In this area, the Salween River constitutes the border between Thailand and Myanmar. There are two main reasons for the movement of Karen people across the border. Firstly, some had little choice but to flee the fighting in Kayin (Karen) State, and secondly – mostly a long time ago – some migrated for farming and for commercial trade. Fighting was especially intense from the mid-1980s and during the 1990s, which led to major movements of people into Thailand that would not be possible nowadays. Many of those who fled the fighting are still not able to move back to their old community due to ongoing insecurity in their home villages (SCPP 2010).

Some migrants successfully gained Thai citizenship, depending on how long ago they moved to Thailand, as well as the season; in the rainy season transportation is more arduous making official processes such as registration more difficult to undertake. Thai citizenship is granted under the Nationality Act (1965). Section 7 states that:

The following persons acquire Thai nationality by birth: (1) A person born of a father or a mother of Thai nationality, whether within or outside the Thai Kingdom; (2) A person born within the Thai Kingdom except the person under Section 7 bis paragraph one. "Father" in (1) means also a person having been proved, in conformity with the Ministerial Regulation, that he is a biological father of the person even though he did not register marriage with the mother of the person or did not do a registration of legitimate child.

According to this article, a person who is born in another country and escapes to Thailand or a person who is born from those people who escaped to Thailand are not eligible to get Thai nationality. However, the fourth amendment (2008) of the Nationality Act (1964) under article 23 offers an exception for those who were born in Thailand if they have official evidence to prove that they were born in Thailand between 1972 and 1992. It is also possible under Article 7.2 and 7 bis. that the Minister may grant Thai citizenship guided by other Ministerial Regulations and rules formulated by the Cabinet.

In summary, thousands of people entered Thailand without formal permission and without citizenship during the period of armed conflict. The Thai government created a policy to register them, providing them with non-Thai citizen ID cards, and allowing for a temporary (10 year) stay within a limited area. These ID cards allow for basic rights such as access to education and health care, and to legally work in the country, but they do not grant voter rights or land tenure rights. In 2009, in the three districts alongside the Salween River, namely Mae Sariang, Sob Moei, and Tah Songyang districts, 17,437 people held one of the two types of non-Thai citizenship ID card. In Sob Moei, Mae Sam Lab and Tha Ta Fang villages, 237 people, 1421 people and 359 people respectively held a non-Thai citizen ID card issued by the district registry office (SCPP 2010). People who are eligible to get Thai nationality have tried to submit a claim, but it is a slow and complex process that is difficult to complete.

# 9.3.2 Community rights

Rights to land and forest for indigenous communities are restricted by four forest laws: the Forest Act (1941), the National Park Act (1961), the National Forest Conservation Act (1964), and the Wildlife Sanctuary Act (1992). However, a high-profile campaign by civil society from 1990 to 1997 led to the recognition of "community rights" to natural resources (HRLA 2015). This first appeared in the Thai Constitution of 1997 article 46 as:

Persons so assembling as to be a traditional community shall have the right to conserve or restore their customs, local knowledge, arts or good culture of their community and of the nation and participate in the management, maintenance, preservation and exploitation of natural resources and the environment in a balanced fashion and persistently as provided by law.

Such a provision remained largely unchanged in article 66 of the subsequent Thai Constitution of 2007. Recognition of community rights has remained in the current Thai Constitution of 2017 in article 43 as:

A person and a community shall have the right to:

(1) conserve, revive or promote wisdom, arts, culture, tradition and good customs at both local and national levels;

	- (2) manage, maintain and utilize natural resources, environment and biodiversity in a balanced and sustainable manner, in accordance with the procedures as provided by law;
	- (3) sign a joint petition to propose recommendations to a State agency to carry out any act which will be beneficial to the people or to the community, or refrain from any act which will affect the peaceful living of the people or community, and be notified expeditiously of the result of the consideration thereof, provided that the State agency, in considering such recommendations, shall also permit the people relevant thereto to participate in the consideration process in accordance with the procedures as provided by law;
	- (4) establish a community welfare system. The rights of a person and a community under paragraph one shall also include the right to collaborate with a local administrative organization or the State to carry out such act.

While these articles in the 1997, 2007 and 2017 Thai Constitutions do provide for the concept of protecting indigenous communities' right to natural resources, they do not define the precise nature of those rights. As a result, 20 years has passed since the original definition of "community right" to land, forest, and natural resources, and it is still unclear if those rights extend to tenure, access or use, or the ability to extract resources. Moreover, as many of the people from these indigenous communities hold non-Thai ID cards they are not afforded full rights under the constitution. According to precedents set by previous court judgments, when communities have claimed "community rights" under the constitution to protect the environment or for public interest purposes, such as in case of pollution, then the courts have upheld "community rights." However, in cases where communities claim "community rights" for the right to use or own land or natural resources, then those rights have been denied. Furthermore, the Administrative Court has demonstrated a tendency to recognize a wider interpretation for natural resource, environment, and public interest protection purposes, which means they are more likely to uphold "community rights," compared to the Civil Court and Criminal Court. For example, in case 278/2556 (2013) in the Administrative Supreme Court, a community sued the government to cancel a biomass power plant building license, citing the issue of pollution. The court verdict accepted that "community rights" must be protected by the government against pollution to air and water. In contrast, in case 660/2557 (2014) between Mr. Kor-ei Mimi and others versus the National Park Department the plaintiff sued for "community rights," claiming the community's history as a right to property on the land. In this case, the Administrative Court did not accept their claim (Prachatai 2016).

In the case of the Hatgyi dam, if it is built just across the border downstream in Myanmar, it will certainly result in some negative impacts on these upstream communities in Thailand. Yet, the precedent set by Administrative Court above suggests that if community members from Tha Ta Fang, Mae Sam Lab, and Sob Moei were to sue the government over damages from the dam claiming "community rights" they would likely be unsuccessful. The challenge is, furthermore, that as Tha Ta Fang and Mae Sam Lab are surrounded by the Salween National Park and Sob Moei borders the Salween Conservation Area, as the case with Mr. Kor-ei Mimi versus National Park Department demonstrated, their ability to sue for damage and their rights to property or land would also unlikely be upheld.

# 9.3.3 Land Law

The legal system for land in Thailand can be separated into two categories: land law and forest law. Almost all land with land titles falls under the Land Act (1954), except land for agriculture purpose, which falls under the Agricultural Land Reform Act (1975). The main idea of the Land Act is to grant land rights to private individuals and companies with Thai citizenship by providing a land title. Land rights under the Land Act (1954) allows for the transfer of land through sale or through inheritance. However, the Agricultural Land Reform Act (1975) prohibits the sale of land, although it does allow for inheritance. In practice, land documents are only provided to lowland flat areas and are not issued for forested areas.

Forests are governed by the four forest laws mentioned above, which all hold similar core principles. The objective of each is that of preservation. They also authorize the government to declare preservation areas without local people's consent. Each law regulates prohibitions and granting permissions and define sanctions for those who break the rules. Additionally, at the policy level, the Natural Resource and Environment Ministry released the National Forest Policy (1992) in which article 17 prohibits land titles for land with greater than a 35% slope. Thus, for the communities in Tha Ta Fang, Mae Sam Lab, and Sob Moei that in part live in mountainous areas with slopes greater than 35%, they are not permitted to be given land documents under the four forest laws and the National Forest Policy (1992).

Along the Salween River, many local people's rights to land have been deprived by the Land Act (1954), Agricultural Land Reform Act (1975), and the series of forest preservation laws. The government, via the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment, has tried to maintain control over all forested areas in the country. Each year, actions enforcing these laws have resulted in the confiscation of land used by ethnic minority people for generations, and some people have been arrested and sued for criminal charges, and often judged to be guilty.

For example, the Supreme Criminal Court verdict of 10578/2559 (2015) Mae Sot Prosecutor versus Dih-Paepoe rejected the right to Karen rotation farming, favoring the forest law over local customary land rights. The case of Mr. Dih-Paepoe, better known as the "Mea Omki case" given that the defendant, Mr. Dih-Paepoe, was from Mae Omki village, occurred in April 2008 when Mr. Dih-Paepoe, a 79 years old man of Karen ethnicity was arrested by a government Forestry Officer while he was farming. The Royal Forest Department sued for a criminal charge of trespassing in the national preservation forest. The Human Rights Lawyer Association represented him and defended him by claiming community rights under the Constitution 2007 for rotation farming. The defense also argued he did not intentionally trespass in the forest. On March 22, 2017 the Supreme Criminal Court ruled that Mr. Dih-Paepoe was not guilty in his rotation farming because of his lack of intent to trespass in the forest, as the disputed land had been used in his family for over a generation. However, he was still forced to vacate the land because it was designated as preservation forest under the National Preservation Forest Act, 1964. This Supreme Criminal Court ruling demonstrated that it would not recognize rotation farming as a constitutional "community right" of ethnic minority communities, even when the community's existence precedes the establishment of a preservation area (HRLA 2015).

This precedent also has been demonstrated in the Administrative Court verdict 660/2557 (2016) of Mr. Ko-eyh Mimi versus the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment (2016). Known as the Grand Ko-eyh case, it addressed the case of a Karen community in Kanchanaburi Province who had lived in Keng Krachan National Park before it was established. In this case, it was ruled that being on ancestral land without land titles precluded the community from having legal rights to that land. Thus, the national park officer legally had the authority to burn the villager's house, as had occurred.

Access and use of land is very important to the life and livelihoods of upland ethnic minority people. Much of it is located in areas categorized by the Thai government as forest, making it a challenge for ethnic minority people. Ethnic communities have tried to negotiate the forest laws and policies with the local forest department for temporary permission. Sob Moei village and Tha Ta Fang village have provided land use evidence by participating in a land mapping project. Sob Moei village's mapping project is ongoing and supported by the Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI), and mapping is done in partnership with local forest department officers. Tha Ta Fang village's mapping project was supported by the local administrative department and completed roughly a decade ago. Even though these maps are not official land documents, because they are created with local administrative governments and local forest officers it gives community members a way to locally negotiate around the land and forest laws. Importantly, it grants them the ability to use customary land without fearing arrest from local forest officials.

# 9.3.4 Forest Law

As discussed above, Thai forests are subject to four forest laws: the Forest Act (1941), the National Park Act (1961), the National Forest Conservation Act (1964), and the Wildlife Sanctuary Act (1992). These laws grant ownership of forests to the central government, focus on the preservation of forests, and allows for permission to be given to private companies and individuals for specific purposes such as mining, forestry, and academic research. Under these laws, any use without official government permission is illegal. Therefore, wild resource collection by the community for their livelihoods is illegal, such as collecting wood to build, forest vegetables and herbs, hunting, and collecting leaves for roofs. However, many of these communities have dwelled in the forest for generations, well before the establishment of preservation forests (Kriyoonwong 2015).

According to the report of the Land Right Resolution Committee under the House of Representatives, in 2010, 635,916 people lived in areas classified as forest in Thailand (Kriyoonwong 2015), and between 2009 and 2015 an annual average of 2,652 cases per year were brought for forest trespassing (Forest Department 2017). The legal arguments in these forest cases do not acknowledge the context of indigenous communities nor their "community rights." 39 cases brought in April 2013 highlight the tension between legal deployment and community livelihoods. These cases occurred when an official field investigation joined by forest officers, police, and soldiers went to Tung Parka village with search warrants to investigate for illegal teak possession. The operation found 39 villagers possessed some teak in their house, which was considered to violate the Forest Act (1954) (Thai PBS 2015). At the province (lower) court all 39 defendants confessed to the allegation, and the judge decided to jail 21 of them and release 15 with a fine for illegal teak possession used for house building (iLaw 2015). A subsequent ruling in the Appeal Court emphasized that teak possession for house building of these defendants, without official permission, contributed to both global warming and flooding in lowland urban areas (Appeal Court verdict No. 425/2014).

