Yanyong Inmuong Teerayoot Udormporn Penkhae Thamsenanupap Hans Kuiper Mahasarakham University

1. Public Participation in EA on Community Water Resource Development ProjectIAIA 2007 Seoul 5 June 2007 4:30-4:45 Room C 304A Yanyong Inmuong Teerayoot Udormporn Penkhae Thamsenanupap Hans Kuiper Mahasarakham University Thailand 44150 E-mail : yanyong.i@msu.ac.th

2. Rural Thailand Water Resource Development Paradigm • Traditional • Top-down driven by central & provincial & local governments • Supply driven approach • Pro single (sectoral) objective – rice production • Transitional • New created value-sustainable development/ecology • Minor groups/uncovered local resource dependent/shared benefit and value/equity • Multi-stakeholder involvement in decision-making

3. Don Daeng Village Case Water Resource Dispute Case at Don Daeng Village Rural NE Thailand border to Laos PDR Don Daeng Village

4. Don Daeng Fact and Profile • 198 Households/882 Inhabitants/1168 hectare • Rice-farming and fishery dependent • Environmental pressure : Severe floods every 2-3 years • Locally well-known as fish stock and preserved fish (‘padak’) product village • Key conflict: • Water demand for dry-season rice growing • Water demand to maintain fish/aquatic biota/ecological value

5. Nong Chai Wan Reservoir : Proposed Dike Construction Conflict • Dry-season rice farm/water melon/tomato growers proposed to build earth dikeat Nong Chai Wan reservoir to increase water storage capacity • Village conservation groups/fishermen/cattle raiser fight back to keep it as it is for ecological value/fish stock/nature-resource conservation site

6. Stakeholder Analysis -Dry-season rice grower -Tomato grower -Fishery/matting/cow raising groups -Local govt. -Village leader High-Low Important -School teacher -Monk -Village youth group/student -Health authority -Conservation group -Local academia -Irrigation dept. -District agriculturalist -District governor Low-High Influence

7. Rapid Environmental Assessment (EA) SurveyNong Chai Wan Reservoir • 1.4 million m3. • Fishing/cow raising • Village water-supply • Recreation/ecotourism/eco-study • Farmland irrigation • Cyperus for weaving reeds/matting • Nature habitats; native 17 plants/31 fish species Conflict of Interest Present Water for dry-season rice farm vs Aquatic resources & handicraft use

8. Participatory Development Learning Actions • Organize stakeholder meeting • Exchange information on local resource-uses and different value holding • Assess dike construction impacts (+/-) on environment (physical/biological/socio-economic) • Seekingbest alternative

9. Key Findings/Summary • All stakeholders found themselves no underlying values and resource-uses exchanged, informed and consulted so far • Stakeholders agreed to employ sustainable use of natural resource principle to deal with the case • Stakeholders did trade-off the +/- impact values and reached an agreement not to build the dike at Nong Chai Wan • The alternate choice proposed to choose another reservoir-Nong Chai Wan Dong-nearby to be the place supplying waters to dry-season rice farms

10. Key Findings/Summary (cont.) • The Nong Chai Wan should be planned for nature conservation site used for eco-tourism/fish stock/cow raising/matt weaving/eco-study/recreation • The key players commented the local government should organize the platform for participatory environmental assessmentaction of any proposed project during the planning stage

11. Conclusion/Lesson Learnt • Conflict on water-resource uses with different value-holding breaks down the traditional rural cohesion • The rapid EA study plus participatory learning discourse/actions could resolve the local water-resource development conflict case • The local government should employ the participatory EA, leading to collective rational solution on future resource development vision, esp. in rural Mekong villages

12. Thank ToMekong Wetlands Biological Conservation and Sustainable Use Program-IUCNFor Financial SupportThank You For Your Attention