Companion modeling to facilitate adaptive forest management in Nam Haen sub-watershed, Nan Province, northern Thailand

Forest management through the establishment of headwater management units and the new Nantaburi National Park in Nan Province, northern Thailand, deals with many stakeholders. They have different points of view and interests on forest resource use, different kinds of knowledge, and different opportunity to participate in setting up a management plan. This creates conflicts on forest resource use and management, particularly about the rules for collecting non-timber forest products in the National Park area. This kind of problem is complex not only because it involves many stakeholders, but also because it deals with several interacting ecological and social dynamics. The Companion Modeling (ComMod) approach adopted in this case study seems adapted to facilitate participatory and adaptive management in such complex situations. Role-playing games, multi-agent systems, and a geographic information system will be used to build a communication platform integrating various points of view, knowledge (scientific and indigenous), and disciplines (social and ecological ones). There are four main iterative phases to be implemented with the stakeholders i.e. i) diagnosis and problem identification, ii) sharing, adjustment, and improvement of knowledge and perceptions on the problem with gaming simulations, iii) collective discussions to generate acceptable scenarios to be tested and agreed-upon indicators for their evaluation, iv) computer simulations to support the collective assessment of these scenarios and decision-making on further action to be taken. The expected outcome of this action-research process is an improved collective planning and management of forest resources and the construction of a generic model that could be adapted to similar situations at other sites. Following a presentation of the forest management problem at the study site, the first implemented steps of the ComMod process are described. The initial diagnosis and the first set of participatory gaming simulations provided the research team with a better understanding of local stakeholders' needs and perceptions. These preliminary results allow us to precise the subsequent steps based on key resource management problems identified with the stakeholders. In particular models integrating ecological and socio-economic aspects of cattle grazing in the forest and the gathering of non timber forest products will be constructed to facilitate adaptive forest management by various stakeholders, in particular villagers and national park officers.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Dumrongrojwatthana, P., Barnaud, Cécile, Gajaseni, Nantana, Trébuil, Guy
Format:	conference_item biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	s.n.
Subjects:	U10 - Informatique, mathématiques et statistiques, P01 - Conservation de la nature et ressources foncières,
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/543099/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/543099/1/document_543099.pdf
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