SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt
SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt
SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt
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208<br />
The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy <br />
International Conference<br />
“…the Inpaeng elderly would like them (the community ecologists) to<br />
understand soil, sky, Mother Nature and seasons. They want their offspring to<br />
realise the power and the value of farmers. Self-reliant farmers are much<br />
better than unskilled labours in big cities.”<br />
Inpaeng’s community ecologists were trained in many courses to develop their<br />
self-reliance competencies such as building the earth house, Phuphan’s biodiversity,<br />
hill tribes’ local wisdom of forest management, Thai traditional medicine, herbal<br />
medicine, organic agriculture, team management, network management or even<br />
website programming.<br />
These training courses were generated or sponsored by Inpaeng administrators<br />
who encouraged the youngster to set their own program of self-reliance agriculture.<br />
The elders expected that those youngsters can skip through the pitfalls of failed<br />
agricultural patterns and learn from the experience of former generations.<br />
The initial outcome of this program is that the community ecologists hold their<br />
own projects that they can make a living of it. Then, the long-term objectives are to<br />
practice the self-reliant agriculture, to keep the Phuphan Mountain range forest from<br />
depletion, and finally to cool down the globe.<br />
Environment seems to be the key outcome of all Inpaeng activities. Inpaeng<br />
people know how to live with the forest. The most challenging mission of the<br />
network is to balance the two extreme attitudes about the forest. First group:<br />
considering the forest as an unlimited resource to exploit without concerning the<br />
effect of depletion. Another group thinks of the forest as strictly untouchable arenas<br />
conserved for the sake of the environment. This study found that Inpaeng concept<br />
did not fit in either two extremes. The issue that concerns the Inpaeng is the<br />
“interaction” between people and the forest. They wanted to use the forest without<br />
depleting it. In Inpaeng perspectives, the forests help people to gain the self-reliance<br />
competency. At the same time, the self-reliance lifestyle directly and indirectly<br />
generates less environment impact compare to the industrialized lifestyle.<br />
In conclusion, this component of the research found that Thai social capital has<br />
three components Survival, Sufficiency, and Sustainability (3Ss). These attributes<br />
were the combination of local wisdom and modern management. Promoting Thai<br />
social capital, or 3Ss, did not mean require that people live in the ancient way of life.<br />
It may seem that the “good old days” in Thai rural area was the ideal community to<br />
live in. However, according to the situations mentioned earlier in this chapter and in<br />
chapter 1, it is impossible to live “back to the past”. Rather, the concept of Thai<br />
social capital encouraged people to live “back to the roots”. To go “back to the<br />
roots”, people needed to analyse their lifestyle, their environment, their networks<br />
and others. In short, people needed to gain a deep understanding on their<br />
culture(Seri Phongpit et al. no publishing year), knowing the strengths, weaknesses,<br />
opportunities and threats and to utilize all forms of capital they had in order to<br />
“stand by their own roots” or to manage their own lifestyles wisely and realistically.