors which might have impacts on their conservation perspectives, the source of livelihood from the park is described further in section 5.1.2 (e) (p. 149).
According to another respondent, Batek people have considered the natural environment as their true home that the jungle is where they belong to. In their eyes,
136 they see everything in the forest including trees, rives, mountains, and wild animals as beautiful and attractive. They admitted that it is acceptable to be like that as they are more comfortable staying in the forest if compared to the city. For the aboriginal people, the lifestyle in the city deals with unpleasant living conditions, with the high cost of living and various kinds of pollution such as air and noise pollution. Another
Batek interviewee commented:
The Batek people do not want to go to the town. The view in the forest is the most attractive for me… It is too noisy to sleep in the town, need money to buy the food and to pay for the hotel. But staying in the forest, I have to pay for what?
Because of their unique relationship with the forest, the Batek community have cognisance that the natural resources in the national park should be preserved for their daily survival and to maintain their native lands. As the quote below indicates, another respondent argued that the park and its surroundings are essentially the traditional homelands for the Batek community. He claimed that their ancestors have settled on these areas for more than a thousand to million years. He used “we control”, “we seriously control” and “we could not allow” to emphasise their responsibilities to protect the forest as their lands. In addition, he also expressed his positive conservation perspectives by saying that the Batek people will only hunt the monkeys for food. However, the big mammals like elephant, tiger, and deer will be protected in order to attract more tourists to the national park. He said:
We eat only the monkey, and we do not kill the big animals like deer and tiger… We seriously control our activities now, so if there is anything happens in the park, we will ask help from the Perhilitan.
137 5.1.1(e) Aboriginal rights
Findings from the focus group discussions with Batek respondents revealed a conflict on their perspectives towards nature conservation. First and foremost, they argued in the earlier conversation that as the original inhabitants of the lands, both forest and wildlife conservations are important for the livelihood of their communities. As the native to the lands, they also voiced out that they have been granted the rights over harvesting the natural resources on their ancestral lands.
During the discussions, they often named themselves as Orang Asli, which means
“original people” or “first people” in Malay. They claimed themselves as the native to the lands; possessing full rights over the use of the forest resources which they have traditionally owned even before the establishment of the national park. One of the interviewees said:
As a Batek people, I have a special pass to go inside the national park… The park rangers also cannot disrupt my access to the resources. I have live in this national park since many years ago.
The Aboriginal Peoples Act (1954) permits Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia to hunt and harvest forest products from the national park for their own consumption.
Concerning the presence of regulations and enforcement, however, they are prohibited from commercial hunting and selling all those jungle products to make own profit.
138 For example, dammar is a resin that was harvested from the dipterocarp trees. For the Batek, dammar is one of the valuable forest products which can be sold to outsiders at a good price. Interviews with the Batek males have identified their dissatisfactions with the park management because they were prohibited from selling the park resources to earn additional income.
A statement made by Lankford (1994) highlights that the local people’ attitudes are not simply the reflections of their perceptions, but the results of interaction between their perceptions and the underlying factors affecting their attitudes. Based on this argument, therefore, apart from evaluating the local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation, this research is also designed to explore what factors have influence them in order to offer a tool for better understanding on why and how such viewpoints are formed. The perceived relevant factors mentioned by the focus group respondents are described below.
5.1.2 Themes of factors contributing to positive perspectives
Appreciation of nature Local transportation Income and employment and infrastructure opportunities facilities
Factors contributing to positive Other socio- Local knowledge and perspectives cultural benefits awareness of park
Relationship with Community survival, park management cultures and tradition
Figure 5.2: Emerging themes of factors contributing to positive perspectives
139 5.1.2(a) Income and employment opportunities
The Malay villagers concurred that the establishment of Taman Negara Pahang has generated income and employment opportunities for the local communities who engaged in various tourist activities. For example, they claimed that local community involvement in tourism sector is high, where approximately 80 per cent of the job opportunities are owned by the locals through boatmen, nature guides, and both operators and workers for resorts, chalets, hostels and restaurants. They further alluded to the rapidly growth of tourism industry around their village areas that has also opened up a new avenue for the outsiders to earn their living. As one respondent said:
Nearly 80 per cent of the local people are involving in the tourism sector… Not only the local people, but many outsiders have also migrated to Kuala Tahan to work as boatmen, nature guides, restaurant and chalet workers and others of the ilk.
An additional explanation on the significant development changes in Kuala Tahan was made by the same respondent. Emphasis on the privatisation in Malaysia in the early 1990s that has contributed towards the growth of development of local economy was highlighted by him. With the privatisation programmes, local villagers were benefited directly by owning their business through budget hotels, resorts, and chalets. He shared:
We can see the obvious changes after the privatisation happened in Malaysia. Local villagers also grabbed the golden chance to build budget hotels and budget resorts. The growth of development has been started during that time until what we can see today.
140 The chairman from the Tourist Operators Association who has long worked in the community-based tourism stressed the values of the national park for the surrounding communities. His view was that the rich biodiversity of the country should be protected by the local villagers in order to gain benefits from the park. In his statement below, the economic benefits from the park were described as returns of the conservation.
Other than preserving the wildlife species and our biodiversity, the local villagers also managed to get returns from the conservation efforts.
Furthermore, this chairman also defined the benefits as outcomes from ecotourism and the nature. He strengthened his opinions that the community members would be aware with their responsibilities in preserving natural resources if they were benefited from the national park. He stressed that:
If the local villagers could enjoy the outcomes from the ecotourism and also from the nature, for sure they would think that looking after the environment is their responsibility.
Similarly, the Batek tribe have also benefited from the tourism activities surrounding the park in the form of revenues. First of all, a visit to the Orang Asli settlement is definitely one of the must-do activities in Taman Negara Pahang. One respondent indicated the high numbers of tourists visited his village as he reckoned, “the arrival tourists are not less than three to four hundreds persons every month, roughly around five to six hundreds persons...this is the source of income for the Batek people”.
141 Another Batek respondent informed that all the tourists will pay five ringgit for a visit to Kampung Dedari. The fees collection is divided weekly for every household in the village. This approach implies that the money collected from the tourists become an important source for the livelihood of this native community. The reason is majority of the villagers are presently dependent on direct economic benefits from tourism activities. The statement below indicates this verdict:
Currently, most of the Batek people seldom go into the forest, some of them are sitting and waiting there [waiting for the tourists]… The tourists will pay five ringgit per person to interact with the Batek people… We keep the money and we will divide the money among ourselves every week.
In addition, the Batek men also participate in the economic activities as nature guides and boat drivers, while women mostly produce handicrafts for selling directly to the tourists. When asking their perceptions on tourism, the response from the female respondent was happy and proud of receiving tourists to their village, because it creates an opportunity for women to be financially independent through the sale of handmade products. She said:
I like the tourists to come, like it so much because I can sell the comb, buluh sumpit, mat, and bracelet. This creates more money for us.
5.1.2(b) Appreciation of nature
Besides the main reason of economic benefits, other salient factors contributing to positive perspectives on nature conservation could be pivoted around the environmental benefits from the national park itself. For a female villager, a chance
142 to see wild animals in their real habitats was a great experience of staying next to the conservation site. She claimed “If we stay outside, we have no chance to see the wildlife, it is very hard. But if we are staying in Kuala Tahan, we could even see a tapir”.
Moreover, the same respondent also claimed that with the natural geographical landscape, the national park provides a good and healthy living environment with clean and fresh atmosphere without pollution if compared to her hometown in the city. She elaborated her great experience by reiterating:
In the city there is always air pollution that affects our health… When my father came to visit me in Kuala Tahan, he is adaptable with the weather here. He bathes with the spring water from the mountain every day. The water is so cold as he feels fresh and all the illness gone.
The other male respondent has encountered similar experiences where he revealed that the local villagers were more likely to appreciate the environmental value of the national park in improving air quality and reducing pollutants. In conveying his personal experience, he shared:
I stayed in Selangor for six years, every month my wife was needed to take air polisher in the hospital because of air pollution! But after I come back to Kuala Tahan, it never happens again...no need for us to go to the hospital to consume air polisher anymore.
143 5.1.2(c) Local transportation and infrastructure facilities
The local villagers also believed that the park plays an important role in improving local public services such as transportation and infrastructure facilities. Tourism industry has demanded a completely new road from the Jerantut town to Kuala
Tahan, which previously this tourism destination was accessible only through the
Sungai Tembeling. As the boat was the only mode of transportation of the region, the past environment of the village was described by the respondent as “ulu”, which is derived from Malay language that means a rural or an obsolete place. According to one local people:
Last time the people always said that this place was absolutely ulu, it was exactly in the jungle. There was no road to reach Kuala Tahan where all the people need to take a boat… Even though the road was already available, the role of boats is still significant even the numbers are still not insufficient. It means the number of tourists is increasing from time to time.
Although majority of the interviewees expressed their satisfaction with the current level of tourism development, the interviews also revealed that local people are anticipating more tourists to Kuala Tahan in the future especially the foreign tourists from Asian countries. They were aware that tourism development depends heavily on a stable infrastructure facility. Therefore, they suggested more efforts must be made to enhance local development needs, for example more public toilets should be provided and public transportation services to Kuala Tahan should be enhanced.
Furthermore, they highlighted the promotion is indispensable to increase the number of tourists to this conservation area, where the government agencies are playing an
144 extraordinary role in the planning, development and management of tourism initiatives (Bhuiyan et al., 2011).
5.1.2(d) Local knowledge and awareness of park
The local villagers were generally having adequate understanding and awareness regarding the objectives of national park establishment. During the first group of interview, almost all the respondents were aware of the role of the national park in conservation. They understood that nobody is allowed to take out any resources from the park, as asserted by one participant, “inside the national park, we cannot do things that are not supposed to… even plucking a leave from the tree is also prohibited, we cannot take anything out.”
When the respondents were probed about the impacts of commercial logging activities surrounding Kuala Tahan, one of them expressed high degree of anxiety on the water pollution happened in Sungai Tembeling that would ruin the recreational activities for the young people. The respondent averred that forest logging will attenuate the ability of land to absorb the water and hence allows more water to flow off the soil into the river. Therefore, one female villager has showed her awareness on the preservation of biodiversity as an imperative and required effort. She professed that:
If trees are cut down, the river will be polluted. Our children will loss the chances of taking bath in the river. Therefore, it is vital to protect the natural environment.
145 Another respondent illustrated the clearing and extreme loggings of forest have caused the extinction of species. He shared his view as follows:
If the forests are cut down or the wild animals are destroyed, we have no more real examples to show to our children. When they ask how is the tiger look like, father? It looks like a cat for example. Later on, when they see a cat, they would call it as a tiger. This case would trigger different perceptions.
The respondent felt that the environmental resources that enrich our present living should be safeguarded and monitored continuously to enrich the life of our children and grandchildren in the future. He delivered his strong belief that deforestation poses the greatest threat to plant and animal species. More specifically, an example was given by the respondent concerning the loss of endangered species. He pointed out that without the real examples, our next generations would face difficulties to differentiate between a tiger and a cat.
For the Batek people, the rainforest protection is their prime concern as it offers the very basis of survival for their community in providing them food and shelter to stay.
Thus, it is not surprising that knowledge and awareness of the aboriginal people associated with natural world have been developed over thousands of years through their vast experience on environmental management. To live harmoniously with the ecosystem, the Batek are practicing their traditional knowledge in daily life, especially knowledge of taking care the forest and the river.
During the group discussions with Batek respondents, one of them voiced out “we protect the national park” and “we make strict control” to uphold the homeland. This
146 reflects positive attitudes of the community towards the conservation efforts. A possible explanation for this result could be the indigenous people have been affected by the degradation of natural resources over period of time, since they are staying very close to the national park and critically rely on the forests for their daily survival.
In the statement below, a Batek man expressed their dissatisfaction on the forest degradation by two main causes, i.e. commercial logging and the construction of dams.
All the Batek people are disappointed with the natural environment now… The forests outside the national park are demolished to build the dam… The second problem is the logging activities which have also destroyed the forests. We are really upset with the blooming of such activities.
Besides that, he also emphasised that “we do not open the front door” to elucidate on the high awareness and attempts of the indigenous tribes in defending their forest and pristine nature from the loggers and ranchers. Additionally, the river is of great importance to Orang Asli as the main source of water. In commenting about their aboriginal knowledge which is of relevance to sustainability practices, the interviewee asserted on how the villagers keep the water source clean by not throwing garbage into the river. He claimed:
We can take forest resources but we do not open the front door, if we open it widely, our living place and the national park will be destroyed… We also do not pollute the river. For instance, we do not throw rubbish into the river.
The gotong-royong (collaborative) project to clean up the village areas conducted by the Temenggong Initiative which is an NGO has successfully obtained high
147 participation from the local communities. The establishment of this initiative is among the efforts to raise the living standards of the local residents in Pahang, by preserving their environment and natural resources, as expounded by one of the NGO officials. When asked about the efforts done by the Initiatives in raising the environmental awareness of the local villagers, he replied:
We have provided awareness courses and we also went to the villages to organise the gotong-royong activities on rubbish management… It is very important because the awareness should be started from the lowest level.
He believed (since then) that there is a significant change in local people’s awareness on environmental pollution. Garbage problems and the level of cleanliness in the village areas surrounding Kuala Tahan have been improved since the establishment of Temenggong Initiatives. He also stressed that one of the advantages of the participation in those awareness programmes is to influence the locals' perspectives by increasing their understandings and awareness about the environmental conservation. This interpretation is supported through his statement:
So far, there are many improvements [on rubbish problems]. Compared to last time, if we go to the entrance of Kuala Tahan, there was really a lot of rubbish. But I think after the establishment of this Temenggong Initiatives, we have successfully received the awards from the Majlis Daerah [District Council of Jerantut] for the cleanliness in our village.
148 5.1.2(e) Community survival, cultures and traditions
All the Batek respondents were of the view to support the nature conservation because the tropical rainforest is the place of survival for their community. Apart from using them as daily food supplier for both meat and vegetable, the forest products are also important for lighting purposes, as materials for building their houses, and making traditional handicrafts. As an example, a respondent mentioned that his primary mode of subsistence was through gathering forest resources for own usage and sometimes selling them to earn a living. Some of the products were also used to exchange for food. This has confirmed that the Batek people are still following their ancestral traditional practices of bartering the forest produces until present times.
In addition, the answers of the above respondent can also be related to the real meaning of monetization to aboriginal people. He claimed that money does not mean
“big thing” for the Batek, as they have never think to be rich in their lives.
Harvesting the resources from their forest zones are not for the purpose to earn much money as they only wish to pursue enough livings to stay alive. He continued:
… I mean the Batek people do not need to have a lot of money. We need only the food because we just wanted to survive.
Aboriginal culture is one of the oldest living cultures in the world. According to another respondent, moving from place to place in the forest is one of their customs and cultures. When food resources were run out or finished, they will migrate to other places in order to find new sources. These indigenous forest people will also
149 move to another place when there is something happens in their family, like a death or severe illness.
Throughout the ancient and long history, the Batek have retained their rich cultures and traditions of giving up a life in the rainforest. They consider the environment as their house where they prefer to live in simplified surroundings as their daily lifestyles cannot be separated from the forest. They sustain themselves by hunting and gathering forest produces. Therefore, a very unique relationship with the forest has been well-preserved from elders to their descendants. Until recently, the Batek maintain much of their identity and they are still traditionally following the steps of their ancestors as highlighted by one of the respondents:
I live in the national park since the times of my grandparents. I follow the ways of the old people did last time, searching for food in the forest, going for hunting and collecting pine, rattan, scented wood and resin for my daily life.
To an old man who was previously a nature guide, the national park was regarded as
“a residence since the grandparents”. He notified that he was born in the park before the Japanese invasion of Malaya during the Second World War. Also, he argued that the Batek people are the original inhabitants of the park. A clear stand was made over the rights of indigenous people especially their rights to lands, territories, and the resources. He expounded:
I think the national park is my residence since my grandparents had settled down here many years ago. Nobody can chase me out of my place, and stop me from searching food… I was born here before the Japanese invasion.
150
This respondent was unable to give good explanation in Malay language during the interview. However, he continued to show his anxiety about their homelands by mentioning that “the people want to make a roof in my place” in the below statement.
In his words, the Batek people have been expelled from their ancestral lands since the national park has been gazetted. Nevertheless, this old villager was very confident that nobody could force him to leave the forest, the place that he perceived as tempat jiwa (a place of soul). He further illustrated:
The people [Perhilitan] want to make a roof in my place, you see, now where are they? The people who are staying here now are from Perhilitan. Hey, hey… they want to force me to leave but they couldn’t make it. Here is my tempat jiwa.
The focus group discussions with Malay villagers, too, have reflected the community cultures and traditions as the possible factors that influence local perspectives on environmental conservation. The participants identified the conservation practices as one of their traditional cultural properties which have been rooted in their community’s history. One of the respondents clarified that:
We protect the natural resources as similar as what our grandparents did last time… In the future our children will also protect as what we are doing now. It means that we have to keep it continuously.
A Malay respondent recommended the ways to preserve and conserve the biological resources according to the teachings of the elderly. He also emphasised and implored the government to encourage the continuation of these traditional practices for the sake of future generation. During the interview, I noticed that the same respondent
151 have repeatedly (three times) mentioned on the term “continuously”, in order to interpret the constant conservation efforts of the local communities. They were following the steps of their ancestors as they believed this culture would be continued from one generation to the next, as argued by many of them.
Furthermore, the receiving of domestic and international visitors to Kuala Tahan was found not to damage the local cultures and traditions, as claimed by other respondent.
In contrast, the increasing of cultural awareness at the community level was frequently mentioned as an apparent benefit resulting from the national park establishment. A participant highlighted on the culture of gotong-royong and helping each other which were still maintained in their village. He told an example that illustrated on how the local people were working together for a wedding feast. He stated that:
Compared to the city, all the banquets are depending on the catering services, right? All the people are coming to eat only. But the situation is different at this place; we are still practicing gotong-royong and helping each other to cook the food. You can’t see this situation happened in the city anymore.
However, when the same respondent was asked to confirm whether this cultural awareness is created due to the existence of the park, he gave both answers of might or might not. In attempts to link between the protected site and the locals’ relationship, he tried to argue that “because of the national park, we are gathered here”, meaning that the park is keeping a good and close relationship amongst the local villagers, and thus preserving the local culture and traditions.
152 5.1.2(f) Relationship with park management
Another reason found to affect local communities’ support on conservation activities is their relationship with the park authorities. During the discussion regarding their relationship with the national park management, many of the Malay villagers presented a strong cooperation and support. They were cared and concerned on matters pertaining the national park because many of them are the employees of the governmental organisations especially the DWNP. Therefore, there is always a connection between the local communities and the park specifically during concerted activities and any arising problems. When they were asked to elaborate their connection with the park management, one of them felt that it was “very close” and
“very good”.
Our relationship is very good and very close… Local people here are mostly working for the Forestry or Perhilitan. If there is any things happened, we actually have the connection with the national park.
A park ranger has also responded and conceded that a good and effective connection of the local residents with the park management has been developed. When he was asked to explain how the local villagers communicate with the park authorities if any problems occurred, his answer was that without waiting for any formal meeting, the communication was commanded directly to the park authorities through the villagers who are working for the park or the members of the associations affiliated under the park such as nature guides and boat drivers. According to him, the local people acknowledged their roles and responsibilities, where they were liaised and cooperated with the national park. He told:
153
The local villagers will directly report through the people who are working inside the national park, for example the park ranger and nature guide. They would be directed to Perhilitan, straight on the spot.
While speaking to the ranger of the park, I encountered an array of local awareness and concerns about the problems affecting park management and conservation.
Knowing each other among the villagers is traditionally practised as the local culture in Kuala Tahan. Therefore, it is easy for the local people to recognise who are the outsiders to their village. When there is a suspicion of intruders into the study sites, they would quickly report to the enforcement unit of the park. He continued to report his following experience with the locals:
Actually all the local villagers know each other among themselves. If any outsiders come, the local villagers will report to our enforcement unit immediately if they notice any suspected people or group.
Additionally, when responding to the question “Does the park management understand the problems and the needs of the villagers?”, another local villager who is the chairman of the Nature Guides Association apparently expressed his satisfaction with the new national park Superintendent who is more positive thinking and understands the problems and needs of the nature guides. According to him, the nature guides had received many complaints from the tourists because few places were recently closed due to periodical maintenance. However, he highly confident and believed in the ability of the new Superintendent to solve these problems of the nature guides. In his point of view, the Superintendent has been more “positive”,
“effective”, and always “listen to the villagers”.
154
The Nature Guides Association is now receiving many complaints from the tourists because many activities are temporarily closed, for example the Gua Telinga and half of the canopy walkway… The new Superintendent (Mr. Abu) is really positive thinking; he listens to what we suggested to him. Recently, we went to Gua Ling, he followed us to there because he wanted to see the conditions over there.
On behalf of the park management, the Deputy Superintendent of the national park highlighted that the local communities are the “important staff” for the park as they also act as the “eyes” and “ears” of the management. She emphasised that the park policy highly concerns on the community involvement:
The Perhilitan could not do things alone, it is nonsense! We could not look after all the entrances of the park, but we have the local communities who will be the eyes and ears for us, and also what we called the additional staff for the Perhilitan.
5.1.2(g) Other socio-cultural benefits
The focus group participants also disclosed that supportive views from the local people are materialised due to other socio-cultural benefits including the improvement of local English language skills and the deteriorating of criminal activities in Kuala Tahan. The local villagers noted that the exposure to foreign tourists as a positive point in encouraging the locals to communicate in English.
However, when asked if the tourism development increases criminal and antisocial activities, the respondents did not see this as a problem, since they thought the situation was still under control, with one of them mentioned “… criminal cases still
155 occur, but the problem is not very significant, it does not proliferated and become a burden to the local people”.
5.1.3 Themes of factors contributing to negative perspectives
Restriction on
commercial hunting Resource conflict between park Restriction on selling management and Batek park resources Factors contributing to negative
perspectives Increasing of food High cost of price living
Figure 5.3: Emerging themes of factors contributing to negative perspectives
5.1.3(a) Resource conflict between the park management and Batek
The protection of the national park and its resources, however, has caused a conflict and poor relationship between the park and the aboriginal community living near to
Taman Negara Pahang. When they were asked to share their opinions about the national park policy, two of the Batek respondents expressed their dissatisfactions with the park management because they are not allowed for commercial hunting and selling the park resources. One of them commented:
Perhilitan has some problems with the Batek community… If we want to sell the forest products we will have problems.
Nevertheless, when I asked if any complaints or conflicts ever happened previously between the park authorities and the Orang Asli, the answer from a national park
156 staff was “no”. The respondent explained that the enforcement unit of the park would not implement any punishment if the Batek people collect the resources in small quantity for their own use. Moreover, he clarified the existence of the national park is not severely affecting their livelihoods, since many of the Batek men are involving in tourism economy as tourist guides and boat drivers. The park staff said:
For their own consumption, we allow them to collect [park resources] in small quantity, we will not charge anything… Until now there is no complaint or conflict happened. Also, many of the Batek men are working as nature guides. They can earn an income from there.
An extra explanation has been made by the park Deputy Superintendent to clarify on the time that the aboriginal groups are allowed to do hunting and collecting park resources for their livings. Yet, under the present enforcement of the Wildlife
Conservation Act (2010), they are allowed to hunt only ten species of wild animals in the park for their sustenance. While informing the rights of the Orang Asli in
Peninsular Malaysia, she stated:
Under the Act 716 [Wildlife Conservation Act 2010], there is a specific list for the Orang Asli about their rights for hunting the wild animals like wild boar and others… It is a very new act, so it means that Orang Asli is allowed to hunt certain species of wild animals only for their own consumption, but not for sale.
5.1.3(b) High cost of living
While acknowledging the disadvantages of the tourism development surrounding the
Taman Negara Pahang, one of the focus group’s findings revealed an intense dispute among the Malay respondents. One of them felt that the cost of living in Kuala
157 Tahan was increasing annually. He gave an example by comparing the food price between their village and other places, he said:
Just look at the chicken price in the Jerantut town now, how much for a kilogram? Six thirty. But the price in Kuala Tahan is already more than eight ringgit!
However, another participant continued to aver that “job opportunities are always there”. This indicates that even though local people faced high living expenses due to tourism activities, but they are aware and confident about the availability of employment opportunities for the locals surrounding the national park.
