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My
current favorite example of connection and collaboration comes from a Thai village
in Nan Province, Northern Thailand. The village is famous for its cotton weaving.
My wife, Nancy, and I had been to the village several times prior to leading travelers
there. In fact, while we lived in Bangkok from 2000-02, Nancy volunteered there
twice to teach village weavers some basic English. The objective was to enable
them to sell their weaving to tourists on trips to festivals in the cities.
January 2007 our tour group spent most of a day in the village's community forest. It was my first time to actually walk in the forest, though the forest’s existence and importance had been pointed out to us on our previous visits to the village.
We
drove from our hotel in the district center to the modest village weaving cooperative
office and salesroom located on the edge of the village. Here we met our guides
for the day—almost one for each of us six travelers! Our guides were local
villagers and included he new village headman, the head of the weaving cooperative
and the obvious leader of the group, Phoh Serm. ("Father Serm,") He
was “Father,” both in the sense of being head of a household, and
also because he was formerly the village headman; and as he grew older, the
head of a cluster of villages which formed a sub-district. Phoh Serm’s
quiet strength was immediately apparent.
After a kilometer drive to the opposite side of the village, we began walking
a narrow path into the community forest. Where needed, we used the bamboo walking
sticks provided; and, in a couple places, we were steadied on our arms as we
turned a bend or the path headed up or down a bit steeply. After about 10 minutes
we were in the dry stream bed, where we walked for the rest of our hike of less
than an hour, stopping from time to time.
It
was marvelous to be under the forest canopy! It was cool. It was fresh.
And when we stopped to relax and prepare for lunch, we listened to Phoh Serm tell us the story of bringing back the forest.
The story began with a description of the problems the villagers began facing over 40 years ago. In a series of village and sub-district meetings, the villagers came to see that the source of their problems was that they had cut down their forest for short-term gain. They had blindly followed a new government policy that encouraged villagers to harvest their community forests for timber. This led to too little rainfall, too little water in the river, and too little control of what water that did flow. They saw that these were the reasons for no rice crop, for 3 years running.
It was equally moving to hear Father Serm describe the forty-year
effort to re-forest the area.
First, they agreed to not cut any vegetation within 200 meters of the river.
Then, year by year, they moved the no-cut zone further from the river. Over
decades, they were able to replant and let grow back more and more of the original
area, until the original area was regained. And, how the water for the rice
crop, the off-season vegetable crop, and for other needs was restored.
We
joined in Father Serm's pleasure as he proudly told how he and others had trained
each generation, "even the young," to understand that this forest
was the key to maintaining their way of life. We listened intently as he explained
how the forest sustains the village by bringing the rain and holding water instead
of having speedy run off, as well as providing the bark, leaves and roots used
in cloth dyeing, plants gotten to supplement their diet and wood and vines used
in construction.
We
exclaimed how wonderful all this was. And we said that the government ought
to be promoting their efforts as an example. This led Father Serm into a description
of how, instead of promoting community forests, the government wanted to annex
their forest and make it part of the adjacent National Forest Preserve! The
villagers would have none of it, Phoh Serm said. They had seen what happened
in the Forest Preserve (reckless logging, etc) and wanted none of the outside
control. They fought the take over peacefully but forcefully, and maintained
control of their community forest.
Now, we were told, the government--or at least the local forest
authorities--see the wisdom of the village: Currently, Father Serm is an informal
advisor to the the local Foresty Department office!
When
Father Serm ended his story, our friend of five years, Ruangdej, (nicknamed
"Noi") told us that in the the next few months the village hopes to
build 1000 very small dams on the run off channels feeding the stream. These
dams, made from branches and stones from the stream bed in the forest, increase
the land's water-holding capacity. (The dams are called "khuan Meo"
after the dams traditionally built that the highland-dwelling Meo. (Meo call
themselves "Hmong" and this term is gaining use among lowlanders in
Thailand). The dams, and the merit made in building them, would be donated to
His Majesty, the King, in honor of his 80th birthday to be celebrated in December
2007.
As we began our walk out of the forest we saw that three of
our guides for the day had started one of these small feeder dams, and we joined
in. Later we contributed to a dam fund, so that for some of the villagers' labor
would be reimbursed.
All
was truly inspirational. Our spirits were fed. As were our stomachs, the latter
from the sticky rice and chilli paste our guides carried in, and from the fish
and pork they prepared over a campfire in joints of bamboo they had cut from
the near the stream bed. Tasty!
I saw more deeply than before the level of community collaboration style in
this village. (It was not hard to see this in previous visits in the efforts
of the women's weaving. But now the connection between the forest and the villagers
was more clear. My faith was strengthened by this example of a sustainable village
and community forest. The impact of experiencing the forest--and doing so with
the villagers who had saved the forest--was powerful! It was so much more powerful
than just another discussion, as important as that is, about the need for sustainability
in the world.
Well that is the story. I have been meaning to capture the essence of that experience,
and this is a start. Thank you!
Roger Harmon
All photos copywritten ©2007 Roger Harmon Use only with permission.