As with Sob Moei, Tha Ta Fang, and Mae Sam Lab villages, Tung Parka village is a predominantly Karen village and the villagers practice their traditional livelihoods. However, the collection of wood for building houses is illegal in all cases. The villages discussed in this chapter are still not allowed to cut trees within the forest. This is regardless of their customary use of the land and even though they have negotiated some use of the forest with their local administration and forest officers. In these cases, the forest and land laws are upheld over "customary rights."

### 9.4 Tensions Between National Law and Local Practice: Implications for Karen Indigeneity and Culture

The discussion above on land and forest law reveals how the government's objective of preserving land and forests challenges ethnic minority people in their customary use of land. Yet, the history of the three communities detailed in this chapter reveals that they have practiced traditional livelihoods along the Salween River for a long time. The administrative part of the government has released some regulations to resolve this problem. Three of them are particularly important: the Cabinet Resolution of 30 June 1998 regarding land rights resolution for ethnic minorities; the Cabinet Resolution of 3 August 2010 regarding Karen traditional protection, which includes rotation farming; and the Office of the Prime Minister's regulation of 2010 regarding land right documentation for "community land titles." These three regulations offer alternative resolutions to protecting ethnic minority's rights to land that have been largely dominated by the four forest laws. The verdicts mentioned in this chapter have stressed that even though the communities have lived on and used the land before it was classified as preservation area, they are still vulnerable to being declared as illegal settlers (HRLA 2015).

The problem of using the law to limit, control, and deprive civil and natural resource rights to upland minority populations has a long history in Thailand (Vandergeest 2003; Wittayapak 2008). Since 1957, the government has created an image of ethnic minority groups in Northern Thailand as security risks and involved in forest destruction. The National Security Council has further stigmatized them by using the negative discourse of "hill tribe." Its meaning implies their diminished humanity as lower class and inferior people. This discourse becomes a way for the state to maintain control and deny rights to upland populations. Ethnic minority space in Thai society has been vigorously limited by law, policy, and field operations (Laungaramsri 1998). While indigenous community rights to land and forest are discriminated by the forest law, there is much evidence that the livelihoods of the ethnic minority and indigenous people do not harm forests or the environment. Research has clearly proven that Karen communities can use their traditional knowledge to protect the forest while they do rotation farming and collect resources from the forest for food and sale for earning an income (Kanchanapan 2004; Forsyth/Walker 2008).2

Although the country has changed and developed further since these discourses first emerged, the image of ethnic minorities still has not improved. Instead, arguably it has gotten worse. It continues to stigmatize ethnic minority and indigenous people as national security threats, and endangering the new government's drug policy and reforestation efforts. In practice, projects have been created to target these "hill tribe" communities and force their relocation from national parks, accompanied by policies for forest reclamation, or increasing the area of forest in the country. These policies have significantly affected many indigenous communities (Laungaramsri 1998). In Tha Ta Fang, Mae Sam Lab, and Sob Moei, over half of the population are still not able to obtain Thai citizen ID cards. Thus, they have little legal recourse against the government should the DNP or RFD decide they are violating forest policies or land laws. Moreover, policies, like the forest preservation policy, which prohibits land titling on mountainous areas with a greater than 35% slope, represent a systemic prejudice against upland minority populations within the legal system.

Although many upland minority people, like those in the villages discussed in this chapter, can claim customary use and rights, the law does not privilege those rights and instead the discourse of "hill tribe" labels them as offenders and forest destroyers. In 2011, the National Park, Wildlife, and Plant Species Department, under the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment, released the "Economic Modeling of Some Environmental Impacts of Deforestation" that calculated the economic cost of forest destruction. The damage was determined in terms of the

2 Although not the focus of this chapter, it is important to note that the Thai state has also sought to promote Thai culture with upland communities, including Thai language schools, pictures of the Thai monarchy, and temples with Thai monks to which local communities send young males to be ordained, all of which can be understood as a part of the process of nation-building, but also functions as a different means of influencing upland areas (Walker 2001; Laungaramsri 2001; Lamb 2018).

release of stored carbon and the cost of reducing the assumed increase in temperature based on the required electricity to reduce the temperature using air conditioning (Meetam 2016). Here, the same discourse that motivates claims about "hill tribe" as forest destroyers accuses the ethnic minority and indigenous community livelihoods as causing global warming by rotation farming and tree cutting.

#### 9.5 Conclusion

Most of the community in Sob Moei, Mae Sam Lab, and Tha Ta Fang villages discussed in this chapter are Karen indigenous people. They have lived in these communities alongside the Salween River for more than a generation; however, many of the people are non-Thai citizens and thus are deprived of their civil rights. Their livelihoods rely: on land for rotation farming, growing paddy rice, and river bank gardens where they plant rice and vegetables; on forests for collecting natural resources for building materials and food, and for selling the products; and on the Salween River for fishing, farming, and transportation. Regarding these natural resources, they also have local governance arrangements to protect them and control their use through a combination of customary rules and unofficial agreements between the community and local officials.

However, the government's laws on forests, land, and citizenship have caused serious tensions between the government officers, especially forestry officers, and local community livelihoods. Meanwhile, the government has also strongly backed the Hatgyi dam project, which if built would create serious impacts on the livelihoods of these communities. The apparent purpose of these laws and policies is the central government's desire for 'pure' forest area and to support the business of water development projects, to the exclusion of human rights and natural resource protection. However, in practice the local forest officers cannot uphold these forest laws and policies fully, as there are also contradictions between the forest laws and government regulations that seek alternative mechanisms to solve the conflict between forest law and ethnic community livelihoods. Through these alternative mechanisms, the communities have tried to negotiate with the local forest officers on land and forest use rights.

This chapter reveals that the use of national law is not only about the state trying to regulate livelihood practices, but it is also a challenge to the definition of Karen identity in these villages. The conflict between law and policy with indigenous community rights has been a critical issue for more than three decades. The government has become increasingly aware of the problem, but still intends to retain these laws and the villagers' use of natural resources under its control. It reflects an imagination of the "hill tribe," which is influenced by a national security discourse that links ethnic minority people to drug selling, forest destruction, and being non-Thai citizens. Thus, even as many indigenous communities have lived in these areas for a long time, the national law and policy still deny their right to access natural resources and land.

Given the challenges described in this chapter, the community members in Sob Moei, Mae Sam Lab, and Tha Ta Fang villages request the right to maintain their livelihood. First, they ask that their right to land for traditional farming for food security be officially recognized by the Thai state, which would include both individual rights and collective rights depending upon the community's consensus. Second, they ask for the right to collect wild products be recognized to meet their daily needs, such as food, materials for building, as well as to collect products to sell for an income. The Hatgyi dam is also a common concern. Here, these communities want both the government and the private company to: ensure adequate community participation; recognize the challenges faced by the communities including how difficult it is to change their way of life, the limited options for resettlement available to them, and their relative disadvantage in negotiating given their current non-Thai citizen status; and acknowledge and incorporate community knowledge into decision-making.

#### References

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## Chapter 10 An Ethnobotanical Survey in Shan State, Myanmar: Where Thanlwin Biodiversity, Health, and Deforestation Meet

Mar Mar Aye and Swe Swe Win

### 10.1 Introduction

The American botanist John Harshberger coined the term 'Ethnobotany' in 1896. Since that time, ethnobotany studies have covered a range of topics (Abbasi et al. 2011). The study of ethnobotany is of great importance in understanding the interrelations of material and intellectual culture. It can involve the study of plant species as well as the cultural practices of herbalists treating diseases. Ethnobotanical studies are also significant in communicating the medicinal values of locally important plant species to outside audiences and documenting them for future use, and can include traditional knowledge of plant diversity and use by indigenous communities. The documentation of traditional knowledge of plants has provided the basis for many modern drugs (Cox 2000; Flaster 1996). Ethnobotanists also explore how plants are used, not only for health, but also for necessities such as food, shelter, medicine, clothing, hunting, and religious ceremonies.

In Myanmar, wild plants have long been used as a source of medicine. This chapter presents research from an ethnobotany study to understand the traditional knowledge of herbalists and the uses of plants for healthcare in four communities in Myanmar's Shan State. We approach this work from a perspective that seeks to highlight the local knowledge of communities and the challenges they face. The research shows the ways in which local people in four villages in Lashio District along the Thanlwin (Salween) River, Shan State, rely on medicinal herbs for the treatment of disease. The research presented in this chapter is based on botanical surveys and interviews conducted from July 2015 to February 2016, when we collected and identified 21 medicinal plants from 14 plant families.

© The Author(s) 2019

Mar Mar Aye, Professor and Head (retired), Department of Botany, Lashio University; Email<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
Swe Swe Win, Lecturer, Lashio University; Email<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
C. Middleton and V. Lamb (eds.), Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River, The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics— Society—Science 27, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77440-4\_10

This research also shows how the practice of herbal medicine is threatened by a range of factors, including deforestation and agricultural expansion. While residents in all four villages rely on herbal medicines, residents of poorer, more isolated villages tend to rely solely on these practices while residents of better off villages also access hospitals and clinics. As a research site, Shan State is very much understudied, and through the research presented in this paper, we aim to contribute to the general knowledge of botanicals for health and the ways that local communities practice herbal medicine in Shan State and more broadly, across the Thanlwin River Basin.

This chapter also highlights the importance of medicinal herbs to the health of local communities, and evaluates the future availability of medicinal herbs in the four selected sites. The study finds that deforestation, the expansion of shifting cultivation, and an increasing trend towards permanent cultivation of cash crops have the greatest impacts on the medicinal herbs used by villagers in the study areas. It is the significance of medicinal plants and deforestation that we turn to first, as it is important to understanding the broader context and future of medicinal plants in Myanmar.

### 10.2 Significance and Context of Herbal Medicines in Myanmar

According to the World Health Organization (WHO 2013), approximately 80% of people worldwide use herbal remedies as part of their overall health care. Herbalists across many different cultures throughout the world use plants and other substances to improve health, promote healing, and prevent and treat illness (Kamboj 2000). In Myanmar, while precise data on the number of people who use herbal medicines is not available, herbal medicine, which relies on plants and plant products, topically or orally, to treat illnesses, has widespread usage. However, what is perhaps unique to Myanmar is that in the face of rapid deforestation, local communities are maintaining their medicinal plant strategies.

A Global Forest Resources Assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO 2010: 21) shows that Myanmar has one of the highest annual rates of deforestation in the world.1 The 2015 report shows that Myanmar has continued to lose forest cover (FAO 2015: 1). Although Shan State has experienced less deforestation in the last twenty years than the rest of country, it is now considered a critical deforestation front (EIA 2015). The conversion of forested land into agricultural land for paddy rice, corn, rubber, and other exportable cash crops (WWF 2015) threatens areas where local people cultivate and collect medicinal plants. While it is hard to find precise data on the amount of land

1 The report lists Myanmar as one of the "Ten countries with the largest annual net loss of forest area, 1990–2010."

already cleared to make way for cultivation, it is clear that agricultural expansion is a factor in the decline of medicinal plants (Woods 2013) and that agricultural expansion will continue as the demand to produce more crops for export increases (Phochan 2015).

This broader context of deforestation is of particular concern in this study as it is linked not only to herbal medicines, but also local people's livelihoods and local economies more generally.

#### 10.3 Methods

To understand the importance of ethnobotany in Shan State, this study employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. The authors and the research team conducted a botanical survey, interviews with villagers, and site visits in the selected study areas in Kunlong township. Field visits were conducted from July 2015 to February 2016 and the authors were assisted by local translators and research assistants at the four villages described below.

As part of this research, a botanical survey was conducted in each of the villages. Specimens were collected with the help of local informants and then processed using herbarium stand methods. Fresh specimens of both vegetative and reproductive parts of plants were identified using available literature (Dassanayake/ Fosber 1988; Hong Kong Herbarium and South China Botanical Garden 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012; Hundley/Chit Ko Ko 1961; Hutchinson 1959; Kress et al. 2003; Lawrence 1966; De Padua et al. 1999). Both the vegetative and reproductive parts of the specimens were pressed, dried, preserved, and mounted on herbarium sheets in the Botany Department of Lashio University. Both the vegetative and reproductive parts of the fresh specimens were used for morphological studies. In the study, 21 medicinal plants were collected and identified as part of 14 plant families. This was done with the help of taxonomists in the Department of Botany of Lashio University.