5.2 In-depth Interviews and Observations
By exploring the themes emerged in focus groups, in-depth interviews were conducted to gain an insight into local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation, the underlying factors, and the park-people interaction and communication approaches (Figure 5.4). It narratively explores the now and then of the respondents’ stories. Together with in-depth interviews, observations were also carried out to triangulate the thematic data of focus groups and the narrative data of in-depth interviews.
In general, the overall findings discuss the viewpoints of the majority of the Malay and Batek villagers living nearby to Taman Negara Pahang towards the creation of a national park that provides livelihood improvements in terms of economic, socio- cultural customs and infrastructure. There were some of the negative impacts being
158 highlighted; however, most of the respondents regarded the changes as positive and suitable.
This section further demystifies the results of focus groups which have described the unique relationship of Batek with the rainforest. Evidences of the in-depth interviews suggest that the aborigines are having positive perspectives on natural resources conservation due to the forest is their place of survival that shapes their cultures and traditions. The forest is their home with great reliance on the resources which they also claimed as their “supermarket”. They also regard themselves as the “wildlife” of the jungle whose protect the natural resources within their care. Also, the observations have delineated the issues on sustainability and forest preservation which have been ensconced in the hearts of the local Malays and Batek people because of the above reasons.
Local incomes Local infrastructure and livelihoods and culture
Local communities’ perspectives on nature Survival, cultures, conservation, contributing traditions and beliefs factors, and park-people of Batek interaction and communication approaches
Community environmental Communication and relationship knowledge and awareness with park management
Figure 5.4: Emerging themes of local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation, contributing factors, and park-people interaction and communication approaches
159 5.2.1 Local incomes and livelihoods
Local incomes and livelihoods
Increasing of local Improving of local livelihoods incomes
Employment Business Transition from Improving of opportunities opportunities traditional business quality of life
Transition from forest ways of living
Figure 5.5: Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “local incomes and livelihoods”
In the 1990s, before the tourism industry underwent a tremendous boom, Kuala
Tahan was considered as the rural areas with lack of employment opportunities for individuals and households. A female respondent mentioned that she has moved and stayed in Kampung Kuala Tahan Seberang about 20 years ago after getting married to a local. She was originally selling the food and drink at the roadside near to the
Taman Negara Pahang.
Over the years, there has been a gradual move away from the traditional style of selling food without proper stores and shops. Under the efforts of the Jerantut
District Council and the JKKK Kuala Tahan, a proper shop lots project was proposed and launched for the benefits of local villagers since the early years of 2010. The shops are called “kiosk” by the locals, and they were built for selling food, souvenirs, offering internet services and tourist agents. The woman remarked:
160 This kiosk is newly completed, for about two years ago. Last time, I started my business at the roadside by using the umbrella… With a proper shop now, my business has steadily increased… We pay 150 ringgit for the rental to the JKKK.
She appreciated the establishment of the national park, to greatly improve the quality of life within communities, attributed to the ample opportunities rendered by the booming of tourism industry in Kuala Tahan. Compared to the past where the food was sold at the roadside, she pointed out the food hygiene and safety standard which have been enhanced through the creation of kiosks. With the tables and chairs are provided for the customers, all these stores look like the mini restaurants.
Having said that, another female respondent who is a member of JKKK gave her opinions by considering Kuala Tahan as the corridor for the national park; its establishment has exposed the local people to more economic opportunities by offering a greater diversity of employments. She opined that:
Local people surrounding the Taman Negara have been exposed to more career opportunities… Kuala Tahan is the corridor to the Taman Negara, so many kiosks are now available, many restaurants are opened, and therefore job employments have been rising extensively for the local villagers.
The committee members of JKKK were aware about the welfare of the local communities whereby several notable terms from the respondents during the interview were revealed in parallel with their efforts to improve the local livelihoods, such as “the concept of JKKK is to help the local people”, “the kiosks are 100% for the local villagers”, and “we need to improve the income of the local people”.
161 On the other hand, the establishment of national park has also brought changes to the livelihoods of the Batek people and their conventional ways of living. Traditionally, this indigenous group is regarded as a forest-dependent community who lived through the combination of hunting and gathering forest resources. The earlier focus group discussions (p. 149) with the Batek respondents discovered their behaviours of moving from one place to another is to source their food in the jungle and it has been suggested as one of the reasons of why the aboriginal people are having positive perspectives on forest preservation. The main reason is that the forest is the source of their survival, shaping their culture and identity simultaneously.
By the late 1990s, slowly after the growing number of tourists to Kuala Tahan, the tourism has played a significant role to generate employment opportunities and incomes for the Batek community. The below citation from a Batek man elaborates the possibility to move to other location is somehow related to the additional income from the tourists.
My family members are staying in Kuala Tringan now, but I often move to stay in Kampung Dedari because of the tourists… I have been moving from one place to another and it depends on the number of tourists.
162 5.2.2 Local infrastructure and culture
Construction Health of road facilities Changing of local culture
Improving of local Local infrastructure infrastructure and culture Transforming from traditional roles
Water Electricity supply supply Housewives Young groups
Figure 5.6: Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “local infrastructure and culture”
In the 1980s, the most important local transportation mode was through the river as getting a boat was the only alternative means to reach the Jerantut town. Sometimes, it would take up to nearly four hours for the distance from the jetty of Kuala
Tembeling to the national park, according to a respondent.
Previously, we must take a boat from Kuala Tembeling jetty to Taman Negara with approximately two and a half hours of journey. It depended on the water level, the shallow of the river water, then the speed of the boat. Sometimes, it could take nearly four hours to reach the park.
For the electricity supply, there was a difficulty of bringing electrical power to the villages surrounding Kuala Tahan which were at that time considered as remote areas.
Most of the local villagers received only intermittent and poor quality of power supply from the government. For example, the wildlife department was using the generator to supply the 12-hours electricity.
163 When talking about the health facility near to the park, a nurse of the government health clinic in Kuala Tahan mentioned that they had only the village midwife or so- called the “bidan kampung” since time immemorial. After that since the year 1997, a health clinic has been established in Kuala Tahan for the welfares of local people.
The nurse noted:
The health clinic that we have now in Kuala Tahan is considered appropriate. In the earlier period, we have something called bidan kampung [village midwife]. Slowly after that, in 1997, it has been upgraded and we already have a health clinic.
She expressed her appreciation because the foundation of the national park has benefited the local people when comparing to the past. The respondent continued:
I was born here. I have been staying here for long time and now my life is fine. There are so many developments planned and built surrounding this Taman Negara.
Another Malay respondent voiced that, “I am aware of gradual changes that take place surrounding the national park”. It reflects that the development in Kuala Tahan was happened step by step over the years. Given an example on the improvement and upgrades of local transportation, he highlighted the construction of road between
Kuala Tahan to Jerantut town has made their life easier than before. Instead of taking a boat, the local villagers nowadays could save a lot of time travelling away.
After we have the road, our trip from the park to Jerantut becomes shorter. If we drive at a higher speed, it will take only one hour to reach the destination… So we can save a lot of time.
164 At the moment, the government has also expanded the power and water transmission lines to provide constant supplies to every household in Kuala Tahan. Most specifically, FELCRA was established in Kuala Tahan as a new settlement area with more structured social infrastructure. The local villagers confessed that the livelihoods of individuals who are living within the surrounding of the national park have extremely improved.
The findings of both in-depth interviews and observation correspondingly depicted that the national park could also bring positive impacts to local culture which would directly contribute to positive perspectives on park conservation efforts among the local communities. By tradition, women would mainly spend their days at home to fulfil their housewife's roles of managing family matters. As a result, women will financially depend on men because their involvement in employments is very limited.
However, young generations and the housewives slowly experienced the changes over the past ten years. Rapid development within the national park generates direct and indirect employments not only for the head of the households, but to the housewives and the younger groups too. From financially dependent on their parents and husband in the earlier period, they could nowadays stand on their own by working as boatmen, resort employees, or starting up small scale businesses. A female respondent believed that the local culture was positively transforming from traditional lifestyle to a modern one, where she called it as “lifestyle renewal”. She rendered:
In previous time, women were always staying at home to manage their households. Similar to young people, if
165 they did not go to the school, they will only stay with their families. Compared to now, they are brave enough to go out for working… The housewives are also spirited to begin their small businesses or open the shops.
Observations on daily lifestyles of local communities have also discovered certain socio-cultural impacts from tourism. As an example, during my stay in a chalet near to the park, I was approached by a group of kids who were playing in front of the receptionist counter. Among them, a girl named Siti who is seven years old spoke to me in English, “Where are you from?”, “Why are you alone?” She chatted with me and said that her mother is working in the Mahseer Chalet, while her father passed away when she was only three years old. I was surprised and impressed to see the children feeling comfortable to greet and talk to the outsiders, with their satisfactory
English language proficiency.
Similar evidence on indigenous lifestyle was also found during my visit to two Batek villages near to the national park: Kampung Yong and Kampung Dedari, both are located along the Sungai Tembeling. Firstly, the boat driver brought me into
Kampung Yong, and I stopped there for a while to observe the surrounding areas of this aboriginal village which was formerly the most popular tourism spot. The condition of the road was extremely poor, and not even a tourist was there. Moreover, the villages were shy and they were not daring to come out from their houses during my visit. Therefore, I could feel the Batek tribes in this village have been isolated from the outside world.
However, in contrast to Kampung Yong, the surrounding areas of Kampung Dedari tend to be more equipped with facilities, with a better road leading to their settlement.
166 This scenario could be due to many of the Batek people have moved to Kampung
Dedari as this is the only Orang Asli settlement for the tourists to visit presently. On top of that, neither the Batek adults nor the children were shy as they met me at the first time. Indeed, they were reluctant to cooperate at first, but after a while, when I gave breads and drinks along with other little gifts such as cloths, bags and toys to the kids, they were no longer shy and happy to welcome me.
All the Batek people still adhere to their mother tongue as they prefer to speak Batek language among them. Nonetheless, from what I could observe, this aboriginal group is brave to talk to the visitors and they are able to communicate well in other languages. I also noticed that few of the kids have fair command of Malay and they felt comfortable to talk with me. Later, as I managed to spend time chatting with two
Batek men who are the nature guides, I was impressed with their proficiency in
English. In addition, one of them, fondly known as “John”, prefers to be called with this English name, purposely created for the tourists to remember him, as personally professed by him during the interview.
Being a popular tourist destination is an advantage, but a problem lies on the negative tourism impacts towards the cultures and traditions of Orang Asli. I was informed by the officer of the JAKOA that the Batek people have been asked for taking pictures without their clothes. JAKOA has found that it was true and the tourists were willing to pay for this. During the interview, the officer expressed his dissatisfaction and voiced out such a bad behaviour was deliberately insulted and offended the Orang Asli group, as well as affected the national image of Malaysia.
Since then, the nature guides of the national park have been advised to educate the
167 tourists to erode the inappropriate behaviour in order to preserve the cultural rights of the aborigines. The respondent cited the following during the interview:
At first, during the early stages of park establishment, the Batek were asked to take pictures without putting their clothes and the tourists were willing to pay for it… Thus we held a meeting with the Batek villagers and we advised all the tourist guides not to allow the same case to be happened again. This will affect the image of Malaysia if these pictures were spread to overseas.
5.2.3 Survival, cultures, traditions and beliefs of Batek
Sharing of Forest is Boss of Food searching food
true home the forest in forest
Moving from one Staying close place to another to river Place of survival
Cultures and traditions Survival, cultures, traditions and beliefs of Batek
Death or severe illness Pantang-larang Animistic belief Hanging body of death on tree
Figure 5.7: Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “survival, cultures, traditions and beliefs of Batek”
The Batek people showed supportive attitudes on nature conservation because the rainforest is the place of survival for them, shaping the cultures and traditions of this aboriginal group. Batek love to stay where they were originally from, and they think that the forest is the real home for them. Their villages are surrounded by deep forest
168 and absolutely a good place to enjoy the peace and serenity. As original inhabitants of this national park, the Batek are living within the remote forests. They make their atap house by bamboo, dried leaves and woods. The houses look like small huts, and without water and electricity supplies. There are no beds and even simple furniture inside, only mattresses that I could see.
Subsequently, a respondent used the word “supermarket for the Batek” to portray the importance of this rainforest in providing variety of food sources for the indigenous people. Delineating that his primary mode of subsistence was through gathering jungle produces for own usage and sometimes selling them to earn a living, the man cited:
For my daily life, I collect the kayu wangi [gaharu wood], fruits, pine leaves, rattans, damar [resin or rosin] and others for own use. Sometimes I also sell them to the Malay villagers for exchanging the salt, rice and other foodstuffs… This forest is our supermarket.
During my visit to Kampung Dedari, I could also observe the Batek villagers normally live together like a big family in the forest. The Batek group also love to share the food among them. A representative of Batek mentioned that sharing of food is one of their traditional practices since their ancestors; for example when they cook a hunted monkey, the cooked meat will be divided into portions according to the size of each family. The Batek community believe that all the wild food belongs to the forests, so that everybody has same right to share the resources.
Previous findings in focus groups explained that the forests play a vital role in shaping the customs and cultures of the Batek, where they will move from one place
169 to another particularly for searching the food, or if something happens for example a death or severe illness of their family members. Hence, when asking about the animistic belief of this indigenous ethnic minority, a respondent pointed out on the interaction of the Batek with the rainforests, with specific emphasis on the important meaning of trees in their everyday life. According to him, the Batek people have a unique tradition of hanging the body of death on a big tree in the deep forest which is still practicing until now. He said:
Batek do not conduct any funeral ceremony for the death people. We will wrap the body with tree leaves and barks and we do everything on a big tree… We will build a platform which looks like a canopy on top of the tree and pull the body of death up.
When the Batek enter the jungle for hunting and gathering forest produces, they strictly follow their traditional religion or they called it as pantang-larang [taboo] in
Malay, including the following: (i) do not boast or brag in the forests, (ii) do not laugh or talk loudly in front of the big animals. They have to always maintain good relationship with the forests by respecting all the flora and fauna around them, as they do believe in the spirit (semangat) of trees, plants, rivers, mountains, animals and others. One respondent told:
Whenever there is a big animal in front of us, we cannot laugh or make fun of it. This is our belief. We do believe that our God will be angry and punish us with thunder and lightning… Also we shouldn’t talk big [cakap besar] when we saw anything in the forest. For example, if I saw the gaharu wood, I will just keep quiet and take it as my secret and luck of the day. That’s all.
170 In a similar vein, rivers are also very important in the traditional life of Batek people.
I was told by the interviewees that staying close to the river is another traditional practice of their ancestors. They will continue this culture to future generations.
Batek’s relationship with the rivers has been explained by a villager as below. When he was asked about the reason of why the Batek choose to stay next to the river, the respondent clarified that they only prefer the small stream.
We live next to the river, normally a small one. We do not like to stay next to such a big river like Sungai Tembeling. Even for the small river, we have to check the cleanliness of the water first.
Therefore, the respondent voiced out “don’t like” to express his negative viewpoints on Sungai Tembeling which they are now staying next to. He explained this river is too broad, murky and dirty for them. The aboriginal community experiences a problem of contaminated river water, being polluted by the garbage from the nearby
Malay housing areas. As a result, the Batek respondent explained that they prefer the water source from the streams, rather than the rivers. They need clean water supply for cooking, drinking, and washing. They are concerned with the health problems of their community, where the respondent highlighted the high occurrences of infectious diseases caused by the river water contamination. He dwelled on:
We need the water for drinking and cooking. However, Sungai Tembeling is dirty and murky with plenty of rubbish in the river. We feel that it is not secured to drink… It may cause epidemic diseases such as abdominal pain, neck pain through direct contact with polluted river water… That is why we prefer small streams with clearer water that we might get.
171 Batek villagers also expressed positive impression towards the forest, as in the eyes of them the national park is their home with picturesque scenery and ecological system. Furthermore, they called themselves as the “wildlife” or even the “boss” of the forest. One respondent thought:
Before the national park establishment, Batek was the only population in this area… We are the boss of the national park… With the logging activities here and there, so where the wildlife are going to stay? The current condition of Batek is very much akin to wildlife, and we want to stay where we are originally from. But now we have lost our residences.
He described the aboriginal people are same as the wildlife whereas forests are their home as both distinctive groups depend substantively on the natural resources for survival. As time passes, the growth of human population and development activities affects the rate of deforestation. The construction in terms of roads, highways and infrastructures has seriously caused the forest destructions. The respondent stressed that “the logging activities which happen here and there have destroyed the habitat and survival of the wild animals, forced them to move out from the jungle. We can see the number of species in Taman Negara has relatively decreased”. He avowed that the wildlife and Batek people have lost their homelands.
As the result, in the early 2000s, a development project has been implemented by
JAKOA with the goal to provide a proper Orang Asli’s settlement in Kuala Atok, outside the national park boundaries. However, the project was truly failed to get the support from the Batek. According to him, the reason was because the Batek tribe are primarily inhabited in the jungle before the Taman Negara Pahang was founded in
172 1938/1939. Batek and the national park are indeed inseparable, as accentuated by the
JAKOA officer.
JAKOA has established a settlement in Kuala Atok, which is a special settlement for the Batek tribe outside of the national park. JAKOA has built the houses made of woods and with zinc roofs. This project was under the Development Program for the Extremely Poor and 21 units of houses were built.
The officer from JAKOA continued to inform that the government received very disappointing response from the Batek community. This is because the construction of the wooden houses outside the park boundaries illustrates a huge difference from their traditional ways of living in the forests. He further demurred:
We also set up a medical care centre to provide monthly health care services for the Batek people in Kuala Atok. Unfortunately, they were not happy with this… We also built the toilets for them but they did not use it.
When asking their opinions about the government-subsidised settlement in Kuala
Atok, one of the Batek respondents told that “we are not familiar with the use of toilet since we were kids, and this is our customs and traditions inherited from our grandparents. We are not used to sit in the toilet; we cannot pee in the place with cover or inside the house. We used to pee in the forest, the place which is an open area”.
173 5.2.4 Community environmental knowledge and awareness
Logging activities
River pollution
Knowledge and Species extinction awareness
Over-catching
Figure 5.8: Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “community environmental knowledge and awareness”
The results depicted that not only the Batek are having a very close relationship with the rainforest and Sungai Tembeling, but the Malay community also do. In the 1960s and 1970s, the water of Sungai Tembeling was massive, pure, clean and full of fish.
In fact, during the summer, the water was crystal clear and fresh as if the villagers could see the fishes gathering and swimming in the river. Given an example of the
Sultan fish (ikan jelawat), one of the interview respondents gave his opinions that this kind of fish was very big which could weigh up to nearly ten kilograms. They were extremely demanding and could be sold at an attractive price many years ago.
They did not like to live in the dirty water, and they were different from ikan patin where they would escape from contaminated water.
Regrettably today, the interview also divulged that the colour of the river water has obviously changed from green and clear to yellow and murky compared to the past ten years. Essentially, the local communities have experienced serious river pollution
174 due to the logging activities near to Kuala Tahan that have contaminated the river water and consequently threaten and kill the species. To this respondent who loves the fish very much, it was truly a sad story. He was upset because recently this Sultan fish has tragically gone extinct from the Sungai Tembeling. He told:
Today, ikan jelawat is extinct as it was fully exploited back then and we couldn’t see it anymore for more than ten years. In the 1960s and 1970s, ikan jelawat was very big from three to four kilograms… It is very expensive and it may cost 200 ringgit for only one kilogram… The problem is that they are not good at hiding themselves in the water. So it is easy for people to catch them.
He admitted that deforestation itself contributes significantly to species disappearance. Besides, he also agreed that other reason of the fish extinction was the over-catching by the poachers nowadays. They have taken too many fish out from the river by using the net or even with the currents. The respondent called their ways of fishing as “improper and unhealthy practices”, showing his positive attitudes and awareness on preserving the natural resources. He quoted the below statement:
The fish hunters today are greedy and outrageous! They are using the unhealthy and improper ways of catching the fish… Some of them are using the net, while others are even playing with currents and booms. This could seriously affect the reproductive system of the fish and could cause extinction finally.
My observations on the physical environment of village areas in Kuala Tahan revealed a different environmental perspectives and awareness among the Malay residents. On one hand, when I visited one of the Malay houses, I could see one woman swept the tree leaves and rubbish using her own-made broom which was
175 recycled from lidi (coconut frond). Besides, she practiced the traditional ways of agriculture where she raised the chicken and at the same time she planted the vegetables using the livestock manure as fertilizers. She was aware that chemical fertilizers are potentially hazardous to their health and to the surrounding environment.
On the other hand, my observations in another Malay village illustrated that there were no garbage bins have been found and the surrounding of the residential areas looked dirty and untidy with a lot of wastes such as plastics, candy bags, papers, bottles and others. I found villagers littered and put the old stuffs behind their houses.
This has unearthed different findings from earlier focus groups where the outcomes suggested that local villagers are having high knowledge and awareness on environmental issues.
When I walked and reached the main road to the Taman Negara jetty, conversely, there was a big different there where the environment looked clean and it was easy for me to find a rubbish bin. From the observations, I would say the local people are still lack of environmental awareness as they do not really cleaning up their own residence; however they have done a tremendous job to look after the major tourist areas especially at the main road and the places near to the national park. They do understand on the impacts of littering in the tourist zones that could affect the appealing of natural attractions.
Similarly, evidence from the interviews with Batek respondents proposed that this aboriginal group also have adequate environmental awareness towards the
176 contaminated river water that may cause umpteen health problems to their community. However, my personal observation discovered that there was no garbage bin found in their village while the rubbish was thrown everywhere including under the house. Noticeably, burning the garbage was considered as the only disposal method for them.
5.2.5 Communication and relationship with park management
New regulation of Restriction on license renewal commercial hunting
Poor relationship Park-people relationship Good and unique relationship Park-people communication
Employment opportunities Ability of new Local involvement Superintendent Effective
Positive Open Listen to Local stakeholders’
thinking minded villagers meeting
Figure 5.9: Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “communication and relationship with park management”
Undeniably, when talking about the relationship and connection between the local people and the park management, the park Superintendent strongly concurred that
Taman Negara Pahang is unique and exceptional that it brings special value to the local residents. According to him, the story of their relationship has been started since the early of twentieth century.
177 In the 1925, the park was originally named as the Gunung Tahan Game Reserve under the British rule. The creation of this preserved tropical rainforest was to protect the wildlife and game species for hunting sport purpose. During that time, the local people surrounding Kuala Tahan were employed by the British to work as “game wardens” with the role of protecting wildlife, a similar position that we called “park rangers” at the present times. Therefore, his reference depicts a deep affection with the national park as it has been derived among the local communities before the national park was gazetted. Giving his comments as below, the park Superintendent underlined:
Taman Negara was originally a place where the people go for hunting. Before the Taman Negara has been gazetted, it was known as the Gunung Tahan Game Reserve… During the time of British involvement, the park employed the local people to work for the British, and they were called “game wardens”, whereby now we called them as “rangers”.
Later on, through the foundation of Taman Negara Pahang in 1938/1939, the local communities in Kuala Tahan have established an ongoing relationship with the national park where a large number of local people have been employed by the park as rangers and guides.
From the aboriginal side, the outcomes of focus group with Batek people have identified their poor relationship with the park management due to the fact that
Orang Asli were not allowed to do commercial hunting and selling park resources. In the in-depth interviews, moreover, the results also indicated the dissatisfactions among them regarding the issue of license renewal for nature guides.
178 Prior to the late 2000s, the Batek men were allowed to work as tourist guides in the national park, as well as the Gunung Tahan. This is because they were very familiar with the forest geography, and yet they were suitable to provide nature guide services.
Therefore, the participation of Batek people as nature guides was very high during that time.
Afterwards, new regulations related to certified nature guides were set in the early
2010s. According to the new laws, all the nature guides including the Batek people are required to sit for certain courses held by the Nature Guides Association of the national park, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism. The interview with the officer from JAKOA indicated the unsatisfactory complaints from the indigenous people, as they argued that they have enough knowledge of the forest. The officer elaborated:
After the expiry of their licenses, the Batek men were asked to attend some courses in order to proceed for renewal. This has made them felt uncomfortable with it… They have approached us [JAKOA] for help if they could be excluded from attending the classes.
From the perspectives of the Batek, they were being challenged by the license renewal with the compulsory courses. When I asked if they feel that to complete the courses is a tough job for them, one of them conceded:
I think it is very hard. Since we are the Orang Asli, we could not understand the course. So what can we do? To get the license, we have nothing to choose… We are not good in writing at all. We are afraid to go there.
