Convenor
Chalita Bundhuwong
Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
Faculty of Social Sciences, Kasetsart University
Abstract
Like in various countries, environmental issues in Thailand under globalization and neo-liberalism have been more difficult and complex. It is not only the long-term existing problems consisting of environmental deterioration, lack of rights and access of marginalized people to natural resources, industrial pollution and impacts of development projects. It is also that these existing problems have been more attached to global phenomena like climate change, increasing natural disasters, the growth of industry and multinational corporations. To solve such problems requires actions ranging from the household to regional and global levels. Simultaneously, current economic and political structures of Thailand seem to aggravate environmental problems instead of solving them, a matter that also demands more attention.
Amidst this difficulty, people in academia and civil society of Thailand have tried to comprehend and solve environmental problems. There has been both academic and action research as well as various programs and classes in universities on environmental issues. At the same time there have been actions and activities of the environmental movement to cope with the problems. It is interesting that the perspective from ecological/environmental anthropology has been utilized by these scholars and environmental activists who mostly are not ecological or environmental anthropologists. This presents boundary crossing between ecological/environmental anthropology and other fields as well as environmental actions.
This panel aims to review knowledge and practices on current environmental issues in Thailand as well as the successes and limitations of them in solving environmental problems and to facilitate sustainable development. At the same time this panel will discuss how ecological/environmental anthropology can be more useful to comprehend and deal with complex environmental situation including how these research studies and practices in Thailand can expand the knowledge and boundary of ecological/environmental anthropology in general.
This panel provides review articles by panelists – who are a human right scholar, anthropologist, human geographer, and economist – who have long been interested in environmental issues. Some of these panelists are also social activists working on community rights and to mitigate environmental impacts. The panelists will review the issues on climate change and community adaptation, natural disasters and local community, impacts of industry and development project, and environmental movements. In addition, case studies from other countries of various world regions will be included in this panel for comparative aspect.