UUKS Seminar | Seeing ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fire from above and from below: Governing forest fire and haze pollution in Northern Thailand | Chaya Vaddhanaphuti

Forest fire and haze pollution in northern Thailand has become a recurring seasonal problem for more than over two decades. Due to health concern associated with high PM2.5 level, in 2013, the “zero burning” measure was put in place at the national level. Chiang Mai province together with multiple stakeholders, on the other hand, argued for “the right to burn”, based on indigenous people’s need of cultural fire practices for survival. From 2021, individuals are allowed to conduct any burning activity only if he/she register into “FireD” decision support system via website or application. At an optimal atmospheric condition where smoke from land can be blown away by the wind, fire can be burned – hence a good fire; a legal fire.

The goal of the FireD decision support system is for communities to collaborate with local administrative organizations to demonstrate their wisdom in managing forest resources and forest fire problems. However, at the same time, the FireD system, as a new set of technological tools composed of climatic models and satellite data, is not flexible to, and at times, incompatible with, indigenous fire knowledge and practices. It also isolates fire from its dependent ecosystem. Whether a fire activity is considered ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is up to calculations, indices and expert authorities away from the village, instead of fire being in relation to atmospheric rhythms and cultural knowledge.

With unequal power between law enforcement officers and villagers, the latter group is pressured, and in fear of punishment as FireD has become a tool for reinforcing negative image of swidden agriculture. FireD system has become a new kind of uncertainty on top of their already uncertain daily lives. As a response, new types of fire emerged: fire born out of emotion, jealousy and hatred among community members, and against officers.

Speaker

Chaya Vaddhanaphuti is a human/environmental geographer interested in socioenvironmental issues from perspectives of political ecology, more-than-human and relational geographies, the Anthropocene, and Science and Technology Studies (STS). His research interests include cultures of weather and climate change, Thai climate policy, environment justice and indigenous resource governance of Northern Thailand.

Chaya is currently engaged in research projects on 1) pyro-aerogeographies and pyro-aeropolitics of forest fire-haze pollution governance in northern Thailand, 2) indigenous environmental guardians under threats of climate mitigation and adaptation discourses and 3) creative games and communication tools for transdisciplinary forest co-management.

Moderator

Marielle Matthee has a background in environmental law (PhD in international law) and combines the legal perspective with literature in her research. Currently she is an affiliated fellow at KITLV. In her research she uses an esoteric approach to explore the ways of nonhuman communication in environmental governance.

Format, date, time & venue

This seminar is a hybrid event and will be held in the conference room of KITLV, Herta Mohr building, room 1.30, Witte Singel 27 A, Leiden and online via Zoom, on Thursday 16 January from 15.30 – 17.00 PM (CET).

Registration

If you want to join this seminar on location, please register via: [email protected].

If you wish to join this seminar online, please register here.

UUKS

This seminar is part of the monthly Unraveling Unconventional Knowledge Systems (UUKS) seminar series.

Image

At the end of March 2023, Karen ethnic members in the highlands of Chiang Mai burned their forest as part of land preparation for rice cultivation. Burning is vital part of traditional agricultural practice but in recent years this activity has become more controversial as it contributes to atmospheric haze pollution and PM2.5, which could cause serious heart and lung diseases. In what ways can fire, forest land and air pollution be governed so that they are fair and just for upland and lowland peoples, and strike the balance between food security and health security? Photographer: Chaya Vaddhanaphuti.