179 The above phrase “we have nothing to choose” illustrates the disappointments among the aboriginal group. In their eyes, they have no other choices except for attending the courses which have totally made them uncomfortable. In addition, the expenses such as the medical check-up have made it even more difficult for the Batek to obtain a nature guide license, with the other respondent said, “When the license is expired, I have to find extra money to do the renewal. It is absolutely difficult for me”.
On behalf of the park administration, the park Superintendent has given his opinions on the other conflict with Batek community which has also caused a poor relationship between them. He explained that the issues with the Batek are due to the fact that they are prohibited from selling the park resources, “There are still among them who are trying to sell the forest products; however this problem is under controlled. This is because we have enforced the strict rules and regulations. They also understand the protection of wild species in the national park. Even though they are angry, they have to follow the enforcement. DWNP is working hard to control the poaching activities in the park”.
By the time of conducting the interview, the existing park Superintendent was considerably new as he just transferred to the Taman Negara Pahang for four months.
In the section 5.1.2 (f) (p. 154), the focus groups with Malay residents reflected that the new Superintendent was effective, positive thinking, open minded, and always listened to the locals. Unsurprisingly, when I probed further in the interview about his affiliations with the local communities, he viewed their relationship and communication as positive and warm.
180 He described his good relationship with the local villagers as amiable and affable as he always gets personal invitation to their homes. The respondent told me that he has already adapted to a local culture in Kuala Tahan where he regarded himself as one of the local people that understands the local issues and local problems. He was delighted with the overwhelming and positive responses that were received from the local communities so far, as expressed by him:
In this place, there is a local culture: if you were the outsiders, you have no rights to involve with the local matters. In opposition, if you have been settled in this place and considered yourself as locals, then you can talk about the local issues… I am really grateful and thankful that they have accepted me as a local. Although I have been working here for only four months, but sometimes I go to their homes for lunch.
From the relationship issue with local communities, our conversation topic was then shifted to park-people communication strategy. The park Superintendent emphasised that he is working on the basis and policy of ecotourism that would meet both conservation and local development goals. As the top management of the Taman
Negara Pahang, he initiated a local stakeholders’ meeting every two months to get involvement from all the local stakeholders for discussion towards a sustainable foundation which could contribute to higher living standards of local people.
Again, I observed the open minded and positive thinking of the Superintendent, when he said that, “this meeting is the place where we would quarrel, rise up issues, and discuss for the best solution of every matter”. His definition of “every matter” indicates his approach is not only encouraging towards the local participation in park management, but the discussion would also include other issues outside the park such
181 as socio-economic and cultural problems. To him, “every matter” is important because the local communities in Kuala Tahan are depending fundamentally on the national park through their involvement in the tourism activities. He continued:
I have organised a local stakeholders' meeting in the national park once every two months… Our meeting will discuss all the issues related to the well-being of local villagers, not only the problems of the park but also other social and economic problems.
182
Perspectives on Nature Conservation
Positive Perspectives Negative Perspectives Focus Focus groups
Income Local Other Community Appreciation Local Relationship & transportation socio- survival, of knowledge with park Resource High cost of
employment and cultural cultures & nature & management conflict living infrastructure benefits traditions awareness
In
-
depth Interviews depth
Local incomes Local Survival, cultures, Community Communication & & livelihoods infrastructure traditions & environmental relationship with park
& culture beliefs of Batek knowledge & awareness management
High awareness Low awareness Exposure to Simple living Observations English language environment with “atap” Using recycled Poor rubbish house, without water and materials management in Comfortable to electricity supplies. village areas greet and talk to Using natural outsiders Live and share food fertilizers No garbage bin together like a big family found in Batek’s Proper rubbish village Move from one place to management in another in the forest village areas
Figure 5.10: Findings of focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and observations in Taman Negara Pahang, Malaysia
183 CHAPTER 6
FINDINGS: KHAO YAI NATIONAL PARK, THAILAND
This chapter discusses the findings in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. The focus group discussion is aimed to explore the perspectives on nature conservation among the respondents and to examine the possible forces determining their perspectives.
Subsequently, the in-depth interviews help to nail down a respondent’s point of view in order to obtain detailed information on the influential factors. Lastly, non- participant and unstructured observations were applied concurrently during the in- depth interview. It aims to observe the thematic data gathered from focus groups and the narrative data gathered from in-depth interviews. Similar to previous chapter, it also consists of three parts: (i) focus group discussions, (ii) in-depth interviews, (iii) observations.
6.1 Focus Group Discussions
The overall findings of the three focus groups in Khao Yai suggested that most of the
Thai respondents have obvious willingness to protect the natural resources in the national park. The main factor which has encouraged favourable attitudes was found to be their appreciation towards nature. Majority of them cherished the existence of the preserved forest nearby their residential areas in providing good and cold weather all year round. According to them, Khao means “mountain”, and Yai means “big” in
Thai language. The rich ecological system of Khao Yai seems to be embedded in the lives of the local people where they were proud of having healthy lifestyles with the mountains and forests located next to them. Other factors contributing to positive
184 perspectives on nature conservation were identified as: employment and income generations, improvement of local transportation and infrastructure facilities, cultural exchange promotion, local knowledge and awareness of park, community cultures and traditions, and good relationship with park management.
Nevertheless, the results of the last focus group reported their dissatisfactions because the local villagers were restricted to access the forest resources, with two respondents have perceived the national park as a threat to their livelihoods and incomes. In addition, other participants expressed their anxiety on the wildlife damage towards the agricultural crops which have increased over time. Other emerging factors that were found to determine negative perspectives are high cost of living, loss of lands to outsiders, changes of weather patterns and other environmental problems.
Local communities’ relationship with the national park management and their ways of communication are increasingly viewed as an important element in determining the local support towards the conservation efforts. The findings also showed that the local villagers formed a strong cooperation with park authority through high involvement in conservation activities such as garbage collection and reforestation programmes. Few villagers highlighted the main challenges that entail wildlife damage over crops and the delay in getting the compensation. They expressed their dissatisfaction and blamed the ineffectiveness of the park management in providing the best solution.
185 6.1.1 Themes of local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation
Home and shelter
Sense of belonging Family’s intimacy
Pleasant climate Local communities’ Aesthetic value Prevention from perspectives on the threat of nature conservation climate change
Restriction access to forest resources Economic pressures Loss of income
Figure 6.1: Emerging themes of local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation
6.1.1(a) Sense of belonging
A female respondent has regarded the national park as her “home”. With regard to her feelings about this conservation site, she felt a unique relationship with the park as she was born and grew up in Khao Yai, studied in other places but finally came back to work in this place. She mentioned:
I was born in Khao Yai. I was studied in other places, but finally I could come back to work at this place. I think my life is bound to here. I really think this national park is important as my home.
Similarly, a village chief also responded that the park was considered as a “home” and “shelter” for the local people. He was satisfied with the employment opportunities generated by tourism for the young generations nowadays. He
186 appreciated that his children do not need to travel far from the hometown since they could easily get a job in Khao Yai and spend more times with the family. The respondent also believed that it has indirectly contributed to family’s intimacy by making them bond closer.
6.1.1(b) Aesthetic values
Local villagers are supportive towards conservation efforts because they appreciate the environmental values provided by the national park. One respondent indicated his satisfaction of living next to the park as he used “enough clean and fresh air” and
“quality air” to express the pleasant climate in Khao Yai in contributing a healthy lifestyle to the surrounding communities. He specified:
Khao Yai has the best weather all year round with enough clean and fresh air from the trees. As long as we are staying here, we could breathe the quality air.
Another local villager demystified the main role of a national park is to maintain habitats for a wide range of plants and endangered wildlife. He viewed the creation of Khao Yai National Park as a good step, in the sense of providing a better surrounding. To support his own opinion, he gave a valuable point on nature conservation that preserving our natural environment by protecting the forest is fundamental towards effective conservation, or he called the “original method” in the below quotation.
The establishment of the national park is a really good thing. It helps us to have a better surrounding. If we could preserve our environment through the original
187 method by looking after the trees in the forest, it will minimise the greenhouse effect.
The above findings have proved the awareness of local people with their knowledge about the world is challenged and threatened by climate change. According to this respondent, “better surrounding” could be referred to a safe environment provided by preserved forests which could help the local communities to escape from the threat of global change.
6.1.1(c) Economic pressures
Only a small amount of the participants in focus groups were in support for nature conservation activities conducted in Khao Yai National Park. There were only two respondents in the last group argued that since the forest has been declared as a protected area, their incomes have been threatened from restriction access to the forest resources. When one of the respondents was asked to attribute her feeling towards the conservation areas, she said:
I don’t like it [national park] to be established here! We can’t go up to the mountains to collect the vegetation as what we did last time… The park management prohibits our entrance, we can’t go there anymore, or we can’t even step into that place.
Another male respondent who is an old man continued to report his following experience with the national park:
We are not allowed to go for fishing at the river inside the park… Since the national park was built hitherto,
188 many rules and regulations have been set up and enforced too.
According to the data provided by both respondents, they seem to understand the concept of national park as a strategy to conserve natural ecological processes.
However, before the forests have been gazetted as a national reserves site, those who lived in or near these areas were depending on the forests through hunting and fishing for their livelihoods. After the foundation of park, they experienced challenges in their economy as their income sources have been affected.
The design of this research delineates that conservation success is strongly influenced by the community perceptions on the national park due to its impacts on local livelihoods, their opinions on park policy, as well as other local issues. The following sections will elaborate further on the factors determining local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation.
6.1.2 Themes of factors contributing to positive perspectives
Appreciation of nature Promotes of Income and employment cultural exchange opportunities
Factors contributing
Local transportation to positive Local knowledge and and infrastructure perspectives awareness of park facilities
Community cultures Good relationship and traditions with park management
Figure 6.2: Emerging themes of factors contributing to positive perspectives
189 6.1.2(a) Appreciation of nature
One respondent described the weather in Khao Yai to be different from other provinces in Thailand. It is not hot, but most of the time, the climate is pleasant.
Given the information that the weather in this area is the best with the highest mountain in the regions of northeast, eastern and central, he loves the national park because it gives clean and fresh air. The respondent professed:
I love to live next to the park because we could enjoy the good and cold weather the whole year round… Khao Yai is located in the best area of three regions in Thailand, northeast, eastern and central. It has the most perfect weather with all species of wildlife including tigers, elephants, bison and others.
The above opinion provides evidence that the local villagers see the lush jungles, mountains and beautiful scenery of the nature as wealth for them and could not be replaced. In contrast, if the forests are not well-preserved, the wealth of the local communities will be destroyed as well.
6.1.2(b) Income and employment opportunities
The importance of the national park in generating income and job opportunities was found to be the main reason or factor contributing to the positive perspectives and support for nature conservation among the local communities. A village headman from the first focus group stressed that the daily life of local villagers has changed mainly because of the tourism. The chief of Moo 6 cited the following:
190 The forests here are still bountiful and fertile, and therefore it is one of the World Heritage Site… The foundation of this national park has changed the life of local villagers as our village has become a famous tourist spot.
Another respondent, the chief of Moo 10 also agreed that the park and tourism have promoted and uplifted local economic and social development through employment creation and income generation. With more tourists travel to Khao Yai, new jobs are created through hotels, resorts, restaurants and other businesses which directly benefited the local communities. He appreciated the situation as the well-being of the villagers has improved with additional income earned. He claimed:
Our economy grew tremendously because the condominiums, resorts and hotels were built in our places. Incomes of the people are getting better since many tourists came to visit this place… Employments have also increased especially for the young people as they have massive chances to come back to work in Khao Yai.
To compare before Khao Yai was well developed, the number of tourists and amount of revenues in the recent times have increased significantly and managed to contribute towards local economic development. The respondents also pointed out on the availability of new employment opportunities for the new generation. This growth can be associated with the benefits of development happened surrounding the national park where the young people could come back to work in the hometown after completing their studies. Moreover, the local villagers who went to search for jobs in the city would also return home as well.
191 In addition, a female participant from the last focus group also affirmed on the importance of national park in offering more salaries for her since its establishment.
From her experience, she could not make enough money from being a farmer.
However, since tourism developed rapidly in 1980s, her salary has been increased steadily for more than 20 years after involving in the tourism industry. She explained:
Especially when the investors came to build the resorts at this place, it has really improved the people’s lives with jobs and incomes. Before this, we worked in the plantations, living in a very natural environment so our incomes weren’t really enough for us.
6.1.2(c) Local transportation and infrastructure facilities
The establishment of a national park follows with the tourism development could make significant socio-cultural impacts on local communities. The information from the focus group discussions suggests more positive impacts on local social services such as improvement of infrastructure development. For example, one of them spoke about the changes of road construction to Khao Yai from the poor conditions of red gravel road in the previous time to the tarred roads these days. Although the local infrastructure has much improved, the locals were hoping for new construction of highways which could expand up to four lanes. This idea was proposed in order to ease or lessen the traffic congestion problem in their village. She said:
Yes, the roads to Khao Yai have indeed changed and improved a lot. Instead of being simple gravel with red soil, nowadays all the roads have been tarred… Actually we wish to have a road which extends up to four lanes for our convenience and also to avoid the traffic problem.
192
With the rapid improvement and more accessibility of the road transport, Khao Yai is no longer a remote rural area. Another respondent was proud to say that “A new road was built to connect Khao Yai and the next province, Prachinburi. It is indeed easier and convenient for us to travel to other places”.
6.1.2(d) Promotes of cultural exchange
In terms of the tourism benefits in promoting cultural exchange, the focus groups revealed different perceptions from the participants. One of them noticed that the receipt of a great number of visitors to their village has exposed the local residents to a new environment where they could learn English language. The situation could be very similar to other famous tourist destinations in Thailand such as Phuket and
Pattaya. One respondent conceded:
There are many tourists travel to Khao Yai every year… Given that there are a lot of white men coming here, the local villagers are also started to talk in English.
From other perspectives, another respondent stressed on the cultural exchange in promoting the local customs and traditions in Khao Yai. Her view was that the tourism is not necessary encouraging the local people to learn English from the white people; but conversely, it provides greater likelihoods for the foreigners to learn Thai language and local cultures. Interestingly, some of them have lived in this place for quite a while and they loved the Thai cultures, yet they could speak fluent Thai as
193 well, she said. Apparently, the tourism development creates a new pattern of local social and cultural structure in Khao Yai.
6.1.2(e) Local knowledge and awareness of park
One of the participants seems to have knowledge about what is called World
Heritage Site, which declared by UNESCO. The respondent was proud to say that
Khao Yai National Park has changed from a normal park to be recognised as a World
Heritage due to its fertility. As a result, it successfully attracts many tourists from different countries around the world. The village itself has become famous locally and internationally. One respondent stated:
Before this, it was just a normal park. But it has then turned to be a famous World Heritage Site. Due to this, we have received many travellers around the world.
This park has a reputation as one of the UNESCO World Heritage, and it has been benefited the local villagers who are living close to it. In general, the respondent was aware that a well-conserved park is important to maintain the status of heritage site and continue providing better lives for their survival. He perceived that, the intention of park management prohibits the people from entering the forest reserves are for the interest of resource conservation. Thus, he was also alert that everyone is disallowed to collect forest resources and has responsibility to look after the national park.
Based on the above citation, the local communities’ environmental knowledge and awareness about the existence of park may be attributed to the locational element as they live closer to the protected area.
194 The results of focus groups also showed that the local villagers were generally possessed deep understanding and awareness on the rapid loss of wildlife species.
Another respondent pointed out on the seriousness of wildlife extinction by asking the subsequent question, “Please try to think how many species we are losing now?”.
Giving her opinion that the wild animals are very important, she argued the following:
Wild animals like tigers, elephants and others are extremely important. If we do not preserve them, they will become extinct. Hence, our next generation could only see the pictures of the wildlife, without any chances to see the real one.
The answer of this respondent depicts the similar discovery with the focus groups conducted in Malaysia, where she argued the importance of real examples of wildlife for the children. Protecting the endangered species is a must to keep them for the future generation. Without conservation, the wild species will go extinct and the next generation will not recognise them anymore.
From the perspectives of local farmers, the wild animals from the national park were seen as a threat to their agricultural crops and directly affected their incomes. The issue of wildlife damage will be described in details in section 6.1.3 (b) (p. 202).
However, the results of this section indicate that the respondents were still positive towards wildlife preservation. Even though the damage of crops and vegetation has caused serious economic loss among them, they were still aware and understood that the wild species should be protected. The respondents mentioned that no one would hurt the wild animals if they come to their village, but they would try to make them safely back to the forest. One respondent said:
195
When the wild animals come out, we don’t necessarily have to be cruel with them. Otherwise, we will be accused of animal cruelty. We have our own ways to shoo them off… One of the methods used to get rid of them is by setting up the firecrackers.
The above finding argued that the farmers would not harm the wild animals that come out from the park, but they have their own strategies to prevent the wildlife disturbance. The respondent gave his answers on how to prevent wildlife damage by using lights or firecrackers. The loud bangs of the firecrackers with its authentic smell were purposely used to make the animals run away from the crops, but they would never kill them. The practice of protecting his plantations was shown in his statements below.
Even if the animals come down to damage our croplands, we will just chase them back into the forest, we will never do anything harm to them… The best way to solve this problem is through the use of firecrackers as the lights and the loud sound will make them shock and run away.
Other than the above mentioned approach, the focus groups also found out different techniques used to chase the wild animals away from their croplands. For example, whenever the bison came to their lands, the villagers would set the fire on a ping pong ball or other small ball and throw it to them. Besides, during our discussion, some of them stated the farmers also put up electric fences and wires to deter elephants. Turning on the lantern lamps for the whole night was also an effective way to prevent the entrance of wildlife to their farms. Shining flashlights and spotlights could make them scared and thus go off from the crops. All these attempts
196 used to chase the animals from croplands have showed positive attitudes on wildlife conservation among the local communities.
Some of the villagers will use electric wires to be put up on the fences within their lands. When the elephants come nearer and touch the wires, they will get an electric shock and go off… We also use gasoline to turn on the antique lamps or set the spotlights. The wildlife will notice that there are people’ houses, so they will then escape into the forest.
However, the respondents also mentioned that some of the wild species do not fear anything at all, although many tactics have been imposed to prevent them from turning up. The reason was that the wildlife knows from its nature that nobody would destroy them, said the head of Moo 10. Moreover, he tried to tell the reason of why more animals in the forest were started to roam around their village areas in the past eight to ten years whereby he linked this circumstance to the nature of the wildlife itself. Given an example of the elephant, he stated that the wild elephants seem to have a unique capability as they could communicate with the home raised elephants in their own ways. They came down to the village because they could sense the members of their species by smell. He mentioned:
There are many orphaned elephants raised by the local people in Khao Yai. These home raised elephants will be walking around with their owner to make money from the tourists. So, many villagers believe that the wild elephants from the forest could detect the smell of their members; hence they would come and follow the smell. We do believe that the animals have their ways to communicate with each other.
Besides, the results also found that the local people have adequate knowledge in protecting the animals from the park. The local villagers also worried on the safety of
197 the wildlife that they would avoid from feeding the animals such as monkeys.
Another participant emphasised the prohibition of feeding the animals based on several reasons: Firstly, the plastic bags could be stacked in the throats or intestines of the animals and resulting in death. Secondly, feeding could lead to animals aggressively seeking out food from people, and sometimes the animals would be knocked by the car accidentally. To avoid any injury of the wildlife, therefore, the local villagers behaved themselves on this issue and also discouraged the tourists from giving any food to the animals. One said:
There are reasons why the local villagers do not feed the wild animals. We are worried that they will eat the plastic bag and it will be stacked in their throats and intestines. To add salt to wound, when they come out from the park, there is possibility for the cars to knock them especially the young monkeys.
6.1.2(f) Community cultures and traditions
The next reason that causes positive perspectives on nature conservation among the local communities in Khao Yai could be associated with their community cultural and traditional practices. The findings showed that the local villagers would not disturb the forest resources which they have regarded as treasures for them. The children were always taught by their parents to look after the forests, and consider the jungle as their homes. The phrase “the kids will notice and continue this culture” illustrates that the villagers still believed that the treasures of forest should be safeguarded continuously and handed down through generations, as same as their traditions. I quoted one villager's opinion:
198 We were being educated since young by our parents to conserve the environment, love the animals, do not harm the animals, and do not waste the resources… We will continue this culture by applying the same value to educate our kids.
During the focus group discussions, I also discovered a traditional belief among the local villagers, where everybody calls “Khao Yai Godfather”. According to the local people, the presence of the Godfather's spirits is required to look after the forests and mountains, even before the foundation of the national park. Therefore, the Godfather is considered as the owner of Khao Yai. From the culturally and historically aspects, the villagers have strong beliefs that the Godfather plays an important role in helping the people who get lost in the jungle. The locals and also the visitors always pray for it before entering the park, or whenever the incidents occur. One respondent said:
If someone gets lost in the national park, we will go to pray and ask for the help from Khao Yai Godfather. Magically, we manage to find or they will turn up. It happened many times before, we could not find for two to three days, but on the fourth days he came out, it is true!
6.1.2(g) Good relationship with park management
Similar to the findings of focus groups in Malaysia, the relationship between the local people and park authorities in Khao Yai was verified as one of the factors which could affect local support for conservation activities. When the villagers were asked to elaborate their relationship with the national park management, they claimed that they have same target with the park management in preserving the reserved forest and the natural environment because they regard their relationship as
“depending on each other, therefore helping each other”.
199
A male respondent also informed me on the existence of cordial cooperation between both parties for the conservation activities, for example during the annual events of
Father’s and Mother’s Day or any emergency cases like fire accidents happen in the forests. He said:
We are always helping each other, as we usually rely on one another with regard to many issues… During the Father’s and Mother’s Day every year, the park officials will ask us to join hand-in-hand to plant new trees in the park. Or if the fire occurred, the local people would go to support the park in extinguishing the fire.
In reality, the national park authority also helped the local villagers to solve the wildlife disturbance problems by chasing the wild animals back to the park as notified by some of the respondents. In response to offset the wildlife threats from crops, livestock and personal safety, the national park administration has provided assistance in defending the damages. One respondent claimed that “we will normally implement our own ways to protect our property and farms. But, whenever we found that the wildlife damage is out of our control, we will directly call the park authorities and they will send the officers to help out”.
200 6.1.3 Themes of factors contributing to negative perspectives
Restriction access forest resources Resource conflict
Loss of income
Wildlife disturbance Human-wildlife
Wildlife damage to conflict crops
High living expenses High cost of living Decreasing of money
value Factors contributing to negative perspectives Driven from ancestral Loss of lands to lands outsiders
Heat generation
Negative Changing of weather patterns environmental problems Garbage problem
Resource conflict
Human-wildlife Poor relationship with conflict park management
Delay in compensation process
Figure 6.3: Emerging themes of factors contributing to negative perspectives
201 6.1.3(a) Resource conflict due to restriction for accessing forest resources
The enforcement of the park regulations is strong, where it clearly divides the village land and the protected areas. Hence, the outsiders or even the local people are not allowed to make use of any of the natural resources within the park boundary. Before the establishment of national park, they were freely accessed to the forest to collect the things such as bamboo shoots, mushrooms, radishes, plants, woods or other vegetation. To some of the locals whose daily lifestyles are relying on the forest, the conservation approach that focuses on separation of nature and people has seriously affected their incomes and livelihoods.
6.1.3(b) Human-wildlife conflict
The other threat which has seriously impacted the local communities’ perspectives on wildlife conservation was found to be the conflict with wild animals from the park.
Representing Moo 17, the village chief expressed his worry on the damage made by wild animals towards the agricultural crops which has increased over time. As they came out from the national park and roamed around the village areas, the wildlife would only destroy the stuffs which the farmers have spent lots of time for growing, he said.
There were a lot of animals that appear at night to eat the vegetation and fruits which we have already planted for two to three years. For example, they came down and ate five to ten acres of corn and devoured almost half of our plantation… Yes, it is indeed a worrying problem!
202 Talking about this issue, one farmer gave an example of his income loss from wildlife damage to his plantations. He narrated:
I would like to show you an example: our acres of corn disappeared by 50 per cent. To plant one acre, I need to spend four to five thousands Baht. Can you imagine how much I have lost for this?
When asked about the seriousness of wildlife disturbance surrounding the Khao Yai
National Park, the respondents declared that they have suffered severe losses in recent years. Another villager who is also a farmer reported the crop damages such as corns, sugarcanes, coconut and others were mainly from the elephants. He told:
These days, a lot of elephants come out from the forest. When there was the ripe season of the corns, they tended to notice the ripen produces and they came out to devour all my plants… They trampled on gates and wires, and then they went to eat the vegetation.
Another respondent interrupted and remarked that different species of wildlife are interested in different crops. According to him, elephant prefers the corns and sugarcanes. The bison will eat the corns and melons, while the deer will bite the trunk of the corns. The bison also loves to eat the sweet potatoes, but the elephant does not prefer this type of crop. The way of getting the potato out from the lands is by kicking its plant and when it falls down, the bison could eat the potato easily.
Also, from the view of local people, the elephant is considered as a clever animal.
Besides the corns, the farmers surrounding the park also plant the potatoes on their lands. However, the elephants would only choose the tastier food as they love to eat the corns, but never touch the potatoes. This is reflected in the statement below.
203
Actually, we also plant the potatoes as well, but they [elephant] wouldn’t go for it, they only go for the corns. This is because the corn is very sweet. You see, in fact they are clever enough, they know what to choose and what is tastier.
Unbelievable, one of the respondents announced that few elephants came to their village a day before we had the focus group interview. They broke through the fence and stood at the place that we were sitting for the interview. The local villagers near the national park have regarded the wildlife crossing the border of the park, rampaging through the villages and eating the crops as a common situation surrounding Khao Yai.
6.1.3(c) High cost of living
The rapid development of tourism industry in Khao Yai has also led to socio- economic threats to local livelihoods in term of high living expenses nowadays. One participant of the focus group voiced out the average price of consumer products that has changed over time. Many things cost much higher than they did ten years ago.
The life has become so hard and expensive, said the respondent.
Simply put, the stuffs from the market are getting more expensive… Before that, one kilogram of pork would cost only 70 Baht, but now it costs more than 100 Baht per kilogram.
Another participant felt the effects of increase cost of living in his daily life. He argued that the value of money has dropped because a big different between the status of wealthy was happened these days comparing to the past. People were
204 considered as rich if they owned a bicycle in their house, say about 20 years ago. To own a motorbike at that time would mean to be very rich, or would be like owning a
Mercedes Benz at present.
6.1.3(d) Loss of lands to outsiders
It was specifically highlighted by the respondents about the rising prices of land surrounding this recreational destination. For the local villagers who have been staying in Khao Yai for many years since the foundation of the park, the land prices have increased dramatically over the past decades. The main reason is the good and cool climate in Khao Yai and its potential for tourism industry that has attracted buyers to invest in property development. According to the local people, one rai of land costs eight million Thai Baht these days. A rai is a unit of area and is normally used for measuring land area in Thailand. One respondent stated:
The cost of living is getting higher specifically the land price is very high now. The villagers could sell their lands at eight million for only one rai… Many locals sold their lands to the investors for constructing the resorts, hotels, apartments, condominiums or other residential projects. There is even a golf course in our place.
The same respondent personally felt that those who sold out their lands would not get rich although they could get 20 to 30 million Baht in one short. Conversely, these people would be considered as getting poorer because they did not have any land left for themselves and also their next generations. They could only enjoy as a millionaire for a short while - owning a big house and a new car, but finally they
205 would end up with nothing. They were even more pathetic when they had run out of money and came back to work as employees on their previous lands, he told.
Selling their lands at 20 to 30 million Baht would only make them rich for a short while, but whenever they ran out of money or they didn’t have enough to buy more lands, they would certainly get poorer… Perhaps, they would have to work as employees on the lands that they owned before.
This villager expressed negative perception and did not support the development surrounding the park because the local communities will confront unexpected threat towards their way of life as they may soon lose their ancestral lands to the investors from outside. This was seen as a problem for the future generation of Khao Yai.
6.1.3(e) Negative environmental problems
In addition, the local residents also used the term “forest has been changed to buildings” to explain the situation where accommodations and facilities have been erected every year to support the increasing number of tourists visiting Khao Yai.
The construction of the buildings from deforestation has generated heat that affects the climate. They could feel the weather in their village is getting hotter compared to previous time. Their living lifestyles have been threatened due to the hot weather these days. When discussing about the problems of climate change that related to human activities, one of them complained the following:
The weather in Khao Yai has changed too much. Last time it was not like this, now it is getting hotter! I think it was due to the forest that was transformed into
206 buildings. For example, there was a fruit plantation before, but now many lands have become the resorts.
The rapid rate of population growth in Khao Yai has also been criticized for leading to other negative environmental impacts to local communities. The feedback from the respondents includes garbage and traffic problems particularly during the peak season of tourism especially weekends and public holidays.
6.1.3(f) Poor relationship with park management
Those villagers who suffered from income loss due to restriction in accessing park resources and wildlife damage have expressed negative perspectives and poor relationship with park administration. Furthermore, the information provided by the focus group respondents confirmed the problems of damage towards crops production that have not been resolved yet, where the compensation to farmers grew silent after the report was made. When I asked if they are compensated or paid for the losses? One of them started to blame the ineffectiveness of national park management of taking too long time for giving the solution:
They [park management] said that they are going to pay the losses for us, but they haven’t paid us yet so far. They have taken too long and delayed the issue. We have dealt with it for more than a year already!
The current situation of postponement left a major problem for the farmers who were suffered from loss of their incomes. As described below by a villager whose corn field has been destroyed by the elephants from the park, he highlighted his dissatisfaction towards the management of the park in settling down the
207 compensation issues. Although the park administration is aware on the current threats regarding the crops damaged by wild animals, but he felt that the government seems reluctant to bring out a solution. He stressed:
I think the government especially the departments related to forest and wildlife reserved need to oversee this issue particularly, unlike trying to solve these problems for years and keeping quiet on that.
In addition, one of the village headmen has criticised the new management of the park nowadays was not as good as last time. They did not pay too much attention when the wild animals came down to the village areas and were not really follow-up towards the response on the troubles of wildlife disturbance. The village leader spoke out his opinions and commented:
Sometimes, I could see the elephants were roaming around and the officers did not even come to chase them back to the forest. I think it is because of the park administrator has changed to a new person now. The former leader had higher responsibility on this issue, not letting the wild animals to encroach upon our village areas.
Besides the wildlife damage’s threat towards the livings of local inhabitants, the findings in the section 6.1.3 (a) (p. 202) also shown the enforcement of park regulations have denied their access and right over the use of park resources. The park policy has impacted the livelihood strategies of the local communities since their sources of food and income have been seriously affected. Therefore, these affairs have developed poor park-people relationship.
208 6.2 In-depth Interviews and Observations
By exploring the themes emerged in earlier focus groups, in-depth interviews were conducted to explore further into local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation, the contributing factors, and the interaction and communication approaches between the national park management and local communities (Figure
6.4). Similar to Malaysia, observations were also carried out concurrently to triangulate the thematic data of focus groups and the narrative data of in-depth interviews.
Firstly, in-depth interviews in Thailand narratively discover the now and then of the local livelihoods and incomes. The local people’s original ways of living were initially linked to the forest before the existence of a national park. After that, they started to engage in agricultural farming before the tourism has become a major activity for the local populations. The overall findings also discuss other viewpoints of respondents which have been described in below stories.
Earlier focus groups have debated on the poor park-people relationship which was resulted from the conflicts between resource protection and livelihood strategies of the local communities. However, in-depth interviews with the park officials have discussed the park efforts for conflict resolution in addressing the agricultural crops depredation and park boundaries demarcation problems.
Meanwhile, evidences from observations have also portrayed the locals’ perspectives on forest were strongly influenced by their cultural beliefs on Ancestor Spirits: the
209 Almighty Father of Khao Yai and the Godmother of Ta-kien. Living close and having strong relationship with the forests, the pristine nature was regarded as their ancestral territory or the spiritual place in the minds of the local communities.
Degradation of local weather and natural environment Local infrastructure and culture Community environmental knowledge and awareness Local communities’ perspectives on nature
conservation, contributing
factors, and park-people Local livelihoods interaction and and incomes communication approaches
Rituals and beliefs Communication and relationship about the forest with park management
Figure 6.4: Emerging themes of local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation, contributing factors, and park-people interaction and communication approaches
210 6.2.1 Local livelihoods and incomes
Changing of Increasing of local livelihoods local incomes
Live by nature Conversion of forest Rising of tourism to agriculture fields industry
Dependency on forest resources Employment Business opportunities opportunities
Forest as Easily access Cheap land dangerous place to lands price
Figure 6.5: Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “local livelihoods and incomes”
Originally, before the Khao Yai National Park was established in the 1962, the local people were considered as a forest-dependent community. They lived by the nature and relied on the forest resources for their livelihoods. After that, farming has played a major role in the history of local people in Khao Yai. Forest has been converted to agricultural use where they started to toil on the forest lands for agricultural plantations. As time passes, modernisation and the rising of tourism industry in Khao
Yai have revitalised the local economics by generating job opportunities and sources of income for the rural populations. Hence, many of the agricultural farmers have shifted their careers to tourism based business.
The narrative view from an old man during the interview interpreted his life that has been succumbed to the forest. The respondent mentioned that he was one of the first people who came to live in Khao Yai during the early 1950s. In the meantime, the
211 woodland was described by him as the “coolest forest”, as there was nobody around during his first step on this land. Only the wild animals like tigers and elephants that he could see, the respondent said.
Indeed, I have invaded this place since the 1950s, before it was declared as the national park in the 1962. I moved to here together with my family members and few of my relatives… At the time when I first came to here, there wasn’t anybody around this place, only wildlife such as tigers and elephants were here, which I would call it the coolest forest areas.
The old man admitted himself as the invader to this forest during that time. Fishing, hunting and collecting jungle resources were among the main activities during the time he settled on this land. Apart from contribution of forest for food and nutrition, the respondent further explained on how he could make an income by selling the stuffs from hunted animals included the furs, skins, claws, horns, heads, meats and others. The quote below provided strong evidence on the economic contribution of forest to local villagers, where they have been started their business with animal products since 60 years ago. He continued:
At that time, we would go fishing at the klongs [rivers]. We also went to shoot the tigers, and we had the food stalls to cook and sell the meats. We also took their skins, furs, heads and we had places to sell all these items to customers. For example the bull’s head, we sold them as ornaments and decorations.
An interview with a female villager also indicates that the responses of both respondents were consistent. She mentioned that most of the villagers in Khao Yai endure their live in a simple and normal way from the very beginning. She defended the natural rights and liberty of their founding fathers in the past. The ways of their
212 living were original, finding food on their own by hunting and harvesting from the forests. However, such activities are now prohibited and they would be arrested for illegal poaching and deforestation, she stated.
Furthermore, another female respondent felt grateful to the ancestors with regard to their ways of using natural resources which are friendly, morally and ethically in consumption, where they would only take sufficient amount for their needs. They have been started the responsibilities in protecting biodiversity since decades ago, in order to save the forests and its wildlife for their children and grandchildren. She interpreted the following statement:
When I heard from the old people about their ways of harvesting the forest resources, I was so thankful and appreciated their good attitudes… They would not take everything out from the forest but they would leave some behind to let them reproduce themselves. So with that way, our next generations will be able enjoy what they had.
The deep forests were regarded as very exuberant in the past. Due to its fertility, it was considered as the “feast for animals”. According to the villagers, both forest and wildlife are interdependent. Therefore, the lush green mountains in Khao Yai were surrounded by plenty of wildlife such as elephants, bulls, bears, tigers and others.
One of the respondents shared his past experience regarding the forest environment when he was a little kid. He recalled her memory and said that the forest was a dangerous place for the villagers during that time.
I could remember that many people in the village were not courageous to go up to the mountain regularly, because it was a dangerous place for everyone. You
213 would have high possibility to encounter tigers, elephants or bulls roaming around the forest.
The interview respondents also specified that local people in Khao Yai started to involve in agricultural works after the deterioration of dependency on forest resources for daily survival. The estate-grown crops include paddy, potatoes, corn, bananas and other vegetables. Small scale farming was firstly carried out by the locals with the focus on rice and vegetable cultivation for daily subsistence.
Information given by the old residents indicated that the people (in the past) could easily access and open the lands for growing their crops. Hence, every family was actively participated in farming for own consumption and also for making incomes.
As the result, the conversion of forest to agricultural field involved chopping down of trees and disturbing the natural habitats of animal species. In order to make more profits, large areas of forest have been cleared by heavy machineries such as tractors for commercialising the cultivations. Once the land has been cultivated for several years, the soil would become infertile and the farmers started to move and clear a new land. This has led to soil degradation and erosion after the loss of fertile land.
One of the interviewees commented:
At that time, forests were slowly decaying because a lot of people opened the lands for growing corn and rice… They also used tractors to clear the lands… The big problem was when the soil had lost all its quality after the crops had been grown for several years since the farmers would not use that land anymore and had to find new land.
Linking these human activities with the wildlife damage problems that happen surrounding the villages in Khao Yai, also being highlighted in the focus groups, the
214 old man was angry and grumbled that the farmers could not blame the wildlife totally, because they were the ones destroying their homes in the first place. As mentioned above, it verified the scenario where the habitats of many wildlife species have been destructed due to the corresponding loss of the biodiversity to agricultural activities by the human. In contrast, when there were wild animals coming to graze on the cultivation crops, the farmers should accept that they deserved what they did last time. The same respondent explained the followings:
Farmers are now feeling the pinch and have severe headache with the disturbance of wildlife… But please remember, we came here toiling on forest lands at the very beginning, and we are the one who forced the animals to drift away from their places. Apart from seeking refuge up there on the mountain, where else could they go?
To a farmer who is originally from the southern part of Thailand, the weather in
Khao Yai was great and the air was clean and fresh during his arrival to this place.
During the interview, he told his story of moving to Khao Yai to start his plantation works due to the environment condition and its climate which was very much suitable for growing crops. He also remembered that the weather was too good until he could even drink the raindrops without concern of water quality. In addition, the other reason of moving to Khao Yai was that the land price was not expensive during that time, still at around hundred thousand Baht for one rai. Hence, he managed to invest for buying the lands and he has been working for the fruit plantations for more than ten years. At present, the respondent was satisfied with owning 38 rai of lands for growing corns and fruits. He said:
215 I moved from Songkhla to Khao Yai 20 years ago. When I arrived at this place, the environment was good, air was clean and we could collect and even drink the raindrops… The land price wasn’t expensive during that time, but now one rai of land would cost three to four million Thai Baht. I was so lucky to invest during that time and now I have 38 rai of lands.
Among the people who work for the agricultural lands surrounding Khao Yai, my respondent agreed that there was a great access to land acquisition in the past because the land price was cheap. There were massive lands available at that time and the farmers could easily acquire the desired parcel for growing their own crops.
However, the land price has continued to increase dramatically over the years.
Another respondent who owns a grape farm mentioned that the she bought the lands about 30 years ago at only three thousands Baht for a rai. Unbelievable, the price has risen substantially until one rai would costs five to six million of Baht today.
Another interview participant who is also a farmer recalled on the changes of careers and lifestyles of the local people surrounding the park. Before the locals began to work on the lands, they spent most of their lives searching for food by hunting and gathering forest produces. Afterwards, the people gradually learnt on how to grow crops such as paddy, vegetables and fruits for daily survival. Until today, majority of the populations in Khao Yai have become mainly dependent on agricultural careers.
Over the past few decades, after the Thailand’s first national park was established in
1962 in Khao Yai, tourism has gradually become a major activity in the village areas and sources of income for the majority of the villagers. The number of tourists visiting Khao Yai is increasing annually and therefore it provides many job opportunities to generate local economic.
216
The findings from a female respondent who opens a resort depicted her appreciation towards the national park in improving her living standard. Before the booming of tourism industry, the village was regarded as undeveloped with only forests and mountains available. Later, it has been developed into something beneficial as per nowadays, she told.
In the past, these places weren’t as developed as now where there were only forests and mountains that we could see. But today the areas have been developed with hotels, resorts, condominium and even golf course. My living standard has also improved gradually.
Similar to other agricultural farmers, this resort owner was previously working on lands for growing and selling fruits. She saw the chances to jump into other business when she noticed there was soaring number of visitors travelled to Khao Yai.
Therefore, she decided to build the resort on her land and she was the first one to do that in their village about 20 years ago. Besides the tourists, many people from other provinces also started to move in to look for the jobs. Seeing this as another opportunity, the respondent also provided the rooms for monthly rent for the workers as well. The respondent admitted that she made more profits from the resort if compared with doing the farming. She said:
It was around 20 years ago, at that time we were the first to build a resort in Khao Yai… Besides the tourists, the people who come to work here can also rent the accommodation on monthly basis… We have quite a lot of regular customers because the room rate in our resort is reasonable and considerably cheap.
217 The next respondent of this research is another example of a successful woman. She expressed her satisfaction on the existence of the park next to her village. The prosperous in Khao Yai has generated chances for the housewives to start their own businesses. Her involvement in tourism activity in the past ten years was started when she opened a food restaurant near the park entrance. She cited her story of livelihood enhancement over the years.
I have a better living condition and quality of life compared to the past. I receive much benefits from the national park, and seriously there is no bad impact at all! There was no shop in this area around ten years ago. I was so lucky because I was given chance to open a restaurant for selling food during that time.
From the conversation, I could notice her appreciation towards the national park where she strongly agreed that her life would not be the same as today if there is no recreational park in Khao Yai. The attractive promotions of tourism during public holidays such as New Year, Chinese New Year and Songkran Festival have encouraged more visitors and increased revenues for the local communities. The respondent continued:
During the peak season of tourism in Khao Yai, I could earn almost ten thousands Baht in a day… The national park gives me a better income. Without the park, my condition of living wouldn’t be the same as what I have it today.
From the perspective of the previous respondent who operated a corn farm, he elaborated on a stark change of the surrounding in Khao Yai. The green forest and mountain scenery are converted to a place of tourist attraction. Roads and highways are built to make better accessibility for the local and foreign visitors to this popular
218 destination. Tourism provides benefits to the surrounding local communities through ample job opportunities, whereas many of them have changed their career from agricultural field to tourism activities. As the result, the plantation lands have been diminished by size, while the hospitality services such as hotels, resorts and restaurants have grown extensively. He shared his hindsight:
When I first came to Khao Yai, the resorts and hotels weren’t built yet… There was only forest and the street hasn’t expanded into the broader roads or even the highways today. But presently, Khao Yai is a famous tourism destination… The local villagers used to work in plantations last time, but now they are working for the resorts. The plantations have reduced by size, but the resorts have notably grown.
Despite all the tourism development activities have reduced the forest lands to provide more recreation opportunities for tourists, the growth of this industry also directly benefits the farmers by increasing their incomes. Compared to the past, profit was lower as the farmers would only sell their fruits and vegetables to the vendors or middlemen. With the high number of tourists today, some farmers have setting up stalls by the road sides to sell their crops directly to the tourists.
219 6.2.2 Local infrastructure and culture
Difficult to access Upgrading of tarred road Poor road condition Improving of local Water supply infrastructure Lamps or gas light used Electricity supply National park and prosperity Busy and less socialisation
Selfish Unwanted Destruction of culture local culture Materialistic
Figure 6.6: Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “local infrastructure and culture”
Prior to 1990s, there was no electricity supply from the government to their houses and the villagers had to use the lamps during the night time. Moreover, the road construction to Khao Yai was spoken as “made by nature” where the roads were originally made from gravel and soil. The condition would become worse especially during the raining season because the mud would clump up with all dirt and soil along the ways. The existing Chief of Village said:
Thinking back to the past, this place wasn’t as prosperous or developed as today since it was without electricity and we used either lamps or gas lights. The roads were simply gravel and soil, or we can call it as made by the nature.
According to another participant, the journey to Pakchong was considered as too long and difficult in the past, because the transportation was inconvenient where they
220 could only travel to there by taking the public tractors. Occasionally, they had to stay overnight in the town if they could not manage to catch up another tractor back to their village on the same day. She reported:
It was absolutely hard in the past for us to travel to Pakchong town by public tractors. The journey was too long and rather difficult because the road condition was bad … Once we reached the town, sometimes we would have to stay there for a night before coming back to our place… Now, the roads are all tarred with two lanes. We can easily travel to other places by cars.
Since the 1990s, the surrounding areas of the Khao Yai National Park started to have significant growth and development during the time of Mr. Ekkachatchai Soonwan was the Prime Minister of Thailand, the respondent recalled. The participant stated that a new road called Thanon Thanarat, was built to join the Pakchong city to Khao
Yai. On one hand, the upgrading of the tarred road with two lanes has allowed the local villagers to drive comfortably to the nearest town with their own cars and shortened the journey. On the other hand, she also believed that the better local amenities and transportations have brought in more tourists to the national park.
Before the construction of the Thanarat Road, Khao Yai was hardly accessible to visitors. She continued:
The transportation within this area used to be obsolete and uncivilised but when it has been developed lately, it has attracted more visitors from Pakchong and also Bangkok. Compared to the past, it was very difficult to access to this place. Coming to Khao Yai will make you feel surrender.
221 In the eye of a village chief, Khao Yai was called as “a great place for a retreat”. It becomes a major leisure and tourism spot of the country due to its good weather and richness in natural beauty. His statement below illustrated that tourism offers prosperity with big changes of local infrastructure development and improves quality of life of the local residents.
Overall, I think that many people love to be in Khao Yai because of the weather. It is indeed a great place to stay or great place to come for a retreat… Our standard of living has been improved with the proper infrastructure provided after the rising of tourism industry.
As tourism grows, additional opportunities are created for property investment and development surrounding the village areas. These circumstances explicitly have increased the tax revenues in order to support the improvement in public utilities and recreational services for both locals and tourists. Tourism also encourages the improvements in transport infrastructure resulting in upgraded roads and public transportation. Such improvements have benefited the local residents by enhancing their quality of life, but at the same time also created other social and cultural ramifications.
For instance, a teacher asserted that the prosperity in Khao Yai has caused the unwanted lifestyles changes among the communities and therefore less support towards modernisation surrounding the park. She noticed that although job opportunities and incomes of the villagers have increased, their mutual relationships have plummeted. In fact, all the farms were sold off while the resorts are popping up.
Everybody seems to be busy and they have no time for socialising. Accordingly, the
222 local people become more selfish and materialistic. Unlike today, all the people in the village used to stay together like a big family before the growth of modernisation.
The respondent expressed her regret on the changes of local culture resulted from the development:
During the past, people in Khao Yai were staying together like a family. However, when all the plantations were sold off for resort developments, they have to switch their activities to work in the resorts which give them less time for socialisation even in the weekends… The people now are more selfish and only look for money and luxuries.
6.2.3 Degradation of local weather and natural environment
Increases of temperature
Degradation of local weather
Sporadic rainfall Increase of Logging human activities population
Billboards Construction of building
Degradation of Destruction of natural natural scenery environment Pollution
Loss of symbol of Khao Yai Speed cars and horns
Figure 6.7: Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “degradation of local weather and natural environment”
223 20 years ago, the natural environment in Khao Yai was regarded as pleasant and picturesque by local villagers. The natural weather was cold and it rained frequently throughout the year since there were a lot of trees. It was comfortable without a fan or air-conditioner or even people sometimes had to put on a coat. The villagers were all using the groundwater by digging their own wells, and they have sufficient water resources in the earlier times. However, climate change has inadvertently transformed the weather patterns, temperatures, and rainfall. A respondent who works as a farmer claimed the degrading of local weather might affect the agricultural sector at present times.
The weather now has definitely changed… The frequency of rainfall is reducing yet the rains don’t fall under our prediction… If temperature increases and more sporadic rainfall continue to happen, we could lose and spoilt all the crops.
As time passed by, the forests have been destroyed greedily to coincide with a massive increase of human population in the villages of Khao Yai. Nowadays, in opposition, the real forests have disappeared and the big and tall buildings have emerged to replace the natural environment. All the windows are closed today to avoid the severe air pollution. One of the villagers demurred on the changes of weather through the following statement.
Before this, we used to stay in a house within a forest where the weather was just nice without using any fan or air conditioner. Sometimes the weather was too cold until we have to wear a coat. However, nowadays, we have to shut the windows in order to prevent the dust and pollution.