A total of 80 interviews were conducted across four villages (20 per village), in addition to interviews with each village's herbalist or traditional healer (see Table 10.1: Interviews in the Study Area Across Four Villages). Table 10.1 summarizes the number of interviews in each village. Interview guides were used (see below for the list of open ended questions). Topics covered during the interviews included: the use of herbal medicine versus modern medicine; uses of plants and importance to the community; which species are cultivated locally, which are collected wild, areas where plants are collected; changes in the availability of wild plants, and reasons for these changes.

All interviews were conducted in Myanmar, Shan, or Kokang languages with the help of local translators. In general, most of the herbalists are men; however, their wives assist them in their work, including in the treatment of diseases. Most of the local people who use herbal medicine, however, are women, because the men are

Table 10.1 Interviews in the

Source The authors

frequently away doing agricultural work in the forest. The majority of interviewees were between 48 and 75 years old.

The interviews were guided by five key questions:

The study sites for this research were located in Lashio District of Northern Shan State. Lashio District is positioned along the Thanlwin (Salween) River, which originates on the Tibetan Plateau and flows southeast through Yunnan Province of China to arrive in Myanmar, where it cuts through the Shan Plateau (Deetes 2012). This area is ethnically very diverse, and includes Shan, Kokang, Wa, Lahu and Kachin residents. A history of conflict has limited studies in this area. The study site of this research was Kunlong township, and the four villages selected were Yae Lei Kyun, Tone Kyat, Ohn Tone and Wa Soke (see Fig. 10.1: Map of Study Area: Four Selected Villages).

## 10.3.1 Site Rationale: Geography and Livelihoods of the Four Villages

The four villages of Yae Lei Kyun, Tone Kyat, Wa Soke, and Ohn Tone were selected for this research because they represent communities at different elevations and with a range of different livelihoods, adding to the potential diversity of herbal plants. The four villages are also ethnically and culturally diverse. Yae Lei Kyun village is a majority Shan community, while both Kokang and Shan people reside in Tone Kyat village. Wa Soke is majority Kachin, and the fourth village, Ohn Tone, includes Kachin, Shan, and Lahu residents.

Two of the four villages, Tone Kyat and Yae Lei Kyun, are situated on the banks of the Thanlwin River. Wa Soke and Ohn Tone villages are located in a mountainous area. Each village in the study area is located at a different elevation, and the authors relied on a GPS device to measure elevation.

Fig. 10.1 Map of study area: Four selected villages. Source Cartography by Chandra Jayasuriya, University of Melbourne, with permission

The research showed that herbal medicine played an important role in all four villages, even though livelihoods, economic status, and access to services (hospitals, markets, roads) varied, particularly between the mountainous and lowland villages. For instance, the lowland villages of Tone Kyat and Yae Lei Kyun are generally economically better off, and enjoy better access to hospitals in nearby towns. While they still rely on herbal medicine, they can more easily combine it with western medicine. Interviewees in all four villages noted concerns around threats to traditional medicine.

#### <IP_ADDRESS> Village 1: Yae Lei Kyun

Located on the bank of the Thanlwin River, Yae Lei Kyun Village is home to a total population of about 200 people of Shan ethnicity and is made up of 36 households. In the summer and winter, the villagers cultivate seasonal vegetables and medicinal herbs on the riverbank and sell the products to local consumers. In the rainy season, Yae Lei Kyun is only accessible by boat travel across the Thanlwin River from Kunlong town. While the local people also use modern medicine, the majority of the villagers still rely on medicinal plants given by herbalists for their health problems. For serious health problems, residents visit the public hospital for treatment with modern medicine by health providers in Kunlong. This village was selected as a community with access to a hospital to analyze the people's reliance on herbal medicine, their economic situation, and their ways of addressing health issues.

#### <IP_ADDRESS> Village 2: Tone Kyat

Tone Kyat village is also located on the bank of the Thanlwin River. With about 170 households and a total population of 1288 individuals, it is home to Kokang and Shan ethnic groups. Most of the villagers depend on agriculture. The local people cultivate on rubber plantations and grow corn for export, mostly to China. According to interviews and observation, most of the youth no longer live in the village; they have migrated for either study or work. Because of their export crops, the socioeconomic status of households in Tone Kyat is higher than the other riverbank village of Yae Lei Kyun, and higher than the two mountainous villages in this study (Wa Soke and Ohn Tone). There is a government-supported primary school for basic education in the village, with instruction in Myanmar language. There is also a hospital nearby in Kunlong; Tone Kyat is about 1 mile away.

#### <IP_ADDRESS> Village 3: Wa Soke

Located at the top of a mountain, Wa Soke village is east of Kunlong city and about nine miles away from the mainstem of the Thanlwin River. The village is the largest of the four, with a population of about 214 people and 41 households. It is home to residents who identify as members of the Kachin ethnic group. Villagers usually travel by car or motorbike to access the town or other villages. Due to difficult road access during the rainy season, villagers must rely heavily on medicinal herbs for their health. Some villagers earn a living by cultivating sugarcane and corn as cash crops; however, they still earn less money than the residents of Yae Lei Kyun village. The majority of the population are poor and rely on locally collected and cultivated food resources. Men usually work in agriculture, while women stay at home to care for the children. Only one certified midwife serves pregnant women and those needing newborn care in the village. The midwife plays an important role in the village, as the nearest hospital in Kunlong city is quite far away and transportation is difficult.

#### <IP_ADDRESS> Village 4: Ohn Tone

Ohn Tone is located at the top of the same mountain, approximately two miles away from Wa Soke. There are about 200 people, with a total of 35 households in this village. It is home to Kachin and Lahu ethnic groups. Some villagers cultivate rice and corn on the slope of the mountain to earn income. However, the majority of villagers are very poor. There is a primary school supported by the government with Burman teaching staff from the lowland areas of Myanmar. Because this village is located in an upland area far from public health facilities, they also rely heavily on medicinal herbs to treat their ailments. Similar to Wa Soke, there is no hospital nearby.

### 10.4 Research Challenges: Translators and Transportation

The challenges of conducting this research are related to access, language barriers and transportation. In terms of transportation challenges, the study sites of mountain areas such as Ohn Tone and Wa Soke are difficult to reach. In the summer, they can only be reached by car or motorbike. Throughout the rainy season, the roads are slippery and dangerous.

In regard to language barriers, the majority of villagers speak a range of local languages and dialects, such as Wa, Shan, Kokang, Lahu and Kachin. To address this challenge, the authors worked with translators to translate from local languages to Myanmar (Burmese) language. Most of the translators assisting in this research were herbalists and leaders of the villages. The position of the translators within the villages was important, because the villagers interviewed trusted and respected them, which aided in their willingness to be interviewed. We also worked with motorbike taxi drivers, car taxi drivers, and local botany students who attended Lashio University. All these individuals lived in the selected areas, had the skills to help negotiate access to the research area, were able to help introduce the authors to herbalists and village leaders, and were available to translate.

### 10.5 Collected Botanical Species and Local People's Lives and Livelihoods

# 10.5.1 Summary of Collected Plants

Twenty-one medicinal plants were collected from the four villages and identified as belonging to 14 plant families. Specifically, the plant families Acanthaceae, Lamiaceae, Asparagaceae, Euphobiaceae, Anarcadiaceae, Polygonaceae, Dioscoriaceae, Solanaceae, Nytaginaceae, Caprifloliaceae, Taccacaceae, Chloranthaceae, Menispermaceae, and Laganiaceae were cited. Identification was done with the help of taxonomists in the Department of Botany of Lashio University. Out of the medicinal plants collected, 40% are wild plants and 60% are both wild and cultivated. The most widely useful plant parts in the preparation of remedies (see Fig. 10.2: Percentage of plant parts used for herbal medicine) are the whole plants (28.6%), leaves (47.6%), stems (9.5%) and tuberous roots or bulbs (14.2%).

The plants collected can be found growing in the wild in forests, on the slopes of the mountains and within or nearby the villages. These plants can be found in a wide range of habitats including woodlands, rocky surfaces, forests, grazing areas and farmlands, home gardens, road and riversides, farm borders and live fences (boundaries made of living herbs or shrubs).

Some local medicinal plant users get the plants from herbalists who sell them in the 'five day' markets as fresh or dried plants, discussed further below. In addition, some villagers, especially herbalists, cultivate medicinal plants in their home gardens for treatment of ailments. Among the 21 collected plants, 12 plants are both cultivated and wild plants. The remaining nine plants are wild plants (see Table 10.2).

Fig. 10.2 Percentage of plant parts used for herbal medicine. Source The authors

Table 10.2 Collected plants for health

Table 10.2 (continued)

#### Table 10.2 (continued)

Table 10.2 (continued)

Table 10.2 (continued)

Source The authors

The collected medicinal plants are described by interviewees as beneficial to local people for addressing health problems. In this research, most plants are commonly used by local people in the study areas for stomach disorders and as protective barriers for edema (tissue swelling) or injury. According to research findings, there were some commonly used species across the four villages. For example, "Air Plant" or Bryophyllum (Bryophyllum pinnatum) is used as a remedy for bone fractures across all villages and all ethnic groups in the selected villages. It is collected wild by herbalists and is cultivated (see also, Table 10.2: Collected Plants for Health). The fresh crushed leaves of this species are used to apply on bone fractures and to reduce muscle swelling. This species can be easily reproduced in its natural habitat, and is therefore easily accessible for collection and home garden cultivation.

In addition, species such as asparagus fern (Asparagus densiflorus) are widely used both by local people in Tone Kyat and across Myanmar. According to the herbalist in Tone Kyat, a tonic is prepared by cleaning the fresh or dried rhizome and boiling it in water. Both herbalists and villagers, male and female, prepare this tonic, but it is mainly consumed by men. They believe that the tonic will keep them healthy and strong. The asparagus fern is also collected by herbalists for sale, either dried or as a tonic, and may be mixed with other plants. There is no shortage of this species in the forest near the village.

Additionally, wild buckwheat or Sharimum (Fagopyrum cymosum Meissn.), known locally in Shan as 'Phetmu,' is very popular in Northern Shan State for reducing high blood pressure. It can be eaten fresh, or cooked. The cleaned and crushed leaves are combined with lemon grass and Bryophyllum to make a paste and are used as a bandage for bone fractures. There is no shortage of this plant reported.

Generally, most of the collected plants were applied in the same way to treat the same ailment across different villages, locations, and ethnic groups. However, the research did show that some herbalists had distinctive herbal remedies and applications. According to the botanical survey, Tone Kyat residents used multiple plant species that were only recorded in that village. This included several plants, such as: Charan (Chloranthus spicatus), Elderberry (Sambucus javanica Bl.), Four o'clock flower (Mirabilis jalapa L.), Zigzag plant (Pedilanthus tithymaloides Peit.), and Poison berry (Solanum indicum L.), which were used only by herbalists in Tone Kyat, located along the Thanlwin River. In both Tone Kyat and Ohn Tone, Glory bower (Clerodendrum japonicum), Hill glory (Cleodendrum infotunatum), and Malabar false eranthemum (Pseuderanthemum latifolium) were turned into a paste and applied directly to reduce swollen tissue and were used orally to address gastrointestinal tract illnesses.

Only the herbalist at Ohn Tone used Nutgall tree (Rhus semialata), Wax leaved climber (Cryptolepis buchanani), and White batflower (Tacca integrifolia Ker. Gawl). Nutgall tree was used not only for the treatment of dysentery but also in cooking to add a sour flavor to the food. Wax leaved climber was used as a protective barrier for the treatment of bone fractures and as a bath for the treatment of skin diseases. White batflower was also used to reduce swollen tissue, and a decoction of rhizomes was applied for the treatment of malaria. The leafless dendrobium (Dendrobium aphyllum) was used by Kokang villagers in Tone Kyat as a tonic for general good health and longevity. To make the tonic, they use leaflets boiled in water. It is also cultivated for export to China.

