Dynamics and Negotiation of “Rights” to Resource Management: A Case Study in the Pwo Karen Nong Lak Community, Thung Hua Chang District, Lamphun Province

Abstract

This paper aims to open up and stimulate study on rights to access and resource management, particularly, to acknowledge community rights as a method of sustainable resource management. The paper traces conflicts between regimes of rights, namely state rights, private rights and community rights. The articulation of regimes of rights has created new rules and regulations as “partially private property rights”. In order to allocate resources legitimately, partially private property rights emphasize complexity of rights through different integrated levels including rights to use, rights to manage, and rights to control.

Not only do Pwo Karen in Nong Lak community construct their resource management based on a complexity of rights, but they also redefine the meaning of rights and assert their identities, their community and their ethnicity as “Karen”. Moreover, they create several levels of their image. For example, at the community level the discussions of villagers’ ideas create the village’s image as forest guardians, or “Developed Karen community”. This image has a symbolic power which the community uses to shift their new social movement, express their culture, and influence policy. At individual and household levels, villagers try to decrease the density of forest land use by working in non-agricultural sectors and practicing alternative agriculture.