224 According to the Chief Advocate of an NGO named Rao Rak Khao Yai (We Love
Khao Yai) whose responsibility is to promote public awareness on conservation activities, the natural surroundings of Khao Yai used to be so attractive in the past, presented by its own symbol. In his elaboration, when they were driving along the mountains up to the national park, they would able to see the big trees at the both sides of roads, together with plenty of parrots that welcome the visitors. He deplored that the symbol of this beautiful scene has gone due to the loud noise from speed cars and car horns. The conservationist observed:
In previous time, when we were driving up to the mountains, we could see a lot of parrots welcoming us. This was the symbol of Khao Yai… However, most of them now are gone with the wind, their disappearance could be attributed to the increase arrival of foreign people to this place. The problems have to do with cars speeding and the unwieldy sound.
At the same time, tourism industry was heavily promoted in Khao Yai and it has degraded the natural scenery of the environment. More recreational facilities were constructed to accomplish the increasing number of tourists. Another respondent who is a teacher presented her strong comment that visual pollution might occur from billboard proliferation, whereby too many signboards will block the natural views.
The surroundings were regarded as over exposed nowadays. She responded the following:
Indeed, it is overdeveloped right now… There are too many billboards now, it annoys me! We can’t really see the view as those boards have blocked our sight.
225 While becoming a high visited tourist destination might be particularly a boon for some people, waste disposal has always been a major issue for many of them too.
According to her, tourism has increased the solid waste generation. As a great highlight, Moo 4 has already produced nearly ten tonnes of waste in a day during the weekends and public holidays. She clarified:
The main problem that comes with the development is the rubbish. There are almost ten tonnes of rubbish in a day from only Moo 4. This has happened during the weekends and especially the public holidays like New Year and Songkran Festival.
The teacher further indicated that the quantity of garbage produced by the people has augmented substantially these days as she pinpointed, “It was not this huge compared to last time, it was only few trash bags that you would see but it is uncountable today.
You could easily see three to four trucks carrying the rubbish every day and that is not even enough”.
The above citations discovered similar findings and of the same view with outcome of the focus groups with regard to the crowding and congestion problems of tourism that have resulted to rubbish pollution in Khao Yai. However, my personal observations during the visit to the study site depicted different perceptions. When I walked through few night markets in the villages of Khao Yai, I noticed the high usage of foam boxes and plastic bags by the traders. It was common to see the massive pile of garbage on the streets by the end of the bazaars. The market wastes include all kinds of trash such as food containers in foam and plastic forms, papers, water bottles and others. Therefore, the problems of environmental damage should
226 not be only blamed to the increasing numbers of visitors, but also the lack of conservation awareness and understanding among the local communities itself.
6.2.4 Community environmental knowledge and awareness
Unforgettable
hunting experience Environmental
knowledge and awareness
Responsibilities Forest destruction
Human activities Modernisation Development
Figure 6.8: Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “community environmental knowledge and awareness”
As stated in the section 6.2.1 (p. 211), there was an old man who considered himself as the people that belongs to the forest. According to the story narrated by this senior resident, however, he was actually imbued with two opposing attitudes on nature conservation: He was initially an invader to the forest, but he also argued on the importance of wildlife afterwards due to something memorable was happened in his life.
Around 60 years ago, hunting wild animals from the forest was the main source of income for this old man. One day, he was out for hunting to find food for his wife who was pregnant during that time. After killing an animal, he realised that it was a pregnant deer. At that time, he found that hunting would destroy the animal families because wildlife is similar to human beings. He believed that other villagers were
227 still kept going on with their hunting traditions, but he stopped practicing it soon after this unforgettable incident. He told me in detail:
One day, I went out for hunting. My wife was pregnant with our first child that time. I wished to get venison for her, so I kept on hunting. Finally, I got a female deer which was pregnant as well. That scene was still very clear in my mind and really inspired me a lot! I compared that deer with my wife and our little child, what should I do if they were being hunted and slaughtered?
With this unforgettable hunting experience, his perspectives and awareness on the forest were totally changed for the rest of his life. Hitherto, he enjoyed to live by the nature, stopped eating meat but more of vegetables and fruits. Giving himself as a good example, the respondent believed that many people have been destroying the natural resources, toiled on the forest lands and hunted for animals. They would aware of their responsibilities in protecting the nature after the ancient forests have disappeared and severely degraded, he believed.
For those who claim that they haven’t been destroying the forest, I would consider them as true liars. I confident with my opinion because before we all became the conservationist, we were once the destroyers… That’s why these days I don’t eat stuff like chicken and fish. I would say I feel very happy to live healthy within nature.
During the interview in his house, I had taken an opportunity to observe the surrounding and living environment of the respondent. Fantastically, the decorations inside his house were made mainly of natural materials such as stones, rocks, woods and tree stumps. This evidence has reflected his high awareness and supportive attitude towards nature conservation.
228
Furthermore, the interview findings also revealed that a female farmer also showed her favourable perceptions on nature conservation due to her awareness and knowledge on environmental issues. She told me that her hobby is not only planting the fruits, but also different kinds of trees, or she called it as “growing a forest”. She decided to work on plantation after taking over the lands from her parents. From the very beginning, she planted different kinds of fruits. After that, she started the forest gardening activities by growing various types of trees and plants as a symbol of her personal contribution and pay back to the nature. The respondent expressed her pride of working on plantation, garden or even forest where she enjoyed planting everything there. She shared her opinions in preserving the forest:
I love planting because I like being surrounded by the trees since I was young… I have sowed lychees, olives, mangoes and potatoes. Other than orchards, I have my own garden where I have planted everything there. All about growing the trees or I better called it as growing a forest is my current hobby or interest.
From the view of the respondent, forest loss is rapid and ongoing. Human activities have changed ecosystems faster and extensively through modernisation and development. For example, deforestation for timber is a real picture of human greediness. The problem of deforestation continued to happen every day, but the growing of a tree would take much longer time to over hundreds of years. She continued:
I couldn't guess how many years it would take to grow a tree and how tall it would be. However, whenever the people are greedy for money, or whenever the people
229 are not satisfied with the growth of the trees, they would cut them down easily within few minutes.
6.2.5 Rituals and beliefs about the forest
Khao Yai Godfather
Rituals and Pee everywhere Ta-kien beliefs about the in the forest Godmother forest
Make loud noise Taboos in forest
Simply swear in the forest
Ask for forgiveness
Figure 6.9: Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “rituals and beliefs about the forest”
When the respondents were asked to tell their local beliefs about the forest such as the sacred things and taboos in the forest, all of them mentioned that the Khao Yai
Godfather is believed to occupy the forest. He is originally from Khao Yai and exists since the old generation. The local people strongly believed that He protects the local populations. Therefore, He has been dubbed as the Godfather of Khao Yai. He is the
God of the forest or the King who owns and rules the lands with specific responsibility for the spiritual maintenance of the sacred nature. He is the only one who has the highest power and respect from the surrounding communities. One of the villagers said:
230 Godfather of Khao Yai is the one who holds the most power in the forest. He is the leader or King that rules this mountain… I believe he is the one who chase away bad people. Anyone who goes up to the mountain needs to pray to the Almighty Father, as they would be praying for protection, luck and prosperity as well.
Another distinct interview with a female resident disclosed that she believed there are thousands of creatures that could harm or kill the people in the deep forest.
Anyhow, she has a strong confidence that the sacred God could help the people from being lost in the forest and avoid from the dangerous of wild animals. In order to escape from the dangers of the jungle, all the local people and visitors have to pray for the protection from the Khao Yai Godfather before entering the forest. She told an incredible story of survival of a tourist who had lost in the national park for a couple of days. Somebody has led him out to safety, she said.
The sacred God of Khao Yai would also help one who get lost in the jungle… I heard a true story about a tourist who got lost in the national park for three to four days. He tried to find a way out but he kept going towards the same direction and couldn’t find the exit. Finally, somebody came to guide him and disappeared without a trace.
The observational data during the site visit showed the shrine of the Almighty
Godfather has been built at the entrance of the Khao Yai National Park. It gives convenience for the people who wish to pray for the protection from the Godfather.
Everybody would stop for pray before entering the park, to ask for permission into the forest and the blessing for a safe trip. Besides praying for safety in the forest, they would also pray for luck and wealth from the Almighty God. The local villagers mentioned that they would conduct the ceremony to the sacred one by the winter
231 season every year during the end of January. They would bring offerings of chicken and boar’s head to pray to the Godfather to end all types of bad luck.
Walking closer to the Godfather shrine, I could also observed the sacrifices may not involve the killing of an animal, whereby the statues of wild animals were often used as less bloody offerings to the God by the prayers. Praying and sacrificial offerings by using the elephants and fighting cocks have truly presented the culture and tradition of Thailand. The shrine was surrounded by plenty of the animal statues which were referred as the followers of the Almighty God as the military and weapons belong to the sacred one.
The respondents believed that the forest is the most mysterious place that deals with the world of spirits. Therefore, they have a strong thought that nothing can be belittled and they have a set of rules to follow when they go into the forest. The attitudes were considered as “bad” when someone pee everywhere in the forest, make loud noise or simply swear in the forest. When they did the bad things, he or she has to apology and ask for forgiveness from the spirituals in the jungle. One respondent expressed her opinions as follow:
I strongly believe that we have to ask for permission and protection from the spirits in the jungle. There are also many things forbidden in the jungle. For instance, we must say “excuse me” when we pee to inform the invisible to give way. When we eat something from there, don’t say it is too sour or too salty. Once we did something wrong, we must pray for forgiveness to the spirits.
232 Besides Khao Yai Godfather and the aforementioned beliefs about the taboos in the forest, there were also other popular legends amongst the local communities that are associated with the Godmother of Ta-kien and her sister which have not been mentioned in the earlier focus groups. During the interview, a respondent told the story of the sacred Godmother. The word Ta-kien means the “big wood” in Thai language. The myth of the Godmother came from a Ta-kien wood buried underneath the soil of a river near to Moo 6. It was happened not more than two years ago, when a worker of a resort often had a dream about the Ta-kien Mother. She got into his dream to ask for help to pull her body up from the river. The respondent said:
The Godmother of Ta-kien sneaked into the dreams of a resort worker in Khao Yai and said that she was staying inside a Ta-kien wood under a river. She was cold and wanted to go out from there.
Afterwards, few tractors were used to dig up a big wood from the river and the
Godmother of Ta-kien appeared herself by letting few people saw her face on that wood. She also came out from the wood just to notify the people that she was there, a respondent informed. The big Ta-kien wood was then moved by a truck and dwelled at the temple of Moo 6. Few months later, the Godmother seep into the dream of a villager and told that her sister was still under the river. Soon after that, a smaller Ta- kien wood has also been dug out from the same location and placed in the temple.
Both Ta-kien Godmother and her sister are not alone, because they got accompanied by their servants and all those beautiful stuffs. All these are the pay-off from those who had succeeded. Almost hundred dresses there and some of them might cost more than thousands.
233 Many local people as well as people from other provinces in Thailand came to pray for the Ta-kien Godmother and her sister to wish for goodwill and things to come around successfully. The field observation recorded the temple was full with the payoffs from the prayers including the servants, beautiful dresses, makeup desk and jewelleries.
6.2.6 Communication and relationship with park management
Unsure of law enforcement Resource conflict Confuse of park boundaries Poor relationship due to conflicts Loss of income to wildlife damage Human- wildlife Park-people Delay in conflict relationship
compensation process Good relationship through teamwork
Crop planting Park-people collaboration project communication
Village chiefs as mediators
Figure 6.10: Themes and sub-themes for the emergent of “communication and relationship with park management”
Earlier focus group discussions have indicated that local villagers had blamed the establishment of Khao Yai National Park in threatening their livelihoods, although, they have presented strong cooperation and actively participated in conservation
234 activities organised by the park. Later, in-depth interviews conducted with the park officials summarised the administration’s feedbacks about the major threats that affect their relationships with the communities living nearby the park.
Before the 1960s, the local villagers were largely dependent on forest for their livelihoods. They went up to the mountain for hunting and collecting the forest resources. They had even used some of the forest lands for planting their agricultural crops before the establishment of park. According to the Deputy Superintendent of
Khao Yai National Park, some of the park territories were traditionally occupied and used by the local people during that time. He commented:
Before the national park was established in Khao Yai, the local people went to the mountain to find for themselves a living. Some of the lands were even occupied by them for agricultural purposes… So they were shocked to find the national park has its own prohibition on entrance afterwards.
When the forest was initially gazetted as a national park in 1962, the local people were confused about the park boundaries in the very beginning. Therefore, the park management has faced several problems with the surrounding communities due to unclear demarcation of park boundaries during the protected area was firstly founded.
The main issue of concern during that time was the land tenure problem where there has been no official registration of the farmers who were cultivating the lands inside the park areas. Hence, the lack of a clear separation of the boundaries has caused the overlapping areas. The representative of the park notified:
235 When the national park was firstly founded in 1962, the surrounding villagers were still confused about the boundaries of the park, or what kind of law-breaking games they would fall into.
As the result, the local villagers were “unsure” of many things related to the law implementation and enforcement by the park. Many of them have complained about the loss of access to traditionally-used forest resources. Restriction of collecting the park resources has seriously impacted the local communities in adjacent areas because their livelihood strategies are highly interlinked with the park.
At the same time, the intruders of illegal hunting and poaching of wildlife resources within the park were also touted as the main problem faced by the park authority.
Thus, the enforcement of park regulations has been sharpened and the arrests were made accordingly. The officer continued:
During that time, the local people were unsure of where they had to settle down to live because when they settled in the wrong places, they got arrested by the park rangers under the law enforcement. Invasion was the main issue during that time especially under the concern of illegal hunting and collecting of natural resources from the park.
Later on, the issue of conflict on overlapping area was elaborated by the respondent since it has become increasingly significant with rapid local population growth and infrastructural development. As population and wealth increases, the demand for land and its price also increase over time. Hence, there were local villagers who even desperately moved the demarcation of the park boundaries and argued that the lands belong to them. They claimed that they have been living there for a long time. The park representative informed:
236
When the development came along, there were roads built for improving the infrastructure services and there were more people coming to live in Khao Yai. As the result, there were more problems arisen concerning the division between the forest lands inside the park boundaries and the lands owned by the local people… Sometimes, we were wondering why the signs of the boundaries have been moved and the villagers said that the areas belong to them.
To solve the arguments and reduce conflicts over land, the GPS system has been introduced as an effective tool by the government to access the position and the nature of forest boundaries within the park reserves and the community areas.
Besides the use of geometrics and mapping techniques, the park authorities have also built the roads to indicate a clear separation between the villages of Khao Yai and the national park in order to solve the uncertainty of overlapping area.
Apart from the resource conflicts, the wildlife damage over field crops is another pervasive concern of the local villagers surrounding Khao Yai. According to the results of interview with local farmers with regard to the human-wildlife conflict, another interesting outcome has been disclosed as the wild animals are getting smarter nowadays. Compared to the previous time, not many of them have been reported of leaving the forests and the potential for crop damage caused by the wildlife species was not so high.
However, the problem of wildlife damage over the crops has increased considerably since 10 years ago and it has caused great economic losses towards the farmers nowadays. The factor that contributed to this changing is that the species are adaptable and smarter until they could distinguish the differences between forest
237 vegetation and crops, especially the corns. They are clever enough to detect a difference in taste and know when the right season is, one farmer responded.
Those days, the wild elephants used to only rely on forest vegetation. But once they discovered the fine foods and novelties here, they decided to come more often since the foods here are all so yummy! They are too smart now.
Therefore, the farmers have complained on their annual income losses from wildlife crop depredation, and their dissatisfaction with the park administration in the process of paying compensation. Representing the park administration, the Deputy
Superintendent of the park defended their quick response in solving the human- wildlife conflict, in order to prevent locals’ negative attitudes and attack the wild animals. However, he argued that in most cases, the delay of the claim was usually caused by the incomplete of documents and whenever the applicants were not the real landowners. The officer replied:
We would provide cooperation to solve the complaints as soon as possible since we worry the people would harm the wildlife by putting up the baits and traps… But before we pay the compensation, we have to do the correct assessment in following the procedures… The procedures would take longer time and become very complicated if the lands do not belong to the farmers. They only rent the places for doing the farming while the owners are probably someone from Bangkok. Due to this situation, they could not provide sufficient documents to apply for the compensation.
While speaking with a park ranger, I encountered different perceptions about the wildlife damage over the crops and disruption of peaceful existence in local communities. In the below answers given by the ranger, the mankind is actually the
238 biggest threat to wildlife, where he emphasised the potential for severe wildlife disturbance is greatly depending on the human activities. Human are the first trespassers of their lands.
In the very beginning, the fertility of forests had provided habitats and enough food for the wildlife. Afterwards, forests have been wiped out due to land clearance for agriculture, modernisation, accommodation and infrastructure constructions. As the result, the wild animals have lost their original habitats. Then, they started to roam outside park boundaries and onto land owned by the local communities. The national park was regarded by the respondent as an “island” surrounded and crowded by the increase of human population over the years. The decrease of forest lands has forced the wild species to come out from their natural habitats. The park staff cited:
It is true that wildlife has caused substantial damage to the farmers’ crops, because we [human] are the one who first invaded their habitats… Nowadays, forests are rapidly being cut down especially for the construction of buildings such as hotels and resorts. Many people moved to stay in Khao Yai and the park becomes an island where the communities gathered. As the result, the wild animals are started to come out from the forest after the loss of their real habitats.
To solve the wildlife damage problems, a project which involved the park staffs and local villagers was then implemented to plant the crops inside the national park. On behalf of the local residents, a village headman summarised this park-people collaboration as below:
The local villagers support and actively participate in the effort of growing crops inside the park. After further discussing with the park Superintendent to
239 approve the plan and set the time, I went up to the mountain with the farmers and started growing the plants for the wild animals …. We just started planting these crops and we predict more than 70 per cent of them will be survived.
The head of village also stated that the purpose of the project was to provide more sustenance to the wild animals in order to prevent them from coming out from the forest. The park administration and the villagers anticipated to find a compromising way that would consider the human livelihoods and the preservation of forest resources. This effort has shown the cooperation and teamwork between both parties.
He was confident with the outcomes of their attempts that would be positive and lead to success.
Next, the local villagers were asked to elaborate on how the park management communicates with them. One has highlighted the importance of their village chiefs in representing them to communicate with the park administration staff. Similar with the findings in focus groups, an interview with a female respondent confirmed that the main role played by their community leaders as the mediator in communicating between the park management and local people is very noteworthy. This villager has given the valuable information that normally whenever there was a reforestation project run by the government sector, the organiser would firstly inform the heads of every village in Khao Yai. Then, the village chiefs would call the villagers to form their own teams for the tree planting project. She mentioned:
When there is a tree planting programme during the Thai festivals like Mother’s Day, the government will notify the village chiefs. As the leaders, the headmen will contact the local people in their villages to team up for the reforestation work. These procedures will be of
240 similar for other group activities which usually occur on yearly basis.
Meanwhile, from the perception of the chiefs, the headman of Moo 17 stated that he bears such onus to keep in touch with the park authority of any issues related to his village. Given an example of cooperating to solve the flooding problem in the national park, he stated the duties of a headman in representing and gathering the villagers as below:
I will always keep in contact with the of park officials… when there is a flood happened during the raining season, I will gather the villagers to solve the flooding problems.
241
Perspectives on Nature Conservation
groups Focus Positive Perspectives Negative Perspectives
Local Promotes Community Income Local Appreciation Good Resource Poor Negative Loss of High transportation of cultural cultures & & knowledge of nature relationship conflict & relationship environmental lands to cost of and exchange traditions employment & with park human- with park problems outsiders living infrastructure awareness management wildlife management conflict
In
-
depth Interviews depth
Local infrastructure Rituals & Local Community Communication & & culture beliefs about livelihoods environmental relationship with park the forest & incomes knowledge & management awareness
Local weather & degrades of environment
Local people Local beliefs of the High local High usage of foam Observations exposure to things sacred and participation in boxes and plastic bags English language taboo in the forest. conservation activates in night bazaars. such as tree planting Foreigners could Believed in Godfather projects Poor rubbish
speak fluent Thai of Khao Yai and management by the end language. Godmother of Ta-kien. House decorations of bazaars. were mainly made of The shrines full of natural materials such praying and sacrificial as stones, rocks, offering. woods and tree stumps.
Figure 6.11: Findings of focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and observations in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand.
242 CHAPTER 7
DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter discusses the findings of local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation activities in Taman Negara Pahang, Malaysia and Khao Yai National
Park, Thailand. The discussion includes factors that determine locals’ perspectives and simultaneously explore the communication approaches between the national park management and local communities. The first part of the discussion will be based on research questions. It will follow with the exhaustive discussion on proposed strategic communication framework based on local communities’ perspective on nature conservation.
7.1 Discussion
The discussion is based on the research questions of this study as stated below:
1. What are the local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation in Taman
Negara Pahang, Malaysia and Khao Yai National Park, Thailand?
2. What factors determine the local communities’ perspectives on nature
conservation?
3. What are the interaction and communication approaches between the national
park management and local communities?
243 4. How can the local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation be
integrated into effective communication strategies for conservation activities?
What are the local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation in Taman
Negara Pahang, Malaysia and Khao Yai National Park, Thailand?
As a whole, local communities in two countries showed favourable perspectives on nature conservation. Responses from the Thais, Malays and aboriginals Batek demonstrated a strong support for conservation activities and associated development projects surrounding their villages mainly due to the economic benefits from the national parks. They correspondingly highlighted the economic values of park in generating higher incomes and improving their livelihood.
The analysis results in Malaysia revealed that the local people were proud of Taman
Negara Pahang and regarded its important value as the country’s national heritage.
Meanwhile in Thailand, the respondents expressed their appreciation towards the aesthetic values of Khao Yai National Park in providing a healthy environment to the local communities. Respondents in both countries respectively used “national heritage” and “aesthetic value” to indicate their satisfaction of living next to the parks. They were generally understood that the national park is a protected area for various and uniqueness of flora and fauna species which could not be found in other places. Therefore, they voiced out their concern over the forest loss. Moreover, looking after the trees and forests was regarded by the Thai respondents as the most basic method or fundamental practice of nature conservation. The main reason is that the tree planting is important to offset carbon emissions. Tropical forests are very
244 beneficial to the climate and it was referred as a straightforward approach of preventing the world from the threats of global warming.
The national parks also inspire a sense of belonging among the local villagers in
Kuala Tahan and Khao Yai. They viewed the park as a home, a place where they were born, and a place where they grew up. The Malay respondents recalled their childhood memories of staying in the national park quarters and staying close to the wildlife. In order to protect their land of birth, they have presented strong support for forest and wildlife conservation activities.
In comparison to the Thais and Malays, there were obvious differences of the Batek people in describing their special relationship with the forest and the national park.
The most significant dissimilarity is that the forest is a place of survival for the Batek community. Forest is their “true home” with great dependence on the forest resources.
The lifestyle outside of the forest was considered as unpleasant with severe pollutions and high living expenses. This has reflected the cultures and traditions of
Batek which are correspondingly related to their concerns on the values of national park and the importance of environmental protection.
However, the outcomes of analysis show two conflicting views on nature conservation among the indigenous people: forest protection and unsustainable harvesting of forest resources. On one hand, the Batek people showed positive perspectives on nature conservation since the aboriginal livelihood is highly inseparably and linked to the forest for food and shelter. As Khor and Zalilah (2008) argue, indigenous people live in remote areas of the world and depend substantially
245 on the natural resources in the ecosystem for subsistence. Traditionally, the Batek depend mostly on hunted and forest gathered food for example small mammals, fruits, woods and plants for herbal medicines and other purposes. Forest gives the community not only a sense of belonging but also conveniences, as evidenced from the respondents who used the word “supermarket for the Batek” to define the importance of rainforest to them. One of the respondents also viewed the aboriginal people as similar as the wildlife; hereafter he expressed disappointment at the substitution of rainforest with excessive logging activities. In the descriptions from the respondent, both Batek and wildlife have seemingly lost their homelands.
On the other hand, the Batek respondents claimed themselves as the original inhabitants of the forest lands so that they should be granted the rights over the natural resources in their territories. The evidence suggested by Gomes (2004) about the Orang Asli who are the primary suppliers of forest products, such as rattan, bamboo, resins (damars), ivory and other animal parts in the maritime trade that linked South East Asia to the markets in China, India and the Middle East countries have been supported in this study. This has proven that the Batek are also practicing unsustainable activities of hunting, collecting and selling the forest products.
What factors determine the local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation?