In sum, a wide range of plants are used to treat a number of ailments; some are only grown in a particular context, like the species mentioned in Tone Kyat along the Thanlwin River. For more details and a full listing, please see Table 10.2.

# 10.5.2 The Role of Herbalists

Across these four villages, herbalists are highly respected for the important role they play in the collection and application of medical herbs. The physical and economic limitations of the villagers make it difficult to buy modern medicines and access public healthcare services, which are only located in Kunlong city. This gap in healthcare is covered by village herbalists, who are also generally poor and rely on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Most villagers in Yae Lei Kyun highly respect U Sai Aung Myat, a Shan herbalist with a long experience in the treatment of various ailments in this village. He cultivates medicinal plants in a home garden, which he tends with his spouse near the bank of the Thanlwin River. The plants grown here are used either for medical care for patients or are sold.

In Wa Soke village, local people likewise show respect to herbalists who live in their village, and rely on them for the treatment of ailments, not least because of transportation difficulties and their lower economic status (Herbalist interview, 20 December 2015). In Wa Soke village, the herbalist used a combination of more than one species. Herbal plants can be collected around the village easily, and are soaked in a traditional rice brew or decoction of water to reduce the swelling of internal organs. Although villagers said that they sometimes used Myanmar medicine (specifically mentioned Ywet-hlay brand) for health problems, the majority reported relying on herbal medicines.

Most herbalists interviewed have no formal education, but work from generational experience and knowledge that has been passed down. Among the interviewed herbalists, only Mr. U Sai Than Sein of Ohn Tone village became an herbalist through more formalised herbal medicine training after his work as a primary school teacher. He received his training in medicinal herbs from the Nationalities Youth Resource Development Training School. This is in contrast to the other herbalists in Ohn Tone and Wa Soke who said they received medicinal knowledge from their ancestors in order to understand how to use medicinal herbs to treat aliments.

Mr. U Sai Than Sein told us that in Ohn Tone, villagers usually opt to take herbal medicines to treat ailments, but sometimes also use modern medicine when they can afford it. During an interview, his mother showed us the earthen pot used to boil medicinal plants daily. As U Sai Than Sein described it:

My mother boils a mixture of dried collected plant species and takes it as medicine daily, and she is healthy and over 80 years old. Applying a combination of species [rather than one single species] is more effective for curing disease (11 November 2015).

This was a key point made by herbalists, whether they were formally educated or not; in many cases it was more effective to use multiple species for treatments.

In addition to collecting medicinal herbs for treating ailments at home, herbalists and some villagers, particularly in Tone Kyat, collect plants to sell in the five-day market. The five-day market is very important for herbalists and local communities. It is held in rotation over a five-day period among five different sites around Kunlong township, namely Kunlong, Holi, Nartee, Karmine and Hopan. Local upland people, especially herbalists, sell both fresh and dried medicinal herbs in this market. As an herbalist who sells at the Kunlong five-day market described: "I collect herbal plants from the slopes of mountains which are located behind my village for selling and treatment" (Interview, 20 September 2015).

The five-day market provides an important economic link between rural and urban communities, supporting the local economy of rural upland villages like Ohn Tone and Wa Soke, and allow greater access to medicinal herbs. This arena for economic activities links rural and urban communities together through medicinal herbs. Herbal medicines thus play an important role in providing income for remote communities in addition to treating illness.

# 10.5.3 Local Medicinal Plants for Trade

Beyond the five-day market, some medicinal plants are also sold regionally and internationally. For example, the leafless dendrobium orchid is not only used locally, but is also sold commercially. This species can be found wild in the forest and can also be cultivated in home gardens. In the five-day market, there were only a few of these orchids available for sale; most of the time, this plant is exported to neighbouring countries such as China. Thus, while it is clear that across the four villages local people rely on medicinal plants, there is also interest and pressure from outside actors and markets. Dr. Saw Lwin, an orchid expert who runs Myanmar Flora and Biotech, suggests that people, particularly in China, believe that the stem of some orchids can prevent and cure cancer and help people look younger (Phyu 2014).

Locally, the dried stem of leafless dendrobium is used by members of the Kokang and Wa ethnic groups as a tonic for general health. In the study sites, the dried stems are exported as medicinal plants to China for income for local people. According to an interview with local villagers, fresh orchids are sold for 200,000 Myanmar Kyat per viss (1 viss is equal to 3.6 lbs or 1632 g) in the local market (Interview, 20 December 2015). Dr. Saw Lwin, however, warns that the "over-collection [of dendrobium orchids] has resulted in the near-extinction of some species" (Phyu 2014).

There are questions surrounding the legality of such trade. Wild orchids are protected in Myanmar under a 1994 law, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora also places restrictions on the international orchid trade. A range of orchid experts have discussed these challenges. In a recent Myanmar Times article, Mr. U Win Naing Thaw, director from the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry's Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division, explained that only one company, Myanmar Flora and Biotech, had applied for a permit to legally trade orchids. He also reported that most orchid growers and sellers did not know they are in breach of the protection of Wild Animals, Wild Plants and Conservation of Natural Areas Law, which also prohibits the sale of cut orchid flowers without a permit (Lwin 2011). In sum, the commercial or even local trade of this plant can impact local availability for medicinal uses and may be putting those who harvest it in breach of national laws.

### 10.6 Threats to Herbal Medicine: Deforestation, Cash Crops, Trade and Local Knowledge Transfer

In addition to the sale of orchids described above, other threats to medicinal plants and the practice of herbal medicine include the expansion of cash crops, overcutting, and logging for fuel wood (Sai Thein Sein Interview, 20 February 2016). Although current forest laws are being rewritten (Lwin 2017), according to a Forest Department officer, these laws are difficult to enforce in Kunlong township and the current fines are too small to discourage logging and overcutting (Interview, 24 February 2016).

The main threat to wild medicinal plants is deforestation and agricultural expansion, particularly cash crops and rubber plantations in the areas surrounding Kunlong. For instance, in Ohn Tone and Wa Soke, villagers traditionally grew rice for subsistence through shifting cultivation. Now, swidden farming techniques are being used to clear portions of the forest to cultivate cash crops such as rice, corn, and sugarcane. According to interviewees, this is a more permanent form of cultivation and is occurring on the mountain slopes. Villagers cultivate cash crops both for local consumption and for export to neighboring countries such as China. Local people reported that they do not make enough money selling cash crops because the inputs like seeds and fertilizers cost more than they can make from selling their crops. Villagers also rely on synthetic chemical fertilizers to cultivate cash crops. These factors, combined with the natural vulnerability of such arid and semi-arid lands, may lead to further reduction in the natural habitats of medicinal plants.

In addition to being collected in the wild, traditional medicinal plants are also cultivated in home gardens, and harvested along the roadside and live fences. One reason that traditional healers are planting in their home gardens and sourcing the plants from distant places along the Thanlwin River is because medicinal plants are becoming harder to find in the Kunlong area. With medicinal plants becoming harder to find, an herbalist from Yae Lei Kyun village explained:

Medicinal plants are important to us, so I cultivate them in my garden for sale and treatment (20 December 2015).

Not only is the direct overharvesting of medicinal herbs a challenge, but the overharvesting of other non-timber forest products also disturbs the habitat of these herbs. Near Wa Soke and Ohn Tone, some villagers live temporarily in the forests at certain times of the year, building huts and cooking fires while they collect bamboo shoots to sell in the local markets. Personal observations and conversations with the herbalist Mr. Sai Thein Sein showed that these activities also threaten medicinal plants.

Lastly, the continuing practice of herbal medicinal knowledge is also at risk due to the absence of intergenerational knowledge transfer, as young people tend to be more interested in other livelihoods such as growing cash crops and working in the city or abroad (Personal communication, 30 August 2015). Knowledge sharing is crucial not only to herbal medicine practitioners, but also to local policy makers in their efforts to conserve and sustain valuable medicinal knowledge in Kunlong and throughout Myanmar, where large numbers of people depend on herbal medicines for health.

#### 10.7 Conclusion

Overall, this study documented plants from 14 families with medicinal value as indicated by local residents and herbalists. These plants can be found in a wide range of habitats, both wild and domestic, including forests, grazing areas, farmlands, home gardens, roadsides and riversides, farm borders and live fences. The majority of herbalists used one or more plants in their treatments, particularly in cases of bone fractures and stomach disorders, which is probably an indication of the frequency of these ailments in the area. The most widely sought after plant parts in the preparation of remedies are the roots, leaves and stems in this order.

Also, while villagers from both lowland and highland villages relied on medicinal plants and herbalists to treat illness, this reliance was more acute in highland villages with limited access to health care in the form of medical doctors, hospitals, and clinics. In drawing a link between access to transportation, socioeconomic status and public health across the selected villages, a pattern emerges. For instance, among the selected villages, the highland areas (Wa Soke and Ohn Tone) are more difficult to access, and residents report less income and poor access to public healthcare, particularly when compared to lowland villages in the same area.

Threats to herbal medicines in Shan State are a cause for concern for communities who rely on these plants to treat illness. Agricultural expansion for cash crops like rice, corn and sugarcane, rubber plantations, and logging for fuel wood is threatening medicinal plants and contributing to declining availability. The continuing practice of traditional healing is also threatened in the absence of intergenerational knowledge transfer in villages, as young people desire to go abroad to work. Knowledge sharing is crucial not only to local practitioners but also to local policy makers so that efforts are initiated to conserve and sustain the valuable medicinal knowledge of ethnic groups in Shan State and throughout Myanmar and the Thanlwin River Basin.

As researchers, we encourage further research on the effects of the synthetic chemical fertilizers used on cash crops, as this may affect soil fertility and damage native medicinal herbs. As some interviewees reported a decline in returns from cash crops, this presents an opportunity for additional research to understand the drivers for local people to cultivate the cash crops, which requires the use of chemicals and results in forest loss, impacting local herbs directly. Research into possible livelihood alternatives could lead to recommendations for more sustainable income.

By highlighting local knowledge on plants and medicinal treatments and the challenges facing the survival of this knowledge, this chapter intends to also inspire a broader outlook regarding the cultural and social importance of traditional healing practices among ethnic communities in Myanmar, and particularly Shan State. The chapter also seeks to raise awareness of the uses of medicinal plants commonly available in villages, and encourage a practical and sustainable approach to the conservation of these plant species in Kunlong Township, Lashio district.

#### References

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### Chapter 11 Not only Anti-dam: Simplistic Rendering of Complex Salween Communities in Their Negotiation for Development in Thailand

Paiboon Hengsuwan

#### 11.1 Introduction

Since the 1970s, hydropower dam projects in the lower Salween River Basin have been planned as joint undertakings of the Myanmar, Thai and Chinese governments, state-owned enterprises, and multinational corporations (Lamb et al., Chap. 1, this volume). In response, civil society groups at various levels have mobilized against the proposed Salween dam projects, including Thai and international environmental organizations and human rights groups, academics, and journalists, with considerable support from locals who oppose these controversial dams (see Middleton et al., Chap. 3, this volume).

In 2007, the author began observing residents along the Salween, finding that, generally, local ethnic groups have continuously opposed these controversial dam projects. Hence, these villages have been represented as anti-dam communities by project developers (Modinator 2014). At the same time, local communities are situated in poor conditions of "development" (in Thai language, kanphatthana), or lacking development; lacking access to resources, roads, government services, land rights and citizenship (Hengsuwan 2012).

Although community protests may be interpreted as 'anti-development,' I argue that their reaction to development is actually more complex. Community members in fact seek development, but on their own terms (Keyes 2014: 135, 161). Furthermore, given the cultural and political complexity, this engagement cannot be reduced to a simplified struggle between state domination and community resistance (Orther 2006, cited in Walker 2012: 150). This is because local villagers have played a part in the extension of state power through development programs by pursuing, engaging in, and reframing state-sponsored development initiatives (Walker 2012: 150–151).

Paiboon Hengsuwan, Lecturer, Department of Women's Studies, Chiang Mai University; Email<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
© The Author(s) 2019

C. Middleton and V. Lamb (eds.), Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River, The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics— Society—Science 27, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77440-4\_11

The purpose of this chapter is to first analyze how Salween dams have been framed through state-project developer collaboration as hegemonic discourses of development. Underlining these discourses are that dams are development (Bakker 1999), and thus, that resistance to dams is anti-development. For villagers at the Salween who are anti-dam, they find themselves therefore positioned as anti-development by project developers (Modinator 2014). At the same time, local communities are situated in poor conditions of 'development' (in Thai language, kanphatthana), or lacking development; lacking access to resources, roads, government. In this chapter I analyze how individuals and communities have engaged in state development by proposing local development initiatives. The chapter thus shows how the villagers' anti-dam movement, in working with civil society, is one of the arenas through which communities are spurring local development. In this sense, it is overly simplistic for dam project proponents to claim that these communities are merely anti-dam. Actually, the Salween dam projects are just one of the local communities' concerns when contemplating future livelihoods. They are also advocating for land rights, community and citizenship rights, and access to basic infrastructure and government services. This chapter therefore proposes that we reposition and reframe the anti-dam movement as not a singular issue, but rather part of a wider array of movements surrounding local development. While both project developers and civil society campaign groups may focus on a single project or issue, both local communities and the government require a holistic approach to development planning.

#### 11.2 Methodology

This chapter is an analysis of information from dissertation research conducted on environmental politics and resource management in Thailand, along the Salween borderlands, during 2007–2010, along with fieldwork conducted in the same communities along the border from 2016 to 2017. Rather than avoiding communities exposed to political advocacy in development conflicts where NGOs and academics have influenced villager's perceptions (Sangkhamanee 2013: 12), three villages central to anti-dam campaigning along the Salween River in Thailand were chosen: Saw Myin Dong, Bon Bea Luang, and Muang Mean (See Fig. 11.1: Map of study sites (3 villages) along the Thai-Myanmar border). In-depth interviews with 25 key informants from these three villages were conducted, along with interviews with 11 local and national activists. Participant observation, along with participation in meetings, activities, and NGO field visits also shed light on the complexity of villagers' techniques to deal with 'development' while at the same time sustaining their lives, communities, and cultures.

The three villages are located in Mae Hong Son Province on the Thai side of the Salween River where it forms the Thai-Myanmar border. Diverse ethnic communities have settled along the Salween borderland, including Karen, Myanmar, Shan, and Khon Muang (Northern Thai). Most of the villagers in Saw Myin Dong and Muang Mean are ethnic Karen. Saw Myin Dong is comprised of 128 households,

Fig. 11.1 Map of study sites (3 villages) along the Thai-Myanmar border. Source Cartography by Chandra Jayasuriya, University of Melbourne, with permission

with a population of 926. Of this number, 661 people possess Thai identity cards. Muang Mean has 89 households (only one hamlet), with a population of 884. In Muang Maen, 631 people possess Thai identity cards. The residents of Bon Bea Luang mainly identify as Karen, Karen Muslim, and Shan. Bon Bea Luang has 279 households, with a population of 1,542. Only 603 residents possess Thai identity cards. On the Myanmar side of the Salween opposite the towns of Saw Myin Dong and Bon Bea Luang are Myanmar military camps, but opposite Muang Mean is a Karen National Union-held area. The proposed Wei Gyi and Dagwin Dams would be located upstream of these villages, and the proposed Hatgyi Dam would be located downstream.

Various discourses rationalizing plans for dams on the Salween River have emerged since the 1980s. The production of the meaning of, for instance, 'development' or 'nature' is a discursive practice, and such meaning emerges not only because of language or speech, but also because of actual practice to define the truth (Foucault 1977; Yoon 2001). Therefore, instead of taking these meanings for granted, one should analyze 'truth' and 'knowledge' as the practice of 'power' (Foucault 1980; Lorenzini 2015).

Hydropower dams as 'development' is one of these meanings. This 'truth' is co-constructed by states/capitalists as a dominant hegemonic discourse, serving as a guide for how to use a river to generate economic growth and national progress, and expressing the production of a Salween resource frontier by means of regulation. Project developers frame the river, via scientific discourse, as prime for hydro-electricity production, which in turn generates development (Bakker 1999). Meanwhile, the Myanmar and Thai states also use 'development discourse' (Escobar 1995; Gupta 1998) and 'civilizing the margins' (Duncan 2004) as a means to accelerate territorialization (Vandergeest 1996) and to enhance capitalist expansion into the borderlands. It is important to investigate how development is framed, and how development discourse may be changed to community development.

However, it is not only the state that can create 'truth'. The villagers and organizations I spoke to also make claims. For instance, community groups claim community development as a sub-discourse of development, albeit one which is set against the state/capitalist regime of dams as development 'truth'. I discuss the details further in the following sections as linked to production of environmental knowledge and discourse in Thailand.

### 11.3 Communities' Production of Knowledge and Discourse

Since the 1980s, Thai communities and social movements have evolved new approaches in their engagement with the state, including people's movements, mobility, and counter-knowledge production. This section briefly introduces these approaches in the broader context of Thailand, before we turn more specifically to the Salween borderlands. Firstly, the late 1980s saw the emergence of several new organizations representing rural demands, such as the Assembly of the Poor, a peasant movement for rights to land, water, and forests. They have used both the street and the media to open up space in national politics for rural demands. The strategies of these movements reflect a sophisticated appreciation of the wider national political economy, and this sophistication is attributed to the role of urban NGOs and leaders who possess both rural origins and urban experience (Baker 2000: 5–11).1

A second factor contributing to increased engagement with the state has been the mobility of rural villagers in response to a growing labor market. Since the 1950s, northeastern villagers began to migrate to Bangkok and later overseas in search of wage employment. Migration indicates that most northeastern villagers have made 'development' of their rural worlds a personal goal. They are "cosmopolitan villagers" who have gained a sophisticated understanding of the world and have become considerably less compliant than in the past. They found they could now turn to NGOs as well as to certain academics, newspapers, and even a few elected representatives for support of their concerns (Keyes 2014: 149–173). We can say that they have a "cosmopolitan vision" (Petras 1997: 19–20).

Thirdly, we can look at knowledge production found in the case of Thai Baan research. Thai Baan, or 'Villager' Research, is kind of local knowledge research that is positioned as a "counter-hegemonic approach" to conventional research and another means that local people have employed to contest development (Vaddhanaphuti 2004: v). In doing so, local knowledge in environmental management is used as a political force for dam-affected villagers to express their views and engage with government institutions to influence development planning and decision-making processes. In other words, it can be used to facilitate greater participation and empowerment of local resource users in the long term (Scurrah 2013: 45–47).

Along with these approaches in engagement with the state, the researcher will focus on social movements and communities' counter-knowledge production along the Salween borderlands. It is proposed that these strategies create a site of negotiation for the purpose of initiating dialogue with state power. As shown in the case of rural communities in Northeastern Thailand, the Isan people have embraced the concept of khwamcharoen: committing oneself to the pursuit of progress improvement in living conditions in the village (Keyes 2014: 156). Even though they have been strongly influenced by 'development' discourse originating from the

1 Baker (2000: 11) mentions that the Assembly of the Poor is a direct result of the development of a new rural political economy that reflected in the background and life-experience of its leaders. The improvement of the road network expands the cheap communications that mean rural people can access to Bangkok by overnight bus. There are also affordable motorcycles. The rural TV broadcast network was rapidly expanded that rural people increasingly owned a TV. Even sons of peasants who had trained as teachers or lawyers returned and supplanted city-based NGO workers and organized the peasantry movement. Many of them had worked outside the village, especially in Bangkok and as overseas migrant labor in the Middle East. Compared to the peasant movement in the Latin America, those who are leading the struggle, travel to the cities, participate in seminars and leadership training schools, and engage in political debates, even as they are rooted in the rural struggle, and engage in agricultural cultivation (Petras 1997: 19–20).

Thai government, rural Northeastern communities have reworked this discourse with reference to their own cultural traditions. With a cosmopolitan vision, they have not only opposed government-sponsored development programs, but also pursued development with the intent of effecting improvements in their standard of living (Keyes 2014: 168–170).

Similarly, Jarernwong (1999) studied the development of the meaning of "rural development" in Northern Thailand. He found that rather than either passively accepting or totally resisting the government-defined meaning of development, villagers possess their own vision of development. Since the 1980s, the meaning of development as defined by the state has shifted from state-sponsored infrastructure and construction to the distribution of economic benefits with people's participation. As a result, villagers fully accepted projects that responded to their needs, and only passively accepted projects with only partial benefits to them. Through various measures, both interpretive and otherwise, they adjusted unprofitable projects in a way that was more gainful to communities, both in the short and the long term (Jarernwong 1999, 2001).

### 11.4 Targeting the Salween Borderlands: Civilizing the Margins by the States

The Salween borderlands, which are marginal spaces of both the Thai and Myanmar states, have been modernized, or 'civilized,' by both governments (Bryant 1997). Civilizing the margins (Duncan 2004) induces dramatic modernization in the Salween borderlands. I take development as referring to the raising of people's standard of living, but development projects also reinforce the beliefs that those defined as in need of development are primitives, further reinforcing them as subjects in need of development. This is also embedded in the state policies from which the drive for modern development stems. In the case of the Salween dams, the main actors in this process are powerful transnational companies and state-owned enterprises, which are increasing the commodification of nature (MacLean 2008; Nevins/ Peluso 2008). This section discusses the process of commodification of the Salween River at the borderlands as a means of civilizing the margins, embedded in the wider political context of neo-liberalism at the Thai-Myanmar border.

In 1988 the Thai Prime Minister, General Chatichai Choonhawan, initiated an economic vision to transform Indochina from a "battlefield into a marketplace." This turning point brought capitalist development to the Thai-Myanmar border regions (Battersby 1999: 479). By 2003, the Thai government was engaged in bilateral cooperation with Myanmar on four mega-projects: the Tasang Dam on the Salween River, to be constructed by Thailand's MDX company; a coal mine in a Myanmar town opposite Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand; a port project in Dawei; and a Mae Sot-Yangon road project (Fawthrop 2003). Despite the fact that these development projects would affect the livelihoods of local people, the villagers were not informed about the projects by the Thai or the Myanmar governments. Most of the people interviewed for this study, for example, did not possess clear information about the Salween dam projects. The information they did receive was from NGOs rather than state actors.

Since the 1970s, dam developers have proposed to build large dams on the Salween River. These projects are currently being developed by companies from Thailand, China, and Myanmar. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand International (EGATi), Chinese corporations and Myanmar investors have joined to develop plans and proceed with the development of a number of hydroelectric dams on Myanmar's stretch of the Salween River (see Middleton et al., Chap. 3, this volume). This includes several projects, such as the Weigyi, Dagwin, and Hatgyi dams.

Two of the projects proposed along the border, Weigyi and Dagwin, have been delayed and potentially cancelled. Hatgyi, however, is still under consideration. The proposed Hatgyi Dam is a large dam at 1360 MW. The project investors are EGATi, Sinohydro Corporation, Myanmar's Department of Hydropower Planning (DHPP), and the Myanmar private investor International Group of Entrepreneur Company (IGOEC) (EGATi 2010; Salween Watch 2014). Hatgyi would be located on the Salween River, in Karen State, Myanmar not far downstream from the Thai border where this research was conducted.

The project has been met with strong opposition from civil society, with both local, regional and international groups joining in protests against Hatgyi and other Salween dams (Nang Shining 2011: 26–30; TERRA 2007; Salween Watch 2014). Opponents assert that the project should not move ahead based solely on the decisions of the state and private sector without the participation of local people. The project has been characterized by a lack of information disclosure (Chantawong 2011; TERRA 2007). Local people on both sides of the border are concerned about cross border impacts on local ecology and fisheries, and the inundation of residential areas and farmlands along the Salween River. The Myanmar government is supporting the Hatgyi Dam project as part of a strategy to remove ethnic armed groups from the dam site, as the project is to be located in an area of conflict between Karen insurgents, known as the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military (Nang Shining 2011; Hengsuwan 2013; Simpson 2013).

The Thai state-owned EGAT has issued numerous claims its activities will provide optimum benefits for communities in the long run (EGAT 2009a, cited in Nang Shining 2011: 2). EGAT has conducted a public relations campaign to promote the dam in communities on both sides of the border, and commissioned Chulalongkorn University's Environmental Research Institute to conduct an EIA of the Hatgyi Dam, which was completed in 2008. Although the dam developer EGATi promises to support affected communities, the Thai National Human Rights Commission proposed that the Thai government order EGATi to abandon plans to build the Hatgyi Dam (NGO-CORD North 2007, 2008). However, in 2009, Abhisit's government recommended further studies, and refused to stop the Hatgyi Dam project (Salween Watch 2010). In the recent years, EGAT has continued to push the project forward by asking KNU leaders to concede to EGAT's demands to conduct surveys at the dam site. Most recently, EGAT and a Chinese team have conducted new research in the area. Meanwhile, there has been increased militarization by the Myanmar army around the dam sites (Lambrecht 2000, 2004). EGAT has also approached local people in an effort to convince them to agree to the project (Salween Watch Coalition 2016).

The Salween dam projects – both inside Myanmar and on the Thai-Myanmar border, are being developed by Chinese-backed companies, state-owned Thai enterprises, and Myanmar companies, with backup from the Myanmar military in sensitive border regions. Development discourse is being used by states and energy investors as an entry point to turn the river into hydro-electricity for trade.

On the Thai side, the government has run community development projects, such as infrastructure development and construction of a health center and a school, and is framing the projects as an expansion of regional power development along the Salween borderlands. However, these projects are not simply good or bad. As Duncan (2004: 18) points out, "development projects are not the benign empowerment schemes that they claim to be, nor are they the all-powerful machines of ethnocide and cultural destruction that many activists claim." The minorities' choice between incorporation into government projects or resistance to government schemes depends on the particular context. In this case, local people in Thailand have chosen to participate in community development projects, but are resisting the Salween dam projects. This implies that the Thai state is not able to exert total control over populations on the border. Salween residents are prepared to confront the Thai government if they perceive that the Salween dams will be disruptive to their livelihoods and security.

International financial institutions such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and transnational energy investors also use regional energy security as a rationale to justify the Salween dam projects through power development projects such as the GMS Power Grid (ADB 2006). GMS countries also follow this theme: every state should think about its national power security and make plans for national power development (Middleton et al. 2009). These states-plus-capitalists have legitimized power over the Salween. They have identified the function of the Salween River as a source of energy, one used to serve the nations' and the region's prosperity. For this reason, they have attempted to impede local resource management and take control of the Salween River through the discourse of development and regional energy security. The way that states and international financial institutions envision power sharing and regional power trade is contested, however. Civil society groups continuously challenge international financial institutions, particularly the ADB, at the regional level, while at the same time challenging states to improve their national power development plans and energy projections.

Whether or not the Salween dams will be built depends neither upon the intention of local people nor that of individual states. Decision-making power is, rather, held by a combination of various parties. Transnational dam investors must therefore seek alternative ways to convince local people to acquiesce to dam construction. Several kinds of development are being introduced into the Salween borderlands in an effort to convince local people to agree to the Salween dams. Therefore, alternative development as conducted by states/capitalists has become a depoliticized program operating as a development apparatus to expand bureaucratic state power (Ferguson 2003). However, the Salween dam projects are still widely opposed by residents along the Thai-Myanmar border.

#### 11.5 Life and Development in Local Communities

Remote Salween communities do not receive much attention from the central Thai government. Infrastructure development projects are slowly being introduced into villages. The main road from Mae Sariang and Sob Moei District is of poor quality, and poor infrastructure makes it difficult for villagers to travel during the rainy season. Local water supplies are limited. Bon Bea Luang village enjoys higher infrastructure development than Saw Myin Dong and Muang Mean villages due to its central location, and several government offices have been set up there, including the National Park Unit and the main check point of the Border Patrol Soldier Unit. However, local people face difficulties due to limited residential and agricultural land, low incomes, and minimal health services.

The lives of border people are threatened by Thailand's natural resource conservation policies. Both a wildlife sanctuary and a national park have been established at the Thai-Myanmar border, where many small communities have settled down in forest areas along Salween tributaries. The forestlands around these villages are now part of the Salween National Park and Forest Reserve, posing conflicts with government authorities such as national park officers and foresters over resources use (Bundidterdsakul 2013, Chap. 9, this volume, and Lamb/Roth 2018). These authorities tend to perceive of local people as destroyers of the forest. Local residents must therefore struggle for their right to continue living in protected forest areas. The villagers see this as their most urgent problem, with no immediate solution pending.

Villagers in two communities I conducted research in, Saw Myin Dong and Muang Mean, expressed that they are proud of their lives because they have plenty of rice and fish. Most of them do rotational shifting cultivation and a few do paddy cultivation to produce rice for consumption. They also catch a lot of fish in the Salween and Moei rivers and gather wild plants and animals from the forest. Their livelihoods rely on the abundance of aquatic and forest resources. However, they are worried about the proposed Salween dam projects, particularly the environmental and social impacts of the Hatgyi Dam downstream. I observed that local people are particularly concerned that Hatgyi Dam would cause flooding and inadequate/unstable water levels in the river, which would prevent them from cultivating crops along the riverbanks. The river ecosystem would change, potentially causing the extinction of a number of local fish species. Additionally, affected people from many villages inside Myanmar would have to resettle, causing further displacement. Due to these concerns, the villagers have resisted the Salween dam projects through engagement in the anti-Salween dams movement, involvement in public participation processes under the Abhisit Government, and by undertaking Thai Baan research as a means of counter-knowledge production.

### 11.6 Civil Society and Communities Resisting the Hatgyi Dam Project

Local communities and the state have had a long-term engagement over broader issues of development of the borderlands. The issue of the Salween dams is a recent one, and one of many ways that the state and community have interacted. In resisting the Salween dams, local residents regularly interact with national and international civil society groups that are concerned about the environmental and human rights impacts of these projects. These civil society groups have mobilized a broader anti-Salween dam movement, and brought increased awareness of the potential environmental and social impacts of the dams to affected communities.

Coalitions of NGOs, including Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA), NGO-CORD North, Salween Watch and Living Rivers Siam (SEARIN), have organized several forums and debates on the Salween hydropower projects in Thailand, communicating with state parties, particularly the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT), to urge the government to order EGAT to stop the Hatgyi Dam and other Salween dam projects (NGO-CORD North 2011; TERRA 2007). This coalition of NGOs persuaded the NHRCT to scrutinize the Hatgyi Dam project in light of potential human rights and environment impacts. The issue of increased militarization at the upper dam construction site was noted as potentially exacerbating fighting between Myanmar soldiers and the KNU, which could have implications for the Thai government as refugees flee from the Myanmar side into Thailand (Nang Shining 2011: 30).

By collaborating with local, national, and international NGOs, local communities have organized their own Salween River Basin Network, consisting of 21 river basin management organizations across seven districts in Mae Hong Son Province, Tha Song Yang District and Tak Province (Nang Shining 2011: 30). They have conducted their campaigns in many ways, through rallies and protests, by collecting significant information, and submitting petition letters to relevant organizations and authorities. They submitted petition letters to the NHRCT and the Thai government, requesting the cancellation of the Hatgyi Hydropower Dam project (NGOs-CORD North 2008).

In 2009, the NHRCT submitted letters to the PM office to urge the government to halt the Hatgyi dam project for 90 days and a committee was formed to investigate potential human rights and environmental violations. Afterwards, the Information Disclosure Subcommittee on the Hatgyi Hydropower Project on the Salween River was set up to collect information and make recommendations to the Prime Minister. A coalition of organizations representing communities living along the Salween River in Myanmar and Thailand submitted a letter to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva calling for the Hatgyi Dam to be stopped immediately (Salween Watch Coalition 2011; Nang Shining 2011: 28–32).

Moreover, local representatives made recommendations to the Information Disclosure Subcommittee of the Hatgyi Hydropower Project on the Salween River and submitted a letter to the Prime Minister and Chairman of the Committee for the Investigation of Human Rights Violations regarding information disclosure and public hearings for the Hatgyi Dam (Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand International 2010; Salween Watch 2010). In 2011, EGATi held a public information disclosure meeting following the recommendations of the NHRCT. Despite this intervention by the sub-committee, the planning of the Hatgyi Dam has continued after Prime Minister Yinluck Shinawatra came to power in 2011. However, the subsequent military coup saw the military take power in May 2014 and the sub-committee was no more (Salween Watch Coalition 2016; Thepgumpanat/ Tanakasempipat 2017).

There is still interest from the Thai government, however. The Thai government has expressed that it wants to continue energy cooperation with the Myanmar government and Aung San Suu Kyi insisted that the Thai government continue cooperation on the dam project during her visit in June 2016 (Prachachat 2016; Public Statement 2016). EGATi is willing to invest more than 100 billion baht in Hatgyi project. In addition to the dam project, the Thai government also expects to build a pumping station to divert water to the Bhumibol dam to alleviate drought in Central Thailand. Mr. Watchara Hemratchatanan, the president of EGATi, is on the record as expressing support, and that "we need to wait and see the Myanmar government and its negotiation with ethnic groups" (Prachachat 2016).

# 11.6.1 Villagers Conduct Thai Baan Research

As mentioned above, Thai Baan research carried out by villagers was an alternative to conventional research. In collaboration with SEARIN and a local NGO, Salween communities conducted Thai Baan Research with the initial findings released as a book in 2005 (Committee of Researchers of the Salween Sgaw Karen 2005). They attempted to involve local government in the research, and made the results of the study available to the Mae Hong Son provincial government, especially findings around various fish species found in the Salween and its tributaries. An additional Salween Study was conducted in 2005 through collaboration with the Foundation for Ecological Recovery based in Bangkok, the Mae Yuam Civic Group in Mae Sariang District, and representatives of Salween communities. The Salween Study compiled information on the socio-cultural and economic significance of the Salween River (Chantawong/Longcharoen 2007: 23).

The Thai Baan Research found 70 fish species in the Salween River and its tributaries (Committee of Researchers of the Salween Sgaw Karen 2005) and the Salween Study identified up to 83 species of fish and aquatic animals. Some are endemic and rare species (Chantawong/Longcharoen 2007). Moreover, previous studies conducted by fishery experts identified at least 170 fish species in the Salween River Basin, many of them endemic. According to fishery experts, there could be between 200 and 500 species of fish in the Salween Basin (Chantawong/ Longcharoen 2007: 26). The biodiversity and ecology of the Salween River Basin would be severely affected if the Salween dams were built, with drastic consequences for local people's livelihoods.

In line with other findings on local knowledge (i.e., Agrawal 1995, 2002; Laungaramsri 2001) this local knowledge has also been used in a range of ways. It is used by villagers to express their views and engage with government institutions to influence development planning and decision-making processes. Or, as Lamb (2018: 1–2) explains, "local knowledge is an agentive tool for communities to critique and find alternatives to status quo development schemes, which overlook resources users and their knowledge, but that in some ways the focus on the 'local' in local knowledge elides or limits that same struggle for representation." In my analysis, having voiced strong concern around the potential loss of their livelihoods, Salween communities are through these publications represented as 'anti-dam.' Although these communities are or may be anti-dam, however, they are not against development. The next section shows how villagers have tactically negotiated development with state agencies and NGOs, defining 'development' on their own terms and expressing their own demands.

# 11.6.2 The Villagers and khwamcharoen

The development of hydropower dams on the Salween River is one of many broader development issues that border communities have engaged in with the state. It is difficult to judge to what extent local people are being governed by the state.2 Although they express determination and have proposed their own models for future livelihoods and community development, as seen in some of the local knowledge publications, this does not mean that villagers in Thailand reject government assistance or intervention.

