Political Ecology of Forests

(Written in Thai on the side of the bus: Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son)

The field portion of our Political Ecology of Forests course took place in the province of Mae Hong Son—north west of the province of Chiang Mai and bordering Burma. During our time in Mae Hong Son we hiked between Karen villages, staying for different amounts of time in each. The Karen people make up a hill tribe that came to Thailand hundreds of years ago from Burma. The Karen use swidden-fallow (slash and burn) agriculture in their mountain settlements. Over the past few decades the Royal Forestry Department has tried to relocate Karen villages that were within the boundaries of the national park. Forming a network of village leaders and working with an NGO, the Karen showed the Royal Forestry Department that they could live sustainably with the land and preserve forest through their agricultural practices.

In getting to the mountainous province we took an eight hour bus ride with over two thousand turns, and with the way Thais drive, it felt like we were on an endless rollercoaster.

The first village we spent the night in was Pakalo. This is village is unlike the other Karen villages we visited because of its proximity to the city Mae Hong Son. Many Karen families move to this village to be closer to their children who are sent to school in the city after 6^th grade. Elderly Karen move to this village to be closer to the hospital and others move here to work. The village does very little farming and only has an acre or two dedicated to rice production. Most of their food comes from the city.

Here is an excerpt from my journal:

Nov. 2

We’ve arrived in our first Karen village after a bumpy, sweaty and all together uncomfortable 8 hour bus ride to Mae Hong Son. The small village is charming and smells nice—like the woods—damp wood and burning wood. It’s a welcome break to the gripping pollution of Chiang Mai, where the smell of exhaust takes hold of your body and gets stuck in your nose and lungs. Communication with our host mom is tough. She doesn’t appear to speak or know any Thai, except for the word ab nom, which means to shower, which she is very adamant we do (note: Karen have their own language, Backenyaw, but most Karen know Thai because that is the language taught in school).

The houses here are packed so close together and I can hear everything being said. It’s nice and provides a sort of sound track for my experience.