Opinions of Fishermen at Ban Laem, Tha Sala District,Nakhon Si Thammarