Conference: Marine Environmental Politics in the 21st Century: MacArthur Program on Multilateral Governance, Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
Paper Abstracts:
Supin Wongbusarakum
Department of Geography, University of Hawaii
The Urak Lawoi sea nomads have lived in the Adang Archipelago, situated in the Andaman Sea, southwest of Thailand, for five to six generations. Until recently, the relative isolation of the archipelago has had the general effects of fostering autonomy, conserving traditional customs, and supporting unique patterns of resource use and management that were strongly linked to specialized activities based on local coastal and marine resources. However, present-day technologies, increasing accessibility to the archipelago, and outside economic interests are greatly accelerating the pace of change in the region, and these traditional patterns of coastal and marine resource use and environmental sensibility have come under considerable stress. The Urak Lawoi are now facing the multiple challenges of modernization, the legislation of a national marine park in the area their livelihood depends upon, and rapid integration into the mainstream of the Thai society and the world market economy. At a practical level, this means participating in the solution of problems related to: limited access to and rights over local resources; competition for resources; degradation of the immediate environment; disintegration of local autonomy and identity; and increasing dependency on outsiders.
The present study applies political ecology and the patron - client relationship as theoretical frameworks for investigating the changes currently taking place in local ways of coastal and marine resource use and management and for assessing their impact on the coastal and marine environment. Particularly in the study area, the relationships between the Urak Lawoi and the marine and coastal environment are closely intertwined with a complex discourse of power, state authority, and the growing influence of outside middlemen. For the purposes of this study, special attention will be paid to the changes in the last 20 years. In this period, the Adang Archipelago was designated as a part of the first and biggest national marine park of Thailand; the tourism industry has undergone rapid intensification as the archipelago came to be regarded as the last pristine marine destination of the country; and market pressures to commercially fish the waters of the Archipelago have dramatically increased.
Next Abstract:
Karen Barton and Emily Young: The Contested Global Terrain of Gray Whale Protection
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