Perceptions of Ethnic Minorities on Tree Growing for Environmental Services in Thailand - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 399

The Karen and Lawa tend to have even more traditions in environmental con-
servation than the Hmong. They apparently perceive these traditions as particularly
significant for their lifestyle and ethnic identity. Many rituals, rules and taboos are
linked with the slash-and-burn cultivation cycle, starting with a ritual to ask permis-
sion from spirits to cultivate the land. Furthermore, rules and taboos were set down
for burial grounds that are located in the forest. These areas are under strict rules
that forbid trees cutting, cultivating and hunting. In addition, the Karen have vari-
ous other types of protected forest, including watershed forests of three types, for-
ests for spirit pathways on mountain ridges and wind channels (Trakarnsuphakorn
1997). Certain tree species or individual trees with peculiar features, such as
dichotomous branching, are also protected.
Traditions were also forged recently. A Buddhist ceremony to symbolically
ordain a tree as a monk was originated only in the 1990s, after an initiative of some
environmentalist NGOs and Buddhist monks, and it has been widely adopted to this
date (Isager and Ivarsson 2002). For this ceremony, a vigorous tree growing on a
site that the villagers want to protect is selected. The ritual can also include planting
trees in a temple area (Darlington 1998). The Karen and Lawa villages studied per-
form this ritual regularly and have thus included it in their traditions.

19.5 Current Measures for Conservation

The traditionally protected areas were integrated into the current forest manage-
ment system, which divides the village forest area into separate conservation and
resource forests, also known as community forests. The variety of traditions has
been incorporated in new demands and methods of conservation. Figure 19.2 shows
the measures the villagers perceived necessary for forest conservation.
In each village, the importance of fire control in conservation was highlighted.
Villagers in each village prepare and maintain firebreaks on hilltops, which is also
practised in the Karen traditional system. Individual farmers, moreover, prepare
firebreaks around the fields they intend to burn. Although traditional ways of fire
control exist, it is currently carried out in a systematic way and it covers larger
areas. Fire control is today carried out in cooperation with villages in the same
watershed and with the assistance of authorities. In addition to firebreaks, a protec-
tive belt of healthy forest around a village is one means to prevent fire from spread-
ing to the village or at least delay its progress to give more time to stop it.
Other important measures for forest protection to which villagers referred to
were local cooperation, division of land into separate agricultural and forest lands,
rules and control of forest use, and education. The actions taken by communities
and individual villagers were regarded as the most important for conservation but
government and NGO activities were also recognized as playing a role in protecting
the forests. The villagers emphasized cooperation, particularly within a community
and also between communities, as the most important forms of collaboration. The
main emphasis was placed on collaboration in preventing fire and illegal logging.