The Salween borderlands are marginal zones, where both the central Thai and Myanmar governments try to exert control over their respective citizens and territories. As this chapter focuses on the Thai side, it is important to ask: how do local

2 In modern Thai usage, the word can be made into a noun by adding the prefix 'khwam' [–ness], and the word charoen can be found in the 14th century and probably earlier. In the old sense, it means cultivating, growing, increasing, building up or expanding until complete in a positive sense, which applied mostly to nonmaterial matters. However, its meaning is changed in 19th century to imply secular or worldly development, material progress, and technological advance. Therefore, the emphasis of charoen is on material conditions, such as paved roads, electricity, machines, and modern buildings (Winichakul 2000: 531).

people perceive of the Thai state and its activities, and why are they unable to reject the state? For the local people, the Thai state plays an important role in the improvement of their wellbeing, even as it takes control of their territory.

Local people want to improve their difficult living conditions, such as poor roads, lack of agricultural and residential land, limited access to forestland and lack of citizenship status; they need the state and local government's help to improve these conditions. This section examines how local people articulate their own concept of development as self-proclaimed subjects. Of particular consideration are improvements in local infrastructure, access to basic services, citizenship, historical linkages with the Thai King, and disaster response.

# 11.6.3 Local Infrastructure and Basic Services

Transportation is a common concern among local people, particularly in Saw Myin Dong and Muang Mean. Both these villages are located far from paved roads, and boat travel can be limited and difficult, depending on season, time of day (no travel allowed after dark), and depending on security issues. Ai Srithong, a resident of Saw Myin Dong, stated that the quality of the roads in Muang Mean is low: "The concrete road in the village was built ten years ago. Riding a motorcycle to Bon Bea Luang village takes four hours, or three hours by car, but only one hour by boat. Unfortunately, there is no public transportation here."

Road construction is linked to local politics of development, as discussed between Ai Srithong and Sowan, a research assistant, in February 2010:

Sowan: "Did people attempt to find money to improve the road? Was there any proposal submitted to the government?"

Ai Srithong: "Yes, we submitted a proposal to the Sub-district Administrative Organisation (TAO).  I asked them to expand the road along the sharp curves, but they could not do it because there was no machine big enough… They didn't bring a good one. So, the road is still not good. It was okay when they first repaired it, but it collapsed during a day of heavy rain in the rainy season. People travelling here have to bring digging tools along with them. They sometimes have to push and pull motorcycles stuck in the mud."

For these villagers, paving the road is a good project, but they are suspicious about whether it will actually begin, even when they see construction workers come to survey in nearby villages.

## 11.6.4 Citizenship

The main concern of the state is security, and the military takes the role of national protector, as evidenced at military checkpoints along the border on both the Thai and Myanmar sides of the Salween River. One of the political tools used by the state to control its subjects is the granting or denial of citizenship. Internal borders are manipulated by new alliances of border polities; district officials, sub-district and village heads (Sakboon 2011). Villagers perceive citizenship as a means to access basic social services, such as health care and education, as well the right to live in Thailand (Grundy‐Warr/Wong Siew Yin 2002; Sakboon 2011: 229; Hengsuwan 2017: 92).

Nevertheless, advocating for citizenship rights is an uneasy process for border residents due to registration and procedures that are tactically exploited by state agencies at a local level, including district officials, sub-district and village heads. These state officials have the power and authority to enforce policy and approve or deny villagers' applications, and manipulate citizenship registration laws and processes as an apparatus to control and abuse local residents. As a result, villagers must find alliances and networks to gain more bargaining power in negotiations for citizenship, and a provocative ally are the local NGOs (Sakboon 2011: 235–240).

Villagers in the Salween borderlands have long struggled to obtain citizenship. Data collected by a local NGO in 2016 shows that nearly half of the residents of three villages are stateless people (about 1,452 out of 3,352 people). In July 2016, the researcher talked to Lung Jai, a Muslim resident of Bon Bea Luang village, regarding these matters. His main concern is citizenship. He said:

I often see villagers with no ID cards, and they cannot use Thai language to communicate with outsiders. They are questioned by the authorities regarding whether or not they are Thai, and are often arrested. So, I think that Thai language is an important skill to make officials understand us, and I've been learning to speak and write Thai language for two years. I've continued to improve my knowledge, reading books about law and citizenship, and attaining NGO trainings. After I was appointed a leader of the Muslim community in 2008, I worked with local NGOs to help stateless villagers attain legal status and to register for Thai citizenship. Now I am retired and a new leader is working on this issue, since a lot of us still don't have Thai citizenship.

As Lung Jai mentioned, local NGOs play a crucial role in building cooperation and connecting villagers to district officials. This has led to advances in the citizenship process. Noh La, a Karen woman NGO activist, stated that in 2016, 476 villagers from three villages had received Thai ID cards, but 976 villagers were still stateless. Noh La herself is a local resident who has accessed education and transformed into an NGO activist. Although the citizenship registration process is going better than in the past, by 2016 only one-third of surveyed villagers had received Thai ID cards.

## 11.6.5 Village Histories and Relationship with the King of Thailand

Another means of gaining recognition by the Thai state is by identifying yourself or your village as a state subject through village history (see also, Lamb 2014a). The late King Bhumibol visited the Salween border area three times between 1960 and 1970 in relation to national security concerns. Pa Te Sae Yi, a resident of Muang Mean village, recalled the first time the late King of Thailand visited:

I don't remember the exact year, as I was a young child, but my mother and father remember clearly. When the King visited us, this was still a small village of only 5-7 houses. The only way to make a living at that time was by doing rotational farming in the mountains. So the King granted a royal patronage, meaning government money, to dig two irrigation canals so we could do lowland rice farming. Those two canals are still in use today.

He was touched by the late king's mercy, saying that the late King saw the difficulty the villagers faced and wanted to support them to do lowland rice farming. After the King's visit, the government brought new development projects to the Salween communities, building public health clinics and schools, as well as support from the police and the border patrol. Villagers believe that their quality of life improved after the King's visits, as the government came to recognize them as Thai subjects. Hence, this is applying a politics of belonging in relation to the late King and the state.

# 11.6.6 Disaster Response

Bon Bea Luang village is located in the foothills on a tiny piece of flat land along the Salween, as the villagers have not been allowed to settle further inland. The houses are built in a row, close to one other, along a narrow road. Due to the lack of land, the front rooms of the houses protrude onto the edge of the road. A view at the back of these houses shows that they are perched precariously on high wooden poles above a deep creek.

This is a dangerous place to live, particularly in the rainy season when the villagers face erosion and flooding. In 2009, Nongnut, a Shan resident of Bon Bea Luang, said that in the rainy season, a mass of water ran down the mountainsides, causing severe erosion and sweeping away the houses located near the stream. More than ten houses were ruined. Until now, the Karen and Shan families who lost their homes have not received any land to build new houses. The local government came to help them later, by offering some financial support.

"The affected families had to move to stay with their relatives. No official came to provide them land. They didn't know where to build new homes. My mom also moved to stay at my relative's house. TAO staff eventually came to help them, giving each family amount 30,000 baht. But my mom received only 21,500 baht, and no land," said Nongnut.

In 2011 and 2015, many villages located in mountainous zones in Mae Hong Son Province, including Bon Bea Luang village, were severely affected by heavy rains, floods, and landslides. As the case of Bon Bea Luang shows, affected villagers had no choice but to move in with relatives. They want to expand their communities and build homes in safer areas, but there is no space available. The forestlands surrounding the village are protected areas where the state does not allow them to settle. In my observations, this has meant that the state has pushed them onto increasingly marginal land. For this reason, villagers have joined the land rights movement, advocating for community rights and engaging in the on-going process of land field surveys and map digitization. They hope it will give them the legal right to settle in better, less marginal land, in the future.

All of these efforts demonstrate that the villagers are actually pro-development, however, development (in Thai: khwamcharoen) must take place on their own terms. Local people have long negotiated development that they identify as khwamcharoen based on their experiences, and serving their own vision, which is different from that of the state and the dam developers. The next section shows how communities reject development when it comes from a source they do not trust, and when they worry that agreeing to this development will be perceived as sanctioning the dam projects.

# 11.7 Negotiating khwamcharoen: EGAT and the State

This section argues that the state and dam developers use 'modern-ness' as a discourse of development to convince local communities to accept the Salween dam projects. EGAT tries to persuade villagers to acquiesce to their vision of development (khwamcharoen) through donations and other incentives. Local communities' relationship with EGAT shows that these communities are anti-dam but not anti-development, as villagers want development on their own terms. First we will examine how EGAT has sought to work in Thai communities via its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programme, when faced with strong civil society resistance to usher in development of the Hatgyi and Weigyi projects.

Local communities, however, widely conclude that this is not a sincere effort to bring development to their areas, but a trick to persuade them to support the dam projects. We will then examine how communities have sought to negotiate with the state over a longer period to bring 'development' to their communities on their own terms.

# 11.7.1 EGAT and khwamcharoen

The state-owned EGAT has played a major role in feeding Thailand's energy demand for the past five decades. Its privilege is embedded in its national duty to drive the country to the khwamcharoen. The nation's progress and EGAT's profit are intertwined. Hence, EGAT has begun to invest in neighboring countries, Laos in particular. Thailand receives advantages from this outbound investment, obtaining less expensive electric power and electricity system security and avoiding indebtedness from international loans for dam construction that would affect Thai natural resources (Prasityuseel 2001: ix).

EGAT publicly claims that they promote CSR to support society, communities, and the environment. "EGAT has strictly observed all applicable laws and regulations in all processes of its operations and activities, both before and during the project development and throughout the operating life of its power facilities. Particular emphasis has been placed on the implementation of all environmental and social impact prevention and mitigation measures as well as environmental monitoring programs" (Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand 2009a: 76– 77). CSR appears to be good in theory, but it has not been successfully applied in practice. EGATi engaged in very limited CSR during the preparation process of the Hatgyi Dam project (Nang Shining 2011: 92). EGAT donated money to environmental conservation projects and tried to show that they care for the environment, but they still exploit natural resources through their large-scale projects. EGAT ramped up CSR activities in local communities to create an image of a socially conscious and ethical business (Nang Shining 2011; Vathanavisuth 2009).

EGAT also tries to work indirectly in communities. As Mr. Pornchai Rujiprapha, secretary-general of the Ministry of Energy and the governor of EGAT stated, "EGAT has designated 120 million baht (US\$3.6 million) to assist in public health, education and employment for local villagers in the Salween dam area" (Sai Silp 2007). In reality, this is part of EGAT's mass propaganda effort (karn tam mounchon). As Nang Shining, a civil society activist, put it, "research findings reveal that EGAT international has exercised a philanthropic approach to community investment as its CSR activity, which villagers felt was undertaken to sway those opposed to the dam project" (Nang Shining 2011: 92).

At the local level, as part of its CSR strategy, EGAT has tried in many ways to gain access to communities in order to persuade them to support the Salween dam projects. Where the villagers are poor, EGAT uses khwamcharoen and the King's sufficiency economy theory as ideological tools to approach Salween communities. EGAT persuaded local people to join their sufficiency agriculture program, which included such activities as producing organic fertilizer and dishwashing liquid. Local leader Ai Chamnan said,

EGAT (karnfaifah) is not involved with making khwamcharoen, but it intervenes to support the TAO with money to run activities, particularly agricultural activities such as catfish farms (liangpladuk), and making biological fermented liquid (nammakchewapap). This allows EGAT to promote its name in helping communities.

In 2008, EGAT provided books and other materials to the school in Saw Myin Dong village. This resulted in disagreements among villagers over supporting EGAT because the villagers were skeptical of EGAT's long-term tactics. Ai Chamnan said:

There were public health mobile services in Saw Myin Dong village two or three years ago. The first time a medical team came here we accepted it. Villagers came to use the service. The second time, they came again. We wondered where the doctors come from. A doctor said that EGAT hired them to travel from Mae Sariang Hospital to start the mobile service. All of the funding came from EGAT. So the villagers rejected it. They didn't come to use the services once they understood that it was EGAT's trick.

