Community-based mangrove forest management in thailand: Key lesson learned for environmental risk management

Abstract

This article discusses community-based mangrove forest management and its implications for environmental risk management. The article draws on the case study of Pred Nai village in Trat province, near the Cambodian border in southeast Thailand. The village of Pred Nai has successfully re-forested 1,920 ha of mangrove forests that were previously converted into shrimp aquaculture ponds in the mid-1980s. The village has set up a community forest committee and a community resource use regulation and management plan in order to regulate, control, and manage the use of resources by community members. In the process of community mangrove forest management, local villagers have been encouraged to participate in every single step of forest management and planning. It is the active involvement of the local people together with the support of the relevant authorities and national institutions that makes the Pred Nai example a success. The article concludes by pointing out the key lessons learned from community-based mangrove forest initiatives in Pred Nai that can be applied in natural disaster risk management processes.