Environment as an Element of Human Security in Southeast Asia: Case Study on the Thai Tsunami

Abstract

This chapter addresses the research question: How do environmental resources become a key factor of human security for social groups? It poses two hypotheses: first, the state is both a determining and an intervening factor; and second, the affected communities are not passive actors, but are rather active partners in sustainable livelihood recovery. The catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami serves points to a need to refocus attention on environmental threats to human security. This calamity that struck the region on 26 December 2004 has prompted a wide range of national as well as international actors to respond to regional environmental threats. The experience of the tsunami in Thailand illustrates the larger picture of environmental threats to human security. This chapter examines environmental resources as an element of human security by placing the ASEAN region and Thailand into a geographical context (88.2). It outlines a framework for human security from an environmental perspective focusing specifically on how natural disasters can threaten security and create situations of extreme vulnerability. Specifically, the environmental dimension of human security will be analysed for the impact the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami had on humans and their economic possessions (88.3). The chapter then discusses the empirical findings of a field study conducted by the author and a team in the tsunami-affected areas of southern Thailand in 2006. This case study discusses the coping strategies in facing such extreme circumstances of vulnerability and human insecurity (88.4). Finally, the hazard impacts and social vulnerability are analysed interpreting the event by focusing on hazards posing threats to human security in Thailand (88.5).