EGAT also establishes good relationships with government officials. They were also suspected of having connections to high-level military personnel in order to use soldiers to coerce villagers to give in to EGAT's plans. Many residents in the community, including a villager named Ai Sanong, alleged that EGAT was providing funding to official departments that work closely with the community, including the education department and the military.

Lung Sanit, a Karen elder of Saw Myin Dong, also confirmed that soldiers based in the village tried to coerce the villagers to accept the Salween dam projects in 2008. Lung Sanit remembers well what the soldiers often said to villagers: the government will bring development to you. You should not resist.

In July 2009, I met Ai Sanan, a local Thai Karen activist, and Ai Chamnan, involved in supporting local people to protect their rights and natural resources. They have engaged in a number of anti-Salween dam campaign activities. I discussed the matter of EGAT's public relations strategies in local areas with them. Ai Sanan said:

EGAT is trying to gather mass support (duengmounchon) for the Hatgyi dam in the Thai-Burmese [Myanmar] border zones. Last year, they gave people on the Burma side mosquito nets. Once people realized that the mosquito nets were from EGAT, they sent hundreds of them back to show that they rejected EGAT.

Ai Chamnan then told me this story:

Making khwamcharoen through organizations for villagers happened in the past. Villagers knew that EGAT helped to develop the village, so if EGAT wanted to construct a dam, they would have to agree with EGAT's plans. That was EGAT's aim. They are very clever… Most villagers and government officials thought that the dam was good because it would produce electricity for us. Villagers said, 'the dam brings khwamcharoen to our villages. Why are you against that?' I argued 'what does khwamcharoen mean? It means money, right? People in Mae Sariang, for instance, used to receive money from logging the Salween forests. Where did the money go? They no longer have money. The meaning of khwamcharoen is sustainable development. When we explained that to the villagers, they understood better. The dam project will be approved if we don't oppose it. However, it is difficult to oppose it because the decision-making process is not transparent. If we do not struggle, they will build it.

In brief, EGAT has tried to persuade local people to agree to dam construction on the Salween by exercising a philanthropic strategy within local communities at the Thai-Myanmar border and swaying them away from opposing dam construction. Due to widespread resistance to the dam projects, EGAT has publicly promoted their CSR strategy to support good work for society, communities, and the environment. At the local level, EGAT has tried many ways to gain access to communities in order to persuade villagers to support the Salween dam projects. EGAT has also used khwamcharoen and the King's 'sufficiency economy' theory to approach communities by persuading villagers to join their development initiatives.

However, local communities are very concerned about the Salween dams. They are suspicious of the notion of dams as a means to achieve national development, and thus understand EGAT's tricks and tend to not support EGAT's CSR program. Villagers continue resisting large dam projects because of concerns over losing access to local resources, and they are also negotiating khwamcharoen to initiate community development on their own terms. The next section will analyze how development is negotiated, examining how villager-led khwamcharoen and EGATled khwamcharoen have been articulated.

### 11.8 Analysis: Villagers, the Thai State and Power Relations

The uneven power relations are evident when considering where does this electricity come from and who bears the costs. Lung Kaew's view is that dams and khwamcharoen are related. Large dams generate electricity, and then electricity makes khwamcharoen possible. Because of this, conflicts occur not only at the village level, but also at higher levels.

In addition, electricity projects can cause or exacerbate conflict in the village, ethnic conflicts in particular. The villagers are aware that they live in poor and risky conditions, and are denied rights and opportunities such as citizenship, access to state services, and legal land tenure. Villagers view the Thai state as a development-centric state that provides them with development based on the notion of material progress. They think that the state should be involved in improving the quality of their lives. Hence, they focus on material progress, which causes them to put their faith in the state. However, they still question the consequences of development projects, in which the idea of khwamcharoen is embedded. They worry that development projects might disrupt their traditional livelihoods and quality of life. For this reason, villagers request specific kinds of development that they feel will benefit them. They selectively accept or reject development programs introduced by the government and supported by local NGOs. As a result, knowledge production is a contested terrain that both pro-dam and anti-dam sides use to claim legitimacy and power over Salween resources (Vaddhanaphuti 2004; Scurrah 2013; Lamb 2014a).

#### 11.9 Conclusions

Salween villagers are frequently represented as anti-development due to their widespread opposition to the Salween dam projects, which threaten their communities and livelihoods. Labeling Salween communities as anti-development is an oversimplification, however. Of course, they oppose the Salween dams due to the potential environmental and social impacts of these projects. However, a more sophisticated tool used by local communities is to negotiate with state agencies to assert their legitimacy as Thai subjects. They do this by narrating their communities' history of belonging to the Thai state, and by working with local NGOs to gain Thai citizenship. This is not simply participation in rural improvement projects initiated by the government agencies as Walker (2012) and Jakkrit Sangkhamanee (2013) mention, but is rather strategic (Lamb 2014a). The more the villagers engage with anti-Salween dam and land rights movements run by NGOs, the more support they get from those NGOs. They also negotiate with the local government to get support and gain benefits from community development. This chapter shows how villages have had a far longer engagement with the state, which can also be understood as linking the 'state' to the borderlands (Lamb 2014b). Therefore, they have been involved in long-term negotiations over development, both local and national. Salween communities are not anti-development, in this view, but rather seek development on their own terms.

Nevertheless, Salween villagers with connections to NGOs tend to be simplistically framed as anti-dam and thus anti-development. As the villagers oppose the Salween dam projects, the Thai and Myanmar states and the transnational companies, particularly EGAT, have attempted to reduce and/or remove this resistance. The Thai state and EGAT have also introduced alternative development as a discourse to expand their power over the Salween borderlands, making the local people submissive and swaying them from opposition to dam construction activities along the Salween. Some individuals, and organizations, use khwamcharoen and the Thai King's 'sufficiency economy' theory to approach border communities and persuade them to join their development programs. Corporate Social Responsibility is publicly promoted by EGAT to develop a good image for the company, and EGAT exercises a philanthropic strategy within local communities. These discursive practices bely the high level of exclusion inherent in the Salween dam projects, which would turn the Salween River into a source of hydro-electricity and exclude border people from accessing the Salween's resources.

When dams come to signify development, anti-dam communities are simplistically framed as anti-development. Salween communities are in fact much more sophisticated than frequently represented, and participation in the anti-dam movement is one of a number of arenas through which communities are seeking local development. Local communities have attempted to engage in development production by proposing community development initiatives based on their own desires and in accordance with their traditional livelihoods, and by participating in a number of movements to improve their lives. Individuals and communities have engaged with land rights movements and networks, and in struggles for citizenship rights.

As Keyes (2014: 172) points out, villagers in Thailand have reworked the discourse on 'development' to be meaningful with reference to their own experience, and challenge government policies that tend to obstruct their interests, or policies imposed on them without consultation. Local communities see their participation in the anti-dam movement as a strategy to improve local development. Participation in the anti-Salween dam movement is one of the villagers' many strategies to articulate their own meaning of local development. Therefore, it is necessary that we reposition the anti-dam movement as not a singular movement, but as a wider network of movements surrounding local development. While the anti-dam movement is often positioned as issue-based, this chapter proposes that we instead position the movement as one that is directly related to other issues of interest to local communities. Local villagers are flexible in their thinking, taking into account a wide array of influences on their livelihoods at the same time. Their anti-dam campaign activities must thus be understood in relation to other community initiatives. Communities are not simply anti-dam; they selectively accept or reject development on their own terms.

#### References

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## Chapter 12 Powers of Access: Impacts on Resource Users and Researchers in Myanmar's Shan State

K. B. Roberts

#### 12.1 Introduction

Research on resource use has at its core focused on what shapes people's access to natural resources, highlighting key issues ranging from conflict, state territorializion, market forces to social difference (Rocheleau/Edmunds 1997; Ribot 1998; Peluso 1996; Schroeder 1999). In Southeast Asia, scholars have contributed to broader understandings of the links between violence and access (Le Billon 2001; Hengsuwan 2013; Koubi et al. 2014; Peluso/Vandergeest 2011), and recent work in Myanmar has shown how an increase in capital flow into regions as a result of ceasefire agreements has altered access to natural resource for people in these areas (Hunsberger et al. 2017; Woods 2011). Access rights, however, are not only property rights, but also include an ability to derive benefits, and this includes more than just material benefits like livelihoods, but also knowledge (Elmhirst 2011; Peluso/Lund 2011; Ribot/Peluso 2003). Yet, little to no research has interrogated the impacts of access on knowledge production and the broader links between research access and local resource access. In Myanmar, where this research is based, asking questions about researcher access is particularly salient. Due to a history of conflict and present conflicts, the forests along the Thanlwin River, particularly in Shan State, remains largely inaccessible to outsiders. This restricted access to researchers has made it difficult to investigate the impacts of decisions over natural resource access and use. In this chapter, I ask: in what ways does the changing political and governance conditions in Myanmar influence access to natural resources, not only concerning material objects like forest and river resources, but also forms of knowledge production?

To address this question, I carried out research between August 2015 to March 2016 in two villages in Shan State (Fig. 12.1: Map of Study Sites in Shan State, Myanmar) whose residents rely heavily on forest and river resources to provide for

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K. B. Roberts, Ph.D. Candidate, York University; Email<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
© The Author(s) 2019

C. Middleton and V. Lamb (eds.), Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River, The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics— Society—Science 27, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77440-4\_12

Fig. 12.1 Map of study sites in Shan State, Myanmar. Source Cartography by Chandra Jayasuriya, University of Melbourne, with permission

their livelihoods. Both villages are also located near to the Thanlwin River, and would be impacted by the proposed Mong Ton dam. Formerly known as the Tasang dam, the Mong Ton dam is set to be the largest dam in Southeast Asia, with a reservoir that would impact people beyond these two village, overall an estimated 12,000 to over 120,000 people (International Rivers 2012; Salween Watch 2016; Maung 2016).1 Research in these two Shan State villages finds that both the resource user and researcher must navigate their access through state and

1 Discrepancy between reservoir and impact lies in the difference between pro-dam and anti-dam information notices.

semi-autonomous institutions and a terrain of informal and formal governance arrangements, environmental degradation, and shared identity.

To draw out these multifaceted dimensions of access—including researchers' and resources users'—I present this work in the following sections. First, I provide an overview of the concepts of access I draw on, before that access also affects knowledge production in this case. I then discuss the collaborative methods this project used and the tools we implemented to increase transparency for the research process. Next, I delve into the two case studies of North and South Village to highlight how the informal and formal governance, environmental degradation, and shared identity affect access for resource users and researchers. The findings highlight the complicated and co-produced relationships and mechanisms that surround access influence access. Additionally, this research finds that as these state and semi-autonomous institutions exercise their authority, the informal and formal governance mechanisms and the increase in environmental degradation from extraction activities increases the vulnerability of local communities and reduces their ability to benefit from natural resources.

#### 12.2 Concepts: Expanding a Theory of Access

In "A Theory of Access", Ribot and Peluso (2003: 153) "define access as the ability to benefit from things—including material objects, persons, institutions, and symbols."

Access is gained, they argue, not only through property rights, but also through influencing power relations that can also influence the practices of others. This chapter seizes on this examination power and relations, regarding not only material objects like forest and river resources, but also forms of knowledge production.

Aspects and effects of access discussed in this paper draw on theorizations of access to understand first, the roles of formal and informal governance (Sturgeon 2004; Ribot/Peluso 2003: 2), second, environmental degradation (Blaikie/ Brookfield 1987; Dove 1993; Forsyth 1996; Peluso 1996; Rocheleau 1995), and third, shared identity (Elmhirst 2011; Ribot/Peluso 2003) in influencing the ability to derive benefits. Formal and informal governance influences access authority through claims to a territory, that is legally sanctioned, locally negotiated, or simply socially acquiesced (Sturgeon 2004; Ribot/Peluso 2003).