'GUARDIANS OF THE FOREST': LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN A NORTHERN THAI NATIONAL PARK

Abstract

Lahu community have been living in a forested area in the province of Tak called the Muser Hills since the mid-1940s. The Thai nation state has created national parks over much of northern Thailand, including traditional Lahu lands. In response to state-imposed environmental constraints and forced eviction, the Lahu have creatively integrated traditional concepts and contemporary discourses about the environment, asserting their position as the rightful residents and guardians of the forest. These marginalized uplanders pursue and capitalize on their community’s spatial locatedness to generate sympathies and alliances. They exerts a powerful sense of agency in the face of rigid national policies that are often not in their favour. In these nationally protected areas, conflicts over environmental discourses cannot be reduced to a simple standoff between two opposing sides — the state and indigenous communities — but rather be seen as a process of compromise, combination and negotiation among many discourses.