It is evident that both communities in Malaysia and Thailand have similar favourable perspectives on nature conservation. However, this research revealed more diverse reasoning for the perspectives in Thailand as compared to Malaysia. The results of both countries indicate that the receipt of economic benefits from park has increased
246 local support for nature conservation. It is because the respondents were aware that a well-conserved national park is important to earn a steady income from tourists.
Hence, the park should be protected in order to gain incomes, or it could be regarded as the ‘return of conservation efforts’. This supports the arguments of many scholars that the direct benefits in terms of incomes and employment opportunities which local residents can get from park have resulted people having favourable attitudes towards conservation efforts (Brandon & Wells, 1992; Wells & Brandon, 1992;
Goodwin, 1996; Mehta & Kellert, 1998; Mehta & Heinen, 2001; Goodwin &
Walpole, 2001; Chen et al., 2005; Eraqi, 2007).
For example, Kampung Dedari is one of the Batek villages with massive attractions of traditional lifestyle and rich culture of Batek. The money received from visitation will be divided among the Batek villagers according to the size of each family and simultaneously enhances their support for conservation efforts. Although previous research verifies gender bias in development initiatives, this research found that the tourism activities create huge opportunities not only for the Batek men, but also the women to involve as producers of handicrafts.
In Thailand, benefits are in the forms of tourism too. Most of the villagers in Khao
Yai were initially working on their agricultural lands; however, many of them have started to involve in tourism activities after the resorts, hotels, residential areas, and other development properties which can accommodate more tourists have been built surrounding Khao Yai. Interview with the respondents revealed their favourable feelings about the importance of Khao Yai National Park in generating higher incomes to them.
247
Besides, local residents in Thailand and Malaysia have also pointed out the benefits in terms of socio-cultural angle as the second factor which have led to their support for national park establishment and nature conservation activities. In both Khao Yai and Kuala Tahan, the participants of this research observed more recreational opportunities (Perdue et al., 1990) and positive improvement in transportation and infrastructure services within their villages. They underlined the upgraded tarred roads from Pak Chong to Khai Yai, and from Jerantut to Kuala Tahan have benefited the tourists and residents alike.
In Malaysia, the analysis results of interviews revealed that the local culture and society were changing in a positive way. This outcome stands in contrast to statements claimed by Brandon (1996) who notes the negative social impacts of national park to the local communities. During my visit to Kuala Tahan, I found that some of the villagers were able to greet and talk comfortably in English language with the visitors. They have been able to make many friends from all parts of the world. Also, the young generations and housewives were started exposing themselves to the outside community especially the tourists to Kuala Tahan, and they accrued substantial incomes through working as boatmen, resort, hotel and restaurant workers. Ironically, they have become financially independent from their parents and husband. These verdicts have again confirmed the role of national park in providing the optimistic socio-cultural changes towards the local communities.
Although the development and modernisation in Khao Yai are assumed to have largely improved the quality of life of the local villagers, the socio-cultural factors
248 may not always be positive. The existence of national park stimulates the increase of tourist numbers to Khao Yai every year, and therefore promotes the growth of modernisation and prosperity. The argument of Dogan (1989) about the effects of development on the socio-cultural characteristics of local people’ habits, daily routines, social lives, beliefs and value have been evidenced in this study. Villagers in Khao Yai are too busy with their works nowadays until they have no time for socialising. The people are now becoming more materialistic and selfish. However, compared to Malaysia, the responses in Kuala Tahan suggested the encouragement of cultural activities, which is similar to Brunt and Courtney’s (1999) argument, has improved the community relationship due to the existence of a national park. The villagers admitted and said that “we could assemble together because of the park”.
Both findings in two national parks also found that appreciation of nature among the local communities is one of the factors that determine their support for conservation activities. Respondents in both countries agreed that the creation of national park is to conserve biodiversity (Adams & Hutton, 2007) and provide healthy natural environment for people’s enjoyment and recreation. In their own words, a protected forest is recognised for bringing intrinsic and aesthetic environmental values to the local people. For example, a high chance of seeing wild animals was rated as one of the environmental benefits of staying close to a conservation site.
The next factor is communities’ understanding, knowledge and awareness on environmental issues. The research analysis suggested that the local residents who were imbued with environmental knowledge and awareness were more likely to support the protection of natural resources. However, a low level of awareness can be
249 associated with negative (Fiallo and Jacobson, 1995) or undecided attitudes (Fiallo and Jacobson, 1995; Ormsby and Kaplin, 2005).
Lye (2002) who is an environmental anthropologist argued that the forest landscape provides an important source of Batek’s knowledge and continuity since the forest pathways are where their environmental and social knowledge develops. During my visit to the Orang Asli settlement, i.e. Kampung Dedari, I was introduced with two types of traditional practices which utilise all the natural resources: blowpipe hunting and fire making skill. The demonstrator showed the ancient technique on fire making without the use of matches and lighters where all the materials used were collected from the forest. Using a string pulled back and forth with the base that made of meranti wood (kayu meranti), the demonstrator exhibited his competencies in handling the show. Once the tinder was lighted, he would use dried woods and leaves to start a flame.
The other traditional cultural practice which utilises forest products is blowpipe hunting. Hunting forms a major component of the Batek life, especially through the use of blowpipe which is called sumpit in Malay language. About two metres long, blowpipe is a traditional method used for hunting the birds, gibbons, monkeys and squirrels. It is made of bamboo and the bullet or mouth piece is made from damar.
Damar is the resin obtained from the dipterocarp trees. According to them, as an indispensable part of making the blowpipe, resin is one of the most important resources, could only be found in the forest, whereas due to its value and market demand, they can sell it at a higher price. It can be concluded that through this observational proof in terms of their culture and knowledge to utilise forest resources
250 in a sustainable manner, the Batek people have performed supportive attitudes on conservation attempts.
Interestingly, I was also informed on the sustainability practices of how the wildlife is protected by the Batek men. In order to sustain their community, the Batek people were aware on the importance of wild animal protection as the integral part of forest diversity. Therefore, they would only hunt the male of the species and strictly forbid their members to kill female animal for breeding purpose. At the same time, the
Batek would only hunt small animals like monkeys and birds for main source of protein. However, the big mammals such as elephant, tiger and deer would be protected to prevent extinction. In other words, the Batek have shown their knowledge on sustainable living through their efforts of wildlife protection to ensure the hunting activities are well-controlled. Having said that, they performed appreciative attitudes towards the nature and they have deep understanding on nature survival as they are mutually dependent.
Psychologists have demonstrated the profound ways in which religion can shape one’s perception towards the worldview and form the most foundational aspects of people’s identity, including attitudes, beliefs and preferences (Emmons & Paloutzian,
2003). In comparing the findings between Malaysia and Thailand, it has been proven in this study that the differences in religious beliefs, cultures and traditions of two countries could influence the patterns of local perspectives on nature conservation.
In Thailand, about 94 per cent of the population is Buddhist and this figure provides great implications on the environmental attitudes of Thai people. According to the
251 Buddha’s teaching, all lives including the plants should not be destroyed, so that humanity may enjoy its presence (Kariyawasam, 2007). Interviews with the local communities in Khao Yai and the thorough observations on their daily lifestyles have unearthed the environmental history of the sacred forest. They held the view that the nature must be preserved because it consists of a sacred and supernatural force.
The Thai respondents believed that the forest is the most mysterious place that deals with the world of spirits, where everybody should pay the respects. They shared their rituals and beliefs about the sacred taboo of forests including the legends of the
Almighty Godfather of Khao Yai and the Godmother of Ta- kien. This result supports the beliefs about traditional spiritual values of forest which have played a role in protecting the Thai people until now (Byers, Cunliffe & Hudak, 2001), and hence have influenced their attitudes towards conservation of culture and nature.
On the other hand, Batek people who are the mobile forest-dwellers in Taman Negara
Pahang are still beleaguered by animistic beliefs as they believe that souls and spirits do exist not only in humans, but also in all natural objects such as animals, plants, trees, rocks and other natural phenomena such as rain, sun and moon. The aboriginal beliefs, cultures and traditions were found as the prime contributor to supportive attitudes towards nature conservation. The Batek have a strong spiritual tie to the rainforests and both creatures are somewhat interrelated as they rely upon each other.
To support this thought, Lye (2008) argues that if there were no people in the forest, the world would collapse. This verdict is related to the indigenous concept of environmental guardianship which has also been proven in this study. Being the
252 forest people, Batek are the ones who prevent this collapse from happening because guardianship is emergent in their on-going interactions with the forest. They concern and protect the natural resources within their care and they even regarded themselves as similar as “wildlife” in the forest. Therefore, deforestation is not only destroying the natural resources, but also the homelands of the Batek. Protecting the forest means safeguarding their aboriginal cultural, social, spiritual, and heritage values.
Essentially, their complex and diverse cultures and traditions remain unchanged for over thousands years from one generation to another.
Similarly, interviews with Malay respondents also discovered community cultures and traditions as the vital factors that mould their positive perceptions. The villagers disclosed that the protection of forest resources as one of their traditional customs, inherited from the older generation. These practices should be followed by the youngsters of the community to ensure the continuity of this cultural tradition could be secured, which has been highlighted as “keeping the culture continuously” during the interviews.
The results from both countries underscored the arising conflicts that happened between the park administration and local people which have resulted in poor relationship of two parties, and subsequently being confirmed as one of the factors that forms their negative perceptions. Despite generally having understanding and awareness on park existence which is related to the conservation of forest resources, local villagers have also rendered some feedbacks on the law enforcement that causes negative impacts to their livelihoods such as denial of access to traditionally- used resources. Traditionally, they were farming inside and collecting the bamboo
253 shoots, radishes, mushrooms and others in the forest but the current situation is different as the lands have been protected through the designated park boundaries. As
Ghimire (1994) states, conflicts concerning the national park and neighbouring communities can be seen as a conflict between two opposed objectives: natural resources protection on one hand; and the safeguarding of local livelihoods on the other hand.
On a separate note, there were four specific different findings between Malaysia and
Thailand which have caused negative perceptions towards park establishment among the Thai respondents: human-wildlife conflict, unequal economic distribution, loss of ancestral lands to outsiders, and negative environmental problems surrounding the
Khao Yai National Park. Firstly, this research has identified that the loss of local incomes was not only due to the thwarted use of park resources, but it was found to be the wildlife damage over the crops and other properties which is similar to
Sifuna’s work in 2010. The most worrying consequence lies on the problem and frequency of wildlife disturbance that has rapidly escalated within these 10 years.
Elephants were often mentioned by the interview respondents as the most damaging species to coconuts and corns, and they are the most difficult to defend against
(Bauer, 2003; Madhusudan, 2003; Kideghsho et al., 2007). This problematic issue is in parallel with the findings reported by Coad et al (2008). In their study about the costs and benefits of forested protected areas to local livelihoods, wildlife damage is the great concern among the farmers as the losses can result in serious reduction of annual agricultural incomes.
254 Secondly, a significant economic inequity also exists between the locals and non- locals in the villages of Khao Yai. Some opinions from the previous researchers that allude to the local residents as the primary bearers for the costs of conservation while the majority of economic benefits go to the outsiders have also been confirmed in this study (He et al., 2008; Xu et al., 2009). The reason was that the majority of properties and facilities in Khao Yai are not owned by the local people. Tourism has attracted many buyers from the cities especially Bangkok to invest for property development included hotels, resorts, condominium, golf courses restaurants and others. Due to the skyrocketing of land value, many local inhabitants have sold out their lands to the investors at a high price. However, it is quite sad to see that they were employed back to work as the employees in the business of the foreign investors.
Thirdly, as the result of rapid development and modernisation, the stories of local communities being driven from their lands have become too familiar (Geary, 2012) in Khao Yai. The land prices have been pushed up to one rai of land would costs eight million Thai Baht nowadays. Often, the conversion of agricultural lands to non- agricultural purposes is associated with both positive and negative impacts on the local population (Reddy & Reddy, 2007). The increasing values of land have benefitted many local residents who have sold out their lands to the investors at the very high price. Nonetheless, arguably for the long term, the loss of ancestral lands has caused difficulties in sustaining the well-being of their next generations. Thus, it was found as one of the factors contributing to negative perceptions towards the national park and tourism industry among the local communities.
255 Compared with Malaysia, environmental damage problems were found to significantly influence the surrounding areas of Khao Yai National Park due to excessive tourism development. For example, a Palio Village, an Italian-themed shopping centre was constructed and promoted as one of the most popular tourism destinations in Khao Yai. The construction of this famous tourist attraction has caused the destruction of natural forest landscape since a sizeable land was cleared to build the combination of shops and stalls with a variety of clothes, gifts, bags, foods and so forth. Overall, Khao Yai faces substantial environmental changes over the past few decades through the rising of recreational facilities for tourists every year.
The Thai respondents used the term “forests have been converted to building” to express the environmental degradation which was happened gradually in Khao Yai.
They also blamed the deforestation for the purpose of development that has seriously impacted on local weather. The changes of weather patterns, temperatures and rainfall variability have impacted the incomes of local farmers. Other negative environmental impacts such as crowding and rubbish pollution highlighted by other academic researchers (c.f. Kontogeorgopoulos, 1998; Eraqi, 2007; Finnessey, 2012) were corroborated by many respondents in Thailand. These effects have inevitably put stress on local communities and would subsequently ascertain their support for national park and conservation activities.
256 What are the interaction and communication approaches between the national park management and local communities?
Previous research works have argued that both success and failure of conservation activities are often construed on local participation and support for national park which is strongly affected by their opinions of park management and their ways of communication (Muhumuza & Balkwill, 2013; Bennett & Dearden, 2014). A better understanding on the relationship between the park management and local communities, specifically on how they interact and influence one another has attributed to study the local people’s attitudes which is critical for the success of conservation plans (Holmes, 2013). These arguments have been proven in this research conducted in Malaysia and Thailand.
Findings of this research revealed a good relationship between the Malay villagers and park management which they have defined it as “good and close” or as “friends”.
They always support each other: local villagers presented a strong cooperation and high involvement in the conservation activities and public awareness campaigns.
Also, the park administration staffs always listen to the villagers' grievances and understand their problems. Both parties have provided the required assistance to solve any problems happened in and outside the park. According to the respondents, they were satisfied with the effectiveness of park management in their ways of solving the problems of nature guides through reducing the complaints from tourists.
The outcomes of this research also in agreement with the earlier study which explains that the history of park management and types of interaction and
257 communication with park staffs would influence the perceptions of park held by the local residents (Ormsby & Kaplin, 2005). The authority of Taman Negara Pahang has emphasised the local participation in park management and decision-making process because they admit the local people are of paramount importance to achieve park effectiveness. Considering the local people as the “important staffs”, the park officials were concerned on how villagers have been playing the active roles in nature conservation and as the inevitable partners towards successful conservation strategies (Andrade & Rhodes, 2012). The officials also conceded that they could not execute many things without the support of the neighbouring villagers. It means that maintaining the protection of park is not only the responsibility of the park authorities, but also the local communities.
In order to uphold the significant role of the local communities, park administration has organised a meeting every two months to involve all the local stakeholders for discussing the matters pertaining park management and also the issues outside the park. The park Superintendent believed that the meeting provides a good platform to interact and communicate with the local villagers. On behalf of the local villagers, the respondents stated their communication with the park management was defined as “direct and transparent”. Whenever the emergency happens, without waiting for the formal meeting, the villagers would directly contact and liaise with the park manager.
In Thailand, the overall results of research reported that the local communities also expressed their support for Khao Yai National Park by actively participating in the conservation activities. However, park-people conflicts have been highlighted by the
258 respondents due to wildlife damage over the property and agricultural crops, land and resources security problems, and other socio-cultural impacts of park establishment have resulted in poor park-people relationship. With regard to human-wildlife conflict, the local people blamed the inefficiency of park management in providing the best solutions. On the other side, however, a park staff claimed that the problem was happened mainly because of the increase in human population and the expansion of human activities (Conover, 2002). In order to encourage positive local perspectives towards nature conservation, this study suggests the needs of effective management and communication plans to mitigate and solve such conflicts.
Different from Malaysia, the findings in Thailand discovered the importance of the heads of village or community leaders in the communication process between park management and local people. Thai law and administration have made all the headmen to serve as a mediator between the national government and the local villagers. Hence, they possess charisma leadership and are respected by people in the villages. The great influences of the village chiefs in the local communities are not only occurred in Khao Yai as it might be the traditions or the cultures in Thailand.
Due to this norm, the management and communication approach of the Thai national parks looks to adopt a top-down system, seeing that the local participation is rather limited (Jiren et. al., 2010).
259 How can the local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation be integrated into effective communication strategies for conservation activities?
Effective communication with people is vital to achieve nature conservation goals because the loss of biodiversity is often caused by humans. In other words, planning for conservation activities requires correct managing communication to gain the commitment and cooperation of people who are living close to the conservation sites
(Carew-Reid, 2002). As mentioned earlier in the literature review, there are two important roles of communication strategy in nature conservation activities: to solve different kinds of conflicts between the park management and local communities; and to raise local awareness on the environmental issues for ensuring their conservation commitment.
At present, many countries in the world are engaging in the implementation of
National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP) to better manage and conserve their national biodiversity resources (Carew-Reid, 2002). Throughout the planned preparation and implementation, communication has been strategically managed to ensure the collaboration of different parties involved in nature conservation activities will run smoothly. In many Asian countries, however, the planning of strategy communication in all phases of nature conservation management is relatively weak.
The reviews of literature have proven that very little explicit thought was rendered on how effective communication was espoused by the national parks particularly in
Southeast Asian countries for reducing a variety of social conflicts with the
260 neighbouring communities and raising local awareness on biodiversity concerns. In the absence of such literature, thus, this research contributes to propose a strategic communication framework for both national parks in Malaysia and Thailand. It is important because park-people interaction and communication is crucial in the management of national park for achieving conservation attempts.
In this small section, discussion will be based on the effective communication process which was proposed earlier in the Chapter 3 of Literature Review (p. 89-95).
First of all, horizontal communication approach was suggested by Ismail Khan (2003) and Lunenburg (2010) due to its worth and value in conflict resolution and improving park-people relationship. Effective communication strategies, recognised in the literature review, include the execution of interpretive communication in
Yosemite National Park in Central California to solve the conflicts between human and black bears (Lackey & Ham, 2004), the implementation of interactive communication through a tour guide training programme to keep tourists from harassing nesting sea turtles at Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica (Jacobson &
Robles, 1992), the use of personal interaction with park staffs to increase visitors’ knowledge about park conservation objectives (Jacobson, 2009), the application of mass media including television and radio broadcasts, internets and websites, newspapers, brochures and others to enhance public awareness on environmental issues (Sayers, 2006; Jacobson, 2009), and the adoption of science and policy to develop messages that stimulate people’s support for nature conservation (IUCN,
2007).
261 The perspective-taking paradigm in communication and literature review of this research have also highlighted that there are two main roles of effective communicators: i) to translate complex science into compelling messages that will inspire the people’s action to conserve natural resources (IUCN, 2007) and, ii) to consider the people’s perspectives, points of view and knowledge when deciding on how to formulate a message (Krauss & Fussell, 1991; Fussell & Krauss, 1992).
The proposed strategic communication framework for this research shown in Figures
7.1 and 7.2 was based on meticulous literature review. Findings of local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation in Malaysia and Thailand are crucial to be integrated into effective communication strategies in order to achieve the conservation goals. The negative perspectives presented on the left side of the framework comprise restriction of Batek on commercial hunting, restriction for accessing park resources, loss of agricultural crops to wildlife, poor park-people relationship, and lack of local environmental knowledge and awareness.
One of the effective communication strategies proposed by this study is to gather local stakeholders to collaborate towards conservation goals. Not only addressing the government and non-governmental officials of various sectors, but most importantly the involvement of local people as the decision makers. This is because the local community participation in park management is the only variable that was significantly associated to the level of compliance with park policies (Andrade &
Rhodes, 2012). The study in Malaysia confirms the statement made by these scholars where the result depicts the park authorities of Taman Negara Pahang has emphasised a collaborative management that includes the local stakeholders’ meeting
262 conducted every two months to involve the local residents in decision-making processes and discuss the matters of increasing locals’ well-being.
Adams and McShane (1992) contend that “if the parks are surrounded by people who were excluded from the planning of the area, do not understand its purpose, derive little or no benefit from the money poured into its creation, and hence do not support its existence” (p. 15). This claim brings the meaning that in order to encourage positive conservation attitudes among the local people, as part from involving them in management and decision-making, it is also important to provide benefits to offset the opportunity costs of protection (Walpole & Goodwin, 2001).
Along the same lines, the perceived best strategy to improve the Batek community’s support for Taman Negara Pahang is proposed. It includes the cooperation between the park management with relevant parties such as JAKOA, Tourist Operators
Association, Nature Guides Association, and Boats Association in building and developing the natural attractions or job opportunities that can increase revenues of
Batek people. This could directly reduce their illegal activities on commercial hunting and make the conservation activities more efficient.
However, findings in Thailand were not in compliant with the situation in Malaysia as the administration of Khao Yai National Park is practicing a top-down system, since the local involvement in the park management is very limited (Abdul Aziz,
2009; Jiren et. al., 2010). Generally, the decisions are made and imposed by the park management without any discussion or meeting with the local villagers. All the messages from the park will be passed to the local people through their village heads.
263 At the same time, the head men will be in the position of representing the locals for planning and decision making.
Aswani and Weiant (2004) assert that, when local people are excluded from the protected area management and whenever their needs and aspirations are ignored, it becomes extremely difficult to enforce conservation policies. According to the Thai respondents, they were prohibited from entering and collecting the forest products that they had traditionally access to before the national park was established. These predicaments have affected their relationship with the park management and caused ineffectiveness of park planning, conservation objectives and economic development of local communities. Henceforth, local participation is essential to provide opportunities for the local people to learn the foundation of park management. This effort helps them to make a good connection with the park and understand the complexity of management decisions in order to overcome the breach in the utilisation and conservation of park resources (Ruschkowski, 2010).
Also, in Thailand, the park-people relationship was further complicated with the challenges of getting compensation and no concrete solution by the park administration to address the wildlife damage problems. Bringing together the local villagers is also pertinent to review and to discuss the human-wildlife conflict in order to make accurate recommendations and proper solutions. Besides that, another example of successful adoption of communication strategy is the ability to solve the wildlife damage problems which was performed through a crops planting project in
Khao Yai National Park. This collaborative project that involves the park staffs and the local villagers has shown the cooperation and teamwork between both parties.
264
In order to stimulate pro-conservation perspectives, environmental education and communication programmes are believed to play the important roles in communicating proper environmental knowledge to the community (Lawson et al.,
2015). Communication as the key instrument to acquire local support for implementing conservation activities through public awareness stimulation has also been evidenced in this research. In brief, developing solid communication, education and public awareness strategies is essential to lessen all these threats of managing national parks and reduce the prolonged loss of biodiversity (Chowdhury et al.,
2014).
The findings of this research also demonstrate that the governmental and non- governmental players in both countries have actively conducted conservation activities such as through tree planting projects, rubbish collection and waste management programmes, as well as other public awareness campaigns to convey biodiversity issues amongst the local communities. In Thailand, the interview result is in tandem with Ervin’s (2010) outcome, where the respondents believed that one of the most effective ways of raising awareness and sustaining changes over time is through school programmes. After conducting the communication, education and awareness strategies, it is satisfied to witness changes in the level of environmental knowledge and awareness of people pertaining to nature conservation efforts. The results, however, also indicate that not all the programmes managed to get adequate support from the locals because some of the individuals did not typically change their behaviours immediately.
265 In short, a major challenge in conservation is influencing people’s behaviours (Smith et al., 2010). Therefore, the purpose of conducting a communication strategy is to contribute in changing people’s knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards the environment. In other words, effective communication is more than simply conveying and receiving a message within the community members. However, it is all about the challenges in changing their perceptions for inspiring conservation actions. Changing individual attitude and behaviour is critical to the success or failure of communication and awareness campaigns (Ervin, 2010).
266
Complex: Effective Local communities’ Communication Compelling perspectives, points of Strategies Messages view and knowledge
Restriction of Batek on commercial hunting Local participation in park management and decision-making processes
Building and developing natural attractions Poor park-people relationship or job opportunities that can increase revenue of Batek Action to conserve natural resources
Public awareness campaigns Lack of local environmental knowledge and awareness School programs for educating future generations
Horizontal communication used for conflict resolution and improving park-people relationship
Figure 7.1: Proposed strategic communication framework for conservation activities based on local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation in Malaysia
267
Complex: Effective Compelling Local communities’ Communication Messages perspectives, points of Strategies view and knowledge
Local participation in park management to Restriction for accessing to park resources understand the complexity of park decisions for solving resources conflict
Poor park-people relationship Bringing together the local people to review and discuss human-wildlife conflict
Loss of crops to wildlife Collaborative crops planting project to solve Action to conserve human-wildlife conflict natural resources Delay in getting compensation Public awareness campaigns
Lack of local environmental knowledge and awareness School programs for educating future generations
Horizontal communication used for conflict resolution and improving park-people relationship
Figure 7.2: Proposed strategic communication framework for conservation activities based on local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation in Thailand
268 7.2 Implication to Social Exchange Theory
This research employs social exchange theory as a guide in explaining local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation whereby the factors likely to predict their perceptions in Taman Negara Pahang, Malaysia and Khao Yai National
Park, Thailand. The theory suggests that people evaluate an exchange based on the benefits and costs gained from the exchange. Based on the findings of this research, two situations have been described: 1) local villagers held positive perceptions of national park and did support for nature conservation due to benefits from the park, and 2) local villagers held negative perceptions of national park and did not support for nature conservation due to threats from the park.
On the left side of the framework presented in Figures 7.3 and 7.4, it shows the importance of contributing factors which have resulted in people having positive or negative perceptions. For example, the results of both study areas respectively showed that the national parks have provided umpteen benefits to the local livelihoods. Primarily, the economy of the local people recorded higher degree of dependence on the national parks in terms of incomes and employments. They also expressed their appreciation towards the healthy living environment surrounding the parks. Furthermore, the villagers also highlighted on the socio-cultural benefits of park such as promotes of cultural exchange, positive changes of local culture, improves of local transportation and infrastructure services.
According to the results in Malaysia, it was found that community survival is the first significant emerging factor that contributes to positive perceptions among the Batek
269 people. Forest is the place of survival for the aborigines staying within and next to the Taman Negara Pahang which have sustained them over many centuries since their ancestors. Next, community culture and traditions were found as another salient factor that determines positive perceptions among the Malays and Thais. They mentioned that the environmental protection is one of their traditional practices to be continued over generations. The findings also discovered that local environmental knowledge and awareness of the park existence, and good park-people relationship could increase local support for conservation activities.
Moving to the factors that cause negative perspectives, two more significant factors are discovered in this study. There are restrictions for Batek on commercial hunting in Taman Negara Pahang and losses of lands to outsiders which occurred in Khao
Yai. Besides, wildlife conservation has also caused a range of threats to the local communities in Thailand. The most severe threats were found as the wildlife damage over agricultural crops and the denial of access to traditionally-used forest resources.
This finding is in compliant with Adams and Mcshane (1992), and Ghimire and
Pimbert (1997) who claim that the park-people conflicts have resulted in negative local attitudes on conservation issues. Other threats to local livelihoods entail the high cost of living and negative environmental problems consisting of garbage and overcrowding problems.
Subsequently, the developed framework also points out the local support or protest for nature conservation is strongly influenced by the perspectives, points of view and knowledge of the local communities. Whenever the people’s opinions and experience were perceived as negative, it is important to develop communication strategies to
270 solve the park-people conflicts and to improve their relationship. Effective communication strategies could determine local people’s attitudes either to support or not for nature conservation activities, as presented in the earlier proposed strategic communication framework (Figures 7.1 & 7.2).
271
Income & employment opportunities
Appreciation of nature
Improves of local transportation & infrastructure Positive Benefits from Support for Local knowledge & awareness perceptions of national park nature national park conservation
Community survival
Communication Strategies Community cultures & traditions Local participation in park management and decision- Good park-people relationship Perspective- making processes taking to identify local Building and developing the Other socio-cultural benefits communities’ natural attractions or job perspectives opportunities that can and points of increase revenue of Batek view and knowledge Public awareness campaigns
School programs for educating future generations Restriction on commercial hunting Resource conflict
Threats from Negative Not support for perceptions of nature High cost of living national park national park conservation
Emergent Themes
Figure 7.3: Proposed framework of local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation in Malaysia based on Social Exchange Theory
272
Appreciation of nature
Income & employment opportunities
Improves of local transportation & infrastructure Positive Benefits from Support for Promotes of cultural exchange perceptions of national park nature national park conservation
Local knowledge & awareness Communication Strategies
Community cultures & traditions Local participation in park management to understand the complexity of park decisions for solving resource conflict Good park-people relationship Perspective- taking to Bringing together the local people to identify local review and discuss human-wildlife communities’ conflict perspectives, Resource Restriction for accessing park points of Collaborative crops planting project conflict resources view and to solve human-wildlife conflict knowledge Loss of crops to wildlife Human- Public awareness campaigns wildlife conflict School programs for educating High cost of living future generations
Negative Not support for Loss of lands to outsiders Threats from perceptions of national park nature national park conservation
Negative environmental problems Emergent Themes
Poor park-people relationship
Figure 7.4: Proposed framework of local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation in Thailand based on Social Exchange Theory
273 7.3 Conclusion
This study concurs with the statements of many academic literatures that the relations of natural environment and human are deeply and inextricably linked (West
& Brechin, 1991; John, 1997; Stevens, 1997; Philips, 2002, Wilson, 2003; Adams &
Huttons, 2007). The reason is because a symbiotic relationship does exist between man and his environment while human survival and the developmental process occur within the environment (Ogwu, 2002). Understanding the use of the word
“environmental” quite often tends to be associated with some kind of human impact on natural systems (Morelli, 2011). However, it should be comprehended that not only the individuals and communities may affect the environment, but the environment also could affect them that implicitly makes the environmental issues as instrumental in determining the quality of life of the people (Schaefer, 2002).
The traditional planning system of national parks is normally called as an orthodox conservation approach, which builds on the separation of nature from human.
However, the perceived separation between human and nature may have implications for subsequent environmental values, attitudes, and behaviour (Vining, Merrick &
Price, 2008). Therefore, the adaptation of planning and management approach, called
“new paradigm of protected areas”, to bridge the compatibility between human activities and the objectives of conservation as well as consequent appearance of new economic and cultural development opportunities associated to protected areas
(Fonseca et al., 2011) seems germane to be performed.
274 The findings from Malaysia and Thailand verified that the management of both national parks are implementing the new conservation concept which emphasises on social equity and sustainable communities by improving the living standard of local communities (Suwanmanee, 2009). Since a handful of academic commentators have argued that the local people’s support for park management is an important element in determining the success of nature conservation (Brandon & Wells, 1992; Sekhar,
2003; Jim & Xu, 2002), therefore increasingly, many studies are conducted to enhance insightful understanding of local communities’ perspectives and attitudes.
This comparative study of Taman Negara Pahang in Malaysia and Khao Yai
National Park in Thailand provides the results of this initiative.
Despite Malaysia and Thailand are having different religions, races, cultures, languages and backgrounds, the members of local communities in two study areas hold generally positive perspectives of having a national park nearby their village areas. The impacts of national parks on local livelihoods of both potentially positive and negative vibes have been widely debated in this study (Adams & Hutton, 2007;
Clements et al., 2014). Even though Malaysia and Thailand are practicing the new conservation approach, however, some of the impacts from park establishment were found to affect the local inhabitants living inside or bordering the conservation sites.
Such debates that focus on the benefits and threats to local communities depend directly upon the conservation policies and management strategies. For example, the formulation of law enforcement by the park management has ordinarily resulted in people having negative perspectives on nature conservation attempts, especially in
Thailand. The respondents have argued that their rights were denied, particularly when they were not permitted to collect forest produces in selected zones of the
275 protected land. Further, the frequency of human-wildlife conflict happened has grown in recent years, hence the farmers who had suffered crop damage have showed negative attitudes on wildlife conservation.
In the Malaysian context, forest provides sources of survival for the indigenous people. Therefore, there is no doubt that the natural resources and wildlife is protected by the Batek community for their livelihoods. The main reason of having supportive attitudes is that the forest is not just important for food subsistence, but also shapes their customs, cultures, traditions and beliefs about the spirits of the nature. However, there were also some other negative feedbacks from the aborigines that have challenges the effectiveness of the park management. As the native to the national parks, they have voiced out that althoughthey were granted the rights over their ancestral lands; they were prohibited from selling the park resources to earn additional income.
The increasing number of tourists visiting both national parks in yearly basis has generated higher demand for infrastructure services such as roads and highways, water and electricity supply, and other public facilities. The additional revenues that come into the community from the tourists and taxes from the investors have benefited the local council and allow more public projects to be launched and developed. In Khao Yai, for instance, although tourism activities surrounding the park could bring positive changes to the socio-economic welfare of local people, the results of this study, however, discovered that some of the problems were related with uneven distribution of tourism benefits (Walpole & Goodwin, 2001; Sekhar,
2003; He et al., 2008) among the locals and outsiders, and loss of lands to non-locals
276 (Geary, 2012). Most of lands and properties investment surrounding Khao Yai are found to be owned by the foreign investors from the bigger cities especially Bangkok, and this has contributed to low support of local people towards tourism and park conservation.
The study also substantiates that Kuala Tahan is moving towards sustainable tourism in achieving both conservation objective and economic growth with less infrastructure and recreational development, hence less environmental impacts to the surrounding communities. Conversely in Khao Yai, obtaining sustainable development that reduces environmental pollution and keeps a constant economic growth at the same time remains a huge challenge for the Thai government (Xu,
2011).
The findings of this research also confirm the importance of communication in nature conservation attempts. Firstly, communication remains central in managing and eliminating different kinds of conflicts between national parks and local villagers along the arguments of resource protection and human rights (Northouse, 2011;
Brower & Darrington, 2012). The relationship between communication and conflict has been debated in the earlier theoretical framework and literature review, and accordingly its interactions have been proven in the findings of this comparative study.
Secondly, communication also plays an imperative role in generating public awareness on nature conservation efforts to achieve park management objectives.
Hence, the importance of communication, education and public awareness should not
277 be underestimated. This is because communication helps to provide knowledge and increase awareness, participation and involvement of the stakeholders in the development process (Pillmann, 2002).
Previous scholars have argued that the final steps of interaction and communication between the park management and local communities is the key to success in park objectives (Muhumuza & Balkwill, 2013; Bennett & Dearden, 2014). Accordingly, the finding analyses of Malaysia and Thailand have confirmed the importance of local participation in decision-making processes as one of the effective communication approaches and strategies. This is because their participation in park management is a major determinant of success or failure for the conservation goals.
However, the ability to communicate seems to be a daunting task in ensuring the sustainability of nature conservation. It is therefore essential to have a strategic and continuous communication for improving park-people relationship, creating local awareness and educating them in engaging conservation attempts.
7.4 Directions for Future Research
This research has proposed several strategic communication frameworks for conservation activities based on local communities’ perspectives on nature conservation. However, the frameworks were established within the national park context in Malaysia and Thailand. Therefore, this study suggests a few directions for future research.
278 More studies need to be conducted in other national parks of different countries to test the evolving communication strategies that are emerged in this study. The park management should adopt new approach to help reach the communication goals that are more paramount. The suggested communication strategies would enable the local communities as well as the public to have better engagement towards the parks for continual improvement in conservation activities. Besides, it was predicted that there are more factors that would contribute to people having positive or negative perceptions towards the national park. Thus, future research should discover the possible factors determining the local communities’ perspectives from different nations to further strengthen the framework.
Apparently, this research only focuses on the local communities who are living within Taman Negara Pahang in Malaysia and Khao Yai National Park in Thailand as its target respondents. Hence, the proposed strategic communication framework should also be applied in other research contexts to test and verify its effectiveness in promoting local support for nature conservation activities. Future research should include other protected areas which are classified under the IUCN protected areas management categories such as nature reserve, wilderness area, natural monument, habitat or species management area, protected landscape or seascape, and managed resource protected area.
Last but not least, the findings in Thailand also reveal that agricultural crop damage and losses of income as the major factor resulting in negative local attitudes towards wildlife conservation in Khao Yai National Park. The problem was further complicated with the challenges in getting compensation to make up the losses
279 caused by the wildlife damage. Consequently, further studies need to be conducted to examine the human-wildlife conflict for long-term mitigation solutions.
This is to encourage positive attitudes among the local people and to win their support for enabling the long-term conservation goals. As the success of park objectives is always predictable on local support for conservation, therefore, the study of local communities’ perspectives is fundamental. It could provide important insights into observations, understandings and interpretations of the social impacts, and ecological outcomes of environmental conservation (Bennett, 2016).
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Focus group data analysis for Taman Negara Pahang, Malaysia based on Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis
Summary: Data of focus group discussions were analysed based on Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis. Analysis results revealed the following themes generated based on research objectives 1, 2 and 3.
Objective 1: Objective 3: 1) Economic values 1) Collaboration 2) National heritage 2) Involvement 3) Sense of belonging 4) Place of survival 5) Aboriginal rights
Objective 2: 1) Income and employment opportunities 2) Appreciation of nature 3) Local transportation and infrastructure facilities 4) English language ability 5) Social solidarity 6) Local knowledge and awareness of park 7) Community survival 8) Community cultures and traditions 9) Relationship with park management 10) Resource conflict 11) High cost of living
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Malay villagers Sub-themes Themes
To explore the local What is your opinion Sangat puas hati dengan Taman Satisfaction. As source Economic values communities’ about the natural Negara kerana memberi sumber of income perspectives on nature resources conservation pendapatan. conservation. conducted in the national park? Bersyukur kerana dapat tinggal Thankful and bersebelahan dengan Taman appreciation. Diversity Negara yang banyak memberi of employment peluang pendapatan. opportunities.
Berbangga kerana Kuala Tahan Proud. As famous telah dibagunkan sebagai salah tourism destination and satu destinasi pelancongan source of income.
yang terkenal dan dengan itu
sebagai sumber pendapatan bagi penduduk tempatan.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Malay villagers Sub-themes Themes
To explore the local What is your opinion Khazanah negara yang paling Precious national National heritage communities’ about the natural berharga dan tidak dapat di treasure perspectives on nature resources conservation tempat lain. conservation. conducted in the national park? Keunikan Taman Negara Uniqueness of species dengan kepelbagaian flora dan fauna adalah sangat bernilai harganya.
Taman Negara adalah aset Valuable asset of the negara yang sangat bernilai. country
Taman Negara adalah kita Our hometown, a place Sense of belonging punya hometown, tempat kita where we were born. dibesarkan.
Ada perasaan istimewa Lots of memory terhadap Taman Negara kerana ada banyak kenangan.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Batek villagers Sub-themes Themes
To explore the local What is your opinion Suka pada Taman Negara Source of forest Place of survival communities’ about the natural kerana suka pada hutan, hutan supplies for daily perspectives on nature resources conservation penting untuk membekalkan needs conservation. conducted in the sumber seperti mengkuang, national park? rotan, damar, kayu wangi dan sebagainya.
Senang untuk memburu Source of food binatang dan mencari makanan dalam hutan.
Suka tinggal di dalam hutan Forest is true home berbanding dengan bandar.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Batek villagers Sub-themes Themes
To explore the local What is your opinion Taman Negara adalah tempat Native to the lands Aboriginal rights communities’ about the natural tinggal saya sejak masa nenek perspectives on nature resources conservation moyang. Tiada sesiapa yang conservation. conducted in the boleh menghalau saya keluar national park? dari tempat ini.
Sebagai Orang Asli, saya ada Rights for entering the pas untuk masuk ke dalam national park Taman Negara.
Pegawai Taman Negara juga Rights for hunting in tidak boleh menghentikan saya the national park daripada memburu dan mengutip hasil-hasil hutan.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Malay villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Sumber pendapatan warga Sources of income Income and determine the local determine your tempatan telah meningkat. employment communities’ perspectives on natural opportunities perspectives on nature resources conservation conservation. conducted in the Peluang pekerjaan telah Diversity of national park? meningkat. employments
Taman Negara penting untuk Important for attracting menarik pelancong. Sektor the tourists pelancongan akan terjejas sekiranya Taman Negara tidak dilindungi.
Pemuliharaan alam sekitar Income as return from adalah tanggungjawab bersama conservation efforts. supaya mendapat hasil daripada pemuliharan (pendapatan).
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Malay villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Taman Negara membekalkan Clean and fresh air Appreciation of nature determine the local determine your udara yang bersih dan segar. communities’ perspectives on natural perspectives on nature resources conservation Sini berpeluang untuk melihat Chances to see the conservation. conducted in the binatang liar. wildlife national park? Anak berpeluang untuk melihat Chances to view the bot dan sungai. natural scenery
Tiada pencemaran udara Without air pollution berbanding dengan bandar.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Malay villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Pelancongan telah Improvement of local Local transportation determine the local determine your membangunkan Kuala Tahan transportation and infrastructure communities’ perspectives on natural dan pengangkutan awam di facilities perspectives on nature resources conservation kawasan ini. conservation. conducted in the national park? Tandas awam perlu Improvement of local dipertambahkan lagi infrastructure facilities
Kemahiran penduduk tempatan Improvement of local English language dalam bahasa Inggeris telah English language skills ability meningkat.
Kebudayaan gotong-royong Collaborative activities Social solidarity dan bantu-membantu practiced as local dikekalkan di kawasan culture kampung.
Taman Negara meningkatkan muafakat and merapatkan Intimacy and hubungan semua orang di relationship among kampung. locals
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Malay villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Sumber alam sekitar harus Conservation for future Local knowledge and determine the local determine your dipelihara untuk generasi akan generations awareness of park communities’ perspectives on natural datang supaya berterusan. perspectives on nature resources conservation conservation. conducted in the Supaya hidupan liar tidak Conservation to national park? pupus. prevent extinction
Perlu menjaga hidupan liar dan Responsibility to biodiversity negara kita. maintain national biodiversity
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: NGO officers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Banyak perubahan dari segi Improvement of local Local knowledge and determine the local determine your kesedaran di kalangan awareness awareness of park communities’ perspectives on natural penduduk setempat. Tahap perspectives on nature resources conservation kebersihan di Kuala Tahan dari Improvement of conservation. conducted in the garbage problems and segi sampah-sarap telah national park? level of cleanliness meningkat setelah Temenggong Initiatives ditubuhkan.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Batek villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Tempat untuk pencarian sumber Source of food for Community survival determine the local determine your makanan seperti memburu dan daily survival communities’ perspectives on natural mengutip hasil hutan. perspectives on nature resources conservation conservation. conducted in the Orang Asli adalah penduduk Forest as a place of national park? asal di kawasan Taman Negara soul dan kawasan hutan adalah tempat jiwa.
Tinggal bersebelahan dengan Original inhabitants Community cultures Taman Negara dimulakan since grandparents and traditions daripada datuk nenek, amalan tradisional yang turun- menurun.
Sekarang kita protect serupa Keeping on the macam dulu, esok anak-anak traditional practices of kita akan meneruskan apa yang conservation kita buat sekarang.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Malay villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Kami mempunyai bubungan Close and good Relationship with park determine the local determine your yang sangat rapat dan sangat relationship with park management communities’ perspectives on natural baik dengan pihak Taman management perspectives on nature resources conservation Negara. conservation. conducted in the national park? Sentiasa berhubung dengan Effective connection Taman Negara jika ada with park management masalah.
Yakin Penguasa Taman Negara Highly confident in the yang baru ini, dia lebih ability of new effective dan positif, dia Superintendent. mendegar apa yang kita suarakan.
Kami selalu bekerjasama Good cooperation with dengan pihak Perhilitan. park management Sekiranya Taman Negara tidak mencukupi bot, Persatuan Bot akan membantu untuk menyediakan bot.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Batek villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Tidak puas hati kerana hasil Restriction on Resource conflict determine the local determine your pemburuan hanya untuk commercial hunting communities’ perspectives on natural kegunaan sendiri, Orang Asli perspectives on nature resources conservation tidak dibenarkan menjual conservation. conducted in the binatang yang diburu dalam national park? Taman Negara.
Kami akan ada masalah dengan Restriction on selling Perhilitan jika kami menjual park resources hasil hutan.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Malay villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Harga makanan di Kuala Increasing of food High cost of living determine the local determine your Tahan meningkat setiap tahun. price communities’ perspectives on natural perspectives on nature resources conservation conservation. conducted in the national park?
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: National Park staffs Sub-themes Themes
To explore the How is the Pihak Taman Negara selalu Cooperation to Collaboration interaction and relationship between mendapat bantuan dan overcome problem communication the national park kerjasama daripada penduduk approaches between management and local tempatan untuk mengatasi the national park communities? masalah keselamatan. management and local communities. Sekiranya terdapat orang luar yang disyaki sebagai Stay in touch if there is penceroboh akan terus a problem dilaporkan kepada unit penguatkuasaan Taman Negara.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: National Park staffs Sub-themes Themes
To explore the How is the Sempena Hari Tapir Dunia, Encouragement of Involvement interaction and relationship between pameran dan juga program local participation in communication the national park conservation activities bersama orang kampung telah approaches between management and local the national park communities? dijalankan. management and local communities. Penduduk Melayu dan Batek Local people actively menyokong aktivti participated in pemuliharaan: bergotong- conservation activities royong mencuci trail di Taman
Negara dan Gunung Tahan.
Penduduk tempatan adalah Park policy highly kakitangan yang sangat concerns the local penting, dasar pengurusan involvement Taman Negara mementingkan penglibatan masyarakat setempat.
APPENDIX B
Focus group data analysis for Khao Yai National Park, Thailand based on Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis
Summary: Data of focus group discussions were analysed based on Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis. Analysis results revealed the following themes generated based on research objectives 1, 2 and 3.
Objective 1: Objective 3: 1) Sense of belonging 1) Involvement 2) Aesthetic values 3) Economic pressures
Objective 2: 1) Appreciation of nature 2) Income and employment opportunities 3) Local transportation and infrastructure facilities 4) Promotes of cultural exchange 5) Local knowledge and awareness of park 6) Community cultures and traditions 7) Good relationship with park management 8) Resource conflict 9) Human-wildlife conflict 10) High cost of living 11) Loss of lands to outsiders 12) Negative environmental problems 13) Poor relationship with park management
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To explore local What is your opinion I have a unique relationship with Home and shelter Sense of belonging communities’ about the natural the national park for being born perspectives on nature resources conservation here, grow up here, study in conservation. conducted in the other place but finally come national park? back to work here. Family’s intimacy The national park has made family members closer together.
Glad and satisfied to live next to Pleasant climate Aesthetic values the national park because of the cold and good weather all year round.
Like the national park so much Pleasant climate because it gives clean and fresh air.
Appreciated that the forest in Prevention from the Khao Yai helps to minimize the threat of climate greenhouse effect. change
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To explore local What is your opinion I don’t like the national park to Restriction access to Economic pressures communities’ about the natural be established here! We can’t forest resources perspectives on nature resources conservation collect the vegetation in the conservation. conducted in the forest as what we did last time. national park? We can’t go inside the park for Law enforcement fishing. So many rules and prohibits access to regulations have been set up to forest resources prohibit our entry.
This is affected our income Loss of income sources.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors The national park provides cold Pleasant climate Appreciation of nature determine the local determine your and good weather all year round; communities’ perspectives on natural it gives clean and fresh air. perspectives on nature resources conservation conservation. conducted in the The national park is important Beautiful scenery of national park? because of the forest, mountain nature and the nature.
The nature of Khao Yai is the Beautiful scenery of best in Nakorn Ratchasima nature province.
Floods are rare in Khao Yai Importance of forest in because of the national park. preventing flood
Khao Yai has the best weather Pleasant climate with the highest mountain in the regions of northeast, eastern and central.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors It is good to have a national park Sources of income and Income and determine the local determine your in Khao Yai to create job employment employment communities’ perspectives on natural opportunities and income for the opportunities perspectives on nature resources conservation local villagers. conservation. conducted in the national park? The national park is important to Improving of local improve the well-being of the livelihoods and villagers by improving their incomes revenues.
The daily life and incomes of the Improving of incomes villagers is better now after and quality of life participating in tourism industry.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Road was built to connect Khao Improvement of local Local transportation determine the local determine your Yai with the next province transportation and infrastructure communities’ perspectives on natural Prachinburi. facilities perspectives on nature resources conservation conservation. conducted in the national park?
Tourism exposed the local Improvement of local Promotes of cultural communities to a new English language skills exchange environment where they could learn English language.
It provides likelihoods for the Promotion of local foreigners to learn Thai language cultures and traditions and local cultures.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors The national park belongs to all Responsibility to Local knowledge and determine the local determine your the Thai people and everyone maintain national awareness of park communities’ perspectives on natural has responsibilities to look after biodiversity perspectives on nature resources conservation the park. conservation. conducted in the national park? If we do not preserve the Conservation to wildlife, it will become extinct in prevent extinction the future and our next generations will not recognize them anymore.
We will not harm the wild Strategies to prevent animals that damage our wildlife disturbance property; we will only use the fireworks to chase them.
We will use the gasoline to turn Strategies to prevent on the lamps for whole night to wildlife disturbance chase the wild animals back to the forest.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Our children are always taught Education about forest Community cultures determine the local determine your by their parents to look after the should be safeguarded and traditions communities’ perspectives on natural forest. through generations perspectives on nature resources conservation conservation. conducted in the national park? We believe in and always pray Traditional belief of for the Khao Yai godfather who Khao Yai Godfather could help the people gets lost in the jungle.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Local villagers and national park Depending on each Good relationship with determine the local determine your management are depending on other park management communities’ perspectives on natural each other, therefore helping perspectives on nature resources conservation each other. conservation. conducted in the national park? The national park authority Good cooperation of would help the villagers to solve both parties the wildlife damage problem by chasing the wild animals back to the park.
Local villagers would also Good cooperation of support the national park by both parties helping in extinguishing the fire happened in the forest.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors We are not allowed to make use Restriction access to Resource conflict determine the local determine your of the forest resources within the forest resources communities’ perspectives on natural park boundary. perspectives on nature resources conservation conservation. conducted in the National park establishment has Loss of incomes national park? impacted the incomes of local villagers due to restriction to access forest resources.
We have ever seen the bears Wildlife disturbance Human-wildlife walked out from the national conflict park to our village areas.
Wild animals are often coming Wildlife damage to out from the forest and have crops caused a serious damage to our agricultural crops.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the What factors Rapid development of tourism High living expenses High cost of living factors determine the determine your surrounding the national park local communities’ perspectives on natural has led to high living expenses. perspectives on nature resources conservation conservation. conducted in the The value of money has dropped Decreasing of money national park? compared to the past. value
Our ancestral lands were sold off Driven from ancestral Loss of lands to to the investors from outside for lands due to rapid outsiders property development in development residential, commercial and hospitality.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Tourism has caused the garbage Garbage problem Negative determine the local determine your problem and the increases of Heat generation environmental communities’ perspectives on natural temperature due to many problems perspectives on nature resources conservation buildings were constructed. conservation. conducted in the national park? The weather in Khao Yai is Changing of weather getting hotter compared to patterns previous time.
The construction of the buildings Deforestation affects has generated heat that affects the climate the climate.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To discover the factors What factors Restriction on access to park Resource conflict Poor relationship with determine the local determine your resources and human-wildlife park management communities’ perspectives on natural conflict are the main reasons Human-wildlife perspectives on nature resources conservation causing the poor relationship conflict conservation. conducted in the between the park management national park? and local communities.
Wildlife damage to crops hasn’t Delay in compensation been at the resolves yet, where process the compensation to farmers grew silent after the reporting.
Local people expressed Delay in compensation dissatisfaction towards the park process management in settle down the compensation issues.
Research objectives Focus group questions Codes: Local villagers Sub-themes Themes
To explore the How is the We are aware of our duties to Responsibility to Involvement interaction and relationship between participate in conservation participate in communication the national park activities in the national park. conservation activities approaches between management and local the national park communities? management and local Local villagers are invited to Encouragement of communities. participate in the conservation local participation in activities for example planting conservation activities the trees during Father’s and Mother’s Days.
Local villagers support the Local people actively conservation activities conducted participated in by Sub-district Administrative conservation activities Organization (SAO) including garbage collection and reforestation programs.
APPENDIX C
In-depth interview data analysis for Taman Negara Pahang, Malaysia based on Labov (1982) narrative analysis
Summary: Data of in-depth interviews were analysed to achieve research objectives 1, 2 and 3. Analysis results revealed the following themes generated based on Labov’s (1982) structural analysis of narrative.
1) Local incomes and livelihoods 2) Local infrastructure and culture 3) Survival, cultures, traditions and beliefs of Batek 4) Community environmental knowledge and awareness 5) Communication and relationship with park management
Structure Codes (Restaurant operator) Codes (Member of JKKK) Codes (Batek boatman)
Abstract My business has steadily increased after The establishment of national park has The establishment of national park has operating a kiosk shop near to the national generated a greater diversity of changed our forest ways of living. park. employments to the local villagers.
20 years ago, I moved to stay in Kampung Before the booming of tourism industry in Traditionally, we lived by the combination Orientation Kuala Tahan Seberang after marrying to the 1990s, we did not have much of hunting and gathering forest resources. my husband who is a local people. At that employment opportunities in Kuala Tahan. time, I was selling the food and drink at the roadside near to the national park.
Complicating action Gradually, this traditional way of selling Started from the 1990s, tourism industry By the late 1990s, tourism industry has food without proper shops has been moved has undergone a tremendous boom in generated employment opportunities and away. In the early of 2010, a proper shop incomes for me through working as boat Kuala Tahan. As the corridor for the lot project was launched for the benefits of driver and nature guides for the tourists. I local villagers. We pay RM150 only to national park, many restaurants, hotels and have been moving from one place to JKKK for the monthly rental. resorts were constructed. another depends on the number of tourists.
Evaluation The establishment of kiosks has improved The booming of tourism industry has The booming of tourism industry has the incomes of the respondent. opened up new job opportunities for the changed the traditional livelihoods of Batek community and generated incomes local villagers. for them.
Result The respondent showed her support for the The respondent showed her support for the The respondent showed his support for the national park due to incomes generated. national park due to employment national park due to improve of livelihoods opportunities. and incomes.
Coda Benefits from the national park would Benefits from the national park would Benefits from the national park would directly influence on respondent’s directly influence on respondent’s directly influence on respondent’s perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature conservation. conservation. conservation.
Summary Local incomes and livelihoods have improved mainly because of the national park.
Structure Codes (Housewife) Codes (Government health officer) Codes (Member of JKKK)
Abstract Local transportation and infrastructure The foundation of national park has The establishment of national park brings facilities in Kuala Tahan have improved benefited the local villagers in term of positive impacts to local culture. mainly because of the national park. health facility.
In the 1980s, we must take a boat to the In ancient times, we had only ‘bidan By tradition, women in Kuala Tahan were Orientation Taman Negara. Sometimes, it could take kampung’. mainly spent their days at home to fulfill nearly four hours to reach the park. During their women roles of managing family’s
that time, only intermittent and poor matters. Therefore, they were financially quality power supplied by the government depending on men. to the local residents.
Complicating action Construction of road between Kuala Tahan Since the year 1997, the health facility has Rapid development of tourism activities to Jerantut town has made our life easier been upgraded and we have a health clinic within the national park generates direct than ever before. We could save a lot of and indirect employments for the now. time for traveling by car, instead of boat. housewives and also the young groups. Gradually, the government has also Nowadays they could stand on their own expanded the power and water by working as boatmen, resort employees, transmission lines to provide constant and start up small scale businesses. supplies to every household.
Evaluation The establishment of national park has The establishment of national park has Local culture and traditions in Kuala benefited the local people in terms of local benefited the local people in terms of local Tahan was positively changing from transportation and infrastructure facilities. health facility. traditional lifestyle due to the national park.
Result The respondent showed her support for the The respondent showed her support for the The respondent showed her support for the national park due to infrastructure and national park due to infrastructure national park due to positive impacts to transportation development. development. local culture and traditions.
Coda Benefits from the national park would Benefits from the national park would Benefits from the national park would directly influence on respondent’s directly influence on respondent’s directly influence on respondent’s perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature conservation. conservation. conservation.
Summary Local infrastructure and culture have improved mainly because of the national park.
Structure Codes (Batek boatman) Codes (Batek nature guide) Codes (Batek nature guide)
Abstract Forest is a place of survival for the Batek Forest plays a vital role in shaping the The Batek respondent called themselves as community, shaping their cultures and custom, traditions and animistic beliefs of the “wildlife or boss of the forest”. traditions. the Batek.
In the early 2000s, a development project We will move from one place to another in Before the establishment of national park, Orientation has been implemented by JAKOA to the forest for searching the food or if the Batek community was the only provide a proper Orang Asli’s settlement in population in the forest. We are same as something happens to our family members Kuala Atok. the wildlife; we are the boss of this forest. for example a death or severe illness.
Complicating action This housing project was truly failed to get When there is a death happened, the Batek As time passes, the construction such as the support from the Batek. The reason was do not conduct any funeral ceremony. We roads, highways and other infrastructures that the aborigines are the people of the has seriously caused the forest destruction. will make a platform on top of a big tree in forest, where they are uncomfortable with The logging activities have destroyed the all kinds of the facilities arrangement, the deep forest and hang the body of death habitat of the wild animals. The number of particularly the toilets. on it. species in Taman Negara has decreased. Batek people and the wildlife have lost our homelands.
Evaluation Batek and the national park are indeed Batek and the national park are indeed Aboriginal people are same as the wildlife; inseparable: Forest is the true home for inseparable: Forest shapes their custom, both of them depend substantively on the them. traditions, and beliefs about the spirits of natural resources for survival. the nature.
Result The Batek respondent showed supportive The Batek respondent showed supportive The Batek respondent showed supportive attitudes for nature conservation because attitudes for nature conservation because attitudes for nature conservation because the rainforest is the place of survival for the rainforest plays a vital role in shaping the rainforest is the place of survival for them, shapes their cultures and traditions. their custom, traditions and animistic them. beliefs.
Coda Benefits from the national park would Benefits from the national park would Benefits from the national park would directly influence on respondent’s directly influence on respondent’s directly influence on respondent’s perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature conservation. conservation. conservation.
Summary Forest is a place of survival for the Batek, shaping their cultures, traditions and beliefs.
Structure Codes (Fisherman)
Abstract A Malay resident is having environmental knowledge and awareness of contaminated river water has contributed significantly to species loss.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Sungai Tembeling was massive, pure, clean and full of fish. Orientation During the summer, the water was clear and clean, the villagers could see the fishes gathering and swimming in the river.
Complicating action However nowadays, the colours of the river water has obviously changed to yellow and dirty compared to the past ten years. The contamination of river water has threatening and killing the species, particularly the ikan jelawat.
Evaluation Malay villagers are having a very close relationship with the Sungai Tembeling.
Result The respondent showed positive perspectives and support for nature conservation due to his knowledge and awareness on environmental issues.
Coda Local knowledge and awareness would directly influence on their perspectives and support for nature conservation activities.
Summary Community environmental knowledge and awareness contributes to positive perspectives and support for nature conservation.
Structure Codes (national park Superintendent) Codes (national park Superintendent) Codes (Batek nature guide)
Abstract The relationship between the national park The park Superintendent emphasized on The issue of license renewal for nature management and local people has been effective park-people communication guides have resulted dissatisfactions started since the early of twentieth century. strategy which could contribute to meet among the Batek men. both conservation and local development goals.
In the 1925, the park was originally named When the park Superintendent transferred Before the late 2000s, the Batek men were Orientation as the Gunung Tahan Game Reserve under to Taman Negara Pahang about four allowed to work as tourist guides in the the British rule. Its creation was to protect months ago, he initiated a meeting every national park and Gunung Tahan. Their the wildlife and game species for hunting two months to involve all the local participation was high during that time sport purpose. During that time, the local stakeholders for discussion of all issues because they were suitable and very people were employed by the British to related to the well-being of local familiar with the forest geography. work as “game wardens” with the role of communities. protecting wildlife.
Complicating action After the establishment of Taman Negara The villagers who joined are the members In the early 2010s, new regulations related Pahang in 1938/39, a large number of local of Tourist Operators Association, Natures to certified nature guides were set. All the people in Kuala Tahan have been Guides Association, Boats Association, nature guides including the Batek people employed as park rangers and guides. operators of homestays, chalets, resorts, are required to sit for certain courses in restaurants and members of JKKK. The order to renew their licenses. meeting would discuss not only the problems of the national park, but also other socio-economic and cultural problems outside of the park.
Evaluation Local villagers are having a very close The park management and policy highly The Batek expressed their dissatisfactions relationship with the park management. concerns the local community and disappointments because they were involvement. being challenged by the compulsory courses.
Result Local villagers showed supportive attitudes Local villagers showed supportive attitudes The Batek people showed negative for nature conservation due to their good for nature conservation due to effective perspectives due to their poor relationship relationship with the park management. communication with the park management. with the park management.
Coda Relationship with park management would Communication with park management Relationship with park management would directly influence on local villagers’ would directly influence on local villagers’ directly influence on local villagers’ perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature conservation activities. conservation activities. conservation activities.
Summary Communication and relationship with park management contributes to local communities’ perspectives and support for nature conservation.
APPENDIX D
In-depth interview data analysis for Khao Yai National Park, Thailand based on Labov (1982) narrative analysis
Summary: Data of in-depth interviews were analysed to achieve research objectives 1, 2 and 3. Analysis results revealed the following themes generated based on Labov’s (1982) structural analysis of narrative.
1) Local livelihoods and incomes 2) Local infrastructure and culture 3) Degradation of local weather and natural environment 4) Community environmental knowledge and awareness 5) Rituals and beliefs about the forest 6) Communication and relationship with park management
Structure Codes (Elder) Codes (Resort owner) Codes (Farmer 1)
Abstract Forest resources are playing important role The establishment of Khao Yai National Many local people in Khao Yai managed in livelihoods of local communities. Park has changed the careers and improved to invest for buying lands for growing their the incomes of local villagers. crops because the land price was cheap in the past.
During the early 1950, I was one of the Initially, the local villagers spent most of I bought the lands about 30 years ago at Orientation first people who came to live in Khao Yai. their lives searching for food by hunting only three thousands Baht for a rai. During that time, there wasn’t anybody and gathering forest resources. around this place, only the wildlife such as tigers and elephants were here. Fishing, hunting and collecting forest resources was our main activities in the forest.
Complicating action Afterwards, we also started my own Afterwards, they actively involved in The land price has continued to increase business by selling the animal products. agricultural activities for own consumption dramatically over the years. Recently, the For example the bull’s head, we sold them and also for making incomes. After the price has risen too many times until one rai as ornaments and decorations. We could establishment of Khao Yai National Park, of land would cost five to six millions do a lot of business with the forest tourism has gradually become a major Baht. resources. activity in the village areas and their main source of incomes.
Evaluation Forest is important to local livelihoods and The establishment of Khao Yai National The establishment of Khao Yai National well-being through economic Park has improved the livelihood and well- Park has improved the livelihood and well- development. being of the local villagers through being of the local villagers through economic development. economic development.
Result The respondent showed his positive The respondent showed her support for the The respondent showed her support for the perspectives due to income generated. national park due to income and national park due to economic benefits employment opportunities. generated.
Coda Benefits gained from the forest resources Benefits from the national park would Benefits from the national park would would directly influence on respondent’s directly influence on respondent’s directly influence on respondent’s perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature conservation. conservation. conservation.
Summary Local livelihoods and incomes have changed mainly because of the national park.
Structure Codes (Restaurant owner) Codes (Village headman 2) Codes (Teacher)
Abstract Local transportation in Khao Yai has The foundation of national park has The establishment of national park brings improved mainly because of the national benefited the local villagers in term of negative changes to local culture and park. local infrastructure facilities. tradition.
Before the 1990s, the local transportation Before the 1990s, there was no electricity Before the growth of prosperity and Orientation was considered as too difficult where the supply to our houses and we had to use the modernization in Khao Yai, we were local people could only travel by public staying together like a big family. All the lamps during the night time. tractors from Khao Yai to Pakchong city. people were friendly and having good relationship.
Complicating action Since the 1990s, the surrounding of Khao As tourism grows, the increased of tax Presently, all the plantations are being sold Yai started to have some of their prosperity revenues has supported the development of out and resorts are popping up. Job and development. A new tarred road with public infrastructure and recreational opportunities and incomes have increased, two lanes called Thanon Thanarat was services for both locals and tourists. but our relationships have decreased. The built to join the Parkchong city to Khao people now are more selfish and only Yai. looking for money and luxuries.
Evaluation The establishment of national park offers a The establishment of national park offers a The prosperity in Khao Yai has caused the big improvement of local transportation big improvement of local infrastructure unwanted culture changes among the local and quality of life among the local facilities and quality of life among the villagers. villagers. local villagers.
Result The respondent showed her support for the The respondent showed his support for the The respondent showed her negative national park due to local transportation national park due to local infrastructure perspectives due to negative impacts to development. development. local culture and tradition.
Coda Benefits from the national park would Benefits from the national park would Costs from the national park would directly influence on respondent’s directly influence on respondent’s directly influence on respondent’s perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature conservation. conservation. conservation.
Summary Local infrastructure and culture have changed mainly because of the national park.
Structure Codes (Village headman 1) Codes (Farmer 2) Codes (NGO officer)
Abstract Modernization and development in Khao Modernization and development in Khao Tourism development in Khao Yai has Yai has been criticized for leading to Yai has been criticized for leading to been criticized for leading to degrades of changes of local weather. changes of local weather. natural environment.
20 years ago in 1990s, natural environment Previously, the natural weather in Khao The natural surroundings in Khao Yai was Orientation in Khao Yai was pleasant with great Yai was cold and it rained frequently attractive in the past. When you were weather. throughout the year. driving up to the mountain in the national park, you would get to see lots of parrots that welcome you. This was the symbol of Khao Yai.
Complicating action Nowadays, the forests have been destroyed The weather now has definitely changed. However, most of them are gone now. with a massive increase of human Climate change has transformed the They disappeared mainly because of too population. Big and tall buildings have weather patterns, temperature and rainfalls. many people are coming to this place now. been built to replace the natural This has also affected the crop growth and The problems have to do with cars environment. All the windows are closed yields, and hence directly impacted the speeding and the sound. today to avoid the serious air pollution. incomes of local farmers.
Evaluation Local villagers in Khao Yai are Changes of local weather have affected the Local villagers in Khao Yai are experiencing changes of local weather. crop growth and incomes of local farmers. experiencing degrades of natural environment.
Result The respondent showed negative The respondent showed negative The respondent showed negative perspectives due to the development and perspectives due to the development and perspectives due to negative environmental modernization has degraded the local modernization has degraded the local impacts. weather. weather and his income.
Coda Costs from the rapid development Costs from the rapid development Costs from the rapid development surrounding the national park would surrounding the national park would surrounding the national park would directly influence on respondent’s directly influence on respondent’s directly influence on respondent’s perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature conservation. conservation. conservation.
Summary Degrades of local weather and natural environment mainly due to rapid development surrounding the national park.
Structure Codes (Elder)
Abstract An old resident is having knowledge and awareness of protecting the nature and ancient forest.
Around 60 years ago, hunting the wild animals in forest was the main source of income Orientation for this old man. One day, he was out for hunting to find food for his wife who was pregnant during that time. After slaughtering a deer, he realized that it was pregnant. He found that hunting is destroying the animal families as the wildlife is also same as human beings.
Complicating action Finally, he stopped hunting soon after this unforgettable memory. His perspectives and awareness of forest were totally changed for the rest of his life. Nowadays, he enjoyed to live by the nature: stopped eating meat but more vegetables and fruits.
Evaluation An old resident is aware of his responsibility in protecting the nature.
Result The respondent showed positive perspectives and support for nature conservation due to his knowledge and awareness on environmental issues.
Coda Local knowledge and awareness would directly influence on respondent’s perspectives and support for nature conservation activities.
Summary Community environmental knowledge and awareness contributes to positive perspectives and support for nature conservation.
Structure Codes (Resort staff) Codes (Village headman 1)
Abstract There are local beliefs about the Khao Yai Godfather, whose There are local beliefs about the forest is the most mysterious everybody should pay the respects. place and the world of spirits, including the legend of Ta-kien Godmother.
Orientation The Godfather is originally from Khao Yai and exists since the It was happened in the early 2010s when a worker of a resort in old generation. He is the one who holds the most power in the Khao Yai often got to have dreams about the Ta-kien Mother. She forest. got to his dream for asking help to pull her body up from the river.
Complicating action Anyone who goes up to the mountains has to go for praying the Afterwards, few tractors were used to dig up a big wood from the sacred Godfather of Khao Yai. We should pray for blessing us to river. The Godmother appeared herself by letting few people saw avoid from danger or get lost in the jungle. her face on that wood. The big Ta-kien wood was then moved to the village by a truck and dwelled at the temple of Moo 6.
Evaluation Local villagers in Khao Yai believed in the traditional spiritual Local villagers in Khao Yai believed in the traditional spiritual values of forest including the Godfather of Khao Yai whose has values of forest including the Godmother of Ta-kien whose has played a role in protecting the local people. played a role in protecting the local people.
Result The respondent showed positive perspectives and support for The respondent showed positive perspectives and support for nature conservation due to her rituals and beliefs about the forest. nature conservation due to his rituals and beliefs about the forest.
Coda Rituals and beliefs about the forest would directly influence on Rituals and beliefs about the forest would directly influence on respondent’s perspectives and support for nature conservation. respondent’s perspectives and support for nature conservation.
Summary Rituals and beliefs about the forest contributes to positive perspectives and support for nature conservation.
Structure Codes (park Deputy Superintendent) Codes (Village headman 2) Codes (Farmer 1)
Abstract Local villagers blamed that the A collaborative project between the park Village chief serves as the mediator in establishment of national park has threaten management and local villagers was communicating between the park their livelihoods. This has affected the implemented to plant the crops inside the management and local villagers. relationship between the park management national park for solving wildlife damage and the communities living nearby. problems.
Before the 1960s, the local villagers were The park management and local villagers Whenever there is a reforestation project Orientation largely dependent on the forest resources anticipated to find a compromise way that run by the government sector, the for their livelihoods. They had even used would consider the human livelihoods and organiser will firstly inform the heads of some of the forest lands for planting their the protection of wildlife. every village in Khao Yai. crops before the park establishment.
Complicating action When the forest was initially gazetted as a After meeting with the national park As the community leaders, then the village national park in 1962, the local people Superintendent to set the time, I went up to chiefs will contact the people in their were unsure of many things related to the the mountain with the farmers and started villages to team up for the project. These law implementation and enforcement by growing the plants for the wild animals. procedures will be same for other group the park. The park management faced activities which occur on yearly basis. several problems with local communities due to unclear demarcation of park boundaries during the park was firstly founded.
Evaluation Local villagers expressed their This park-people collaborative project has Village chiefs will be in the position of dissatisfactions and complained about the shown the cooperation and teamwork representing the locals in communicating loss of access to traditionally used forest between both parties. with park management for planning and resources has seriously impacted their decision making. livelihood strategies.
Result Local villagers showed negative Local villagers showed supportive attitudes Local villagers showed supportive attitudes perspectives due to their poor relationship for nature conservation due to effective as village chiefs are important due to their with the park management. communication with the park management. legal duties concerning order and regulations in Thailand.
Coda Relationship with park management would Communication with park management Communication with park management directly influence on local villagers’ would directly influence on local villagers’ would directly influence on local villagers’ perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature perspectives and support for nature conservation activities. conservation activities. conservation activities.
Summary Communication and relationship with park management contributes to local communities’ perspectives and support for nature conservation.
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
JOURNAL PUBLICATION
1. Teh Kate Yng and Nik Norma Nik Hasan. (2015). Local Communities’ Perspectives towards Nature Conservation: A Study of Taman Negara Pahang, Kuala Tahan Malaysia. Health and Environment Journal, 6 (1), 1-10.
PROCEEDING
1. Teh Kate Yng and Nik Norma Nik Hasan. (2015). “This Forest Is Our Supermarket” Communicating Sustainability through the Lens of Batek Negrito of Kuala Tahan. Proceedings of Second International Conference on Media, Communication and Culture 2015, Penang, 30 November - 2 December 2015.
2. Teh Kate Yng. (2012). The Concept Paper of Ecotourism and its Influences on Local Communities’ Attitudes Towards Nature Conservation: A Comparative Study of National Parks in Malaysia and Thailand. Proceedings of AKEPT 2nd Global Annual Young Researches Conference and Exhibition 2012 “Inspiring Young Researchers towards Innovative and Sustainable Future”, Melaka 29 - 31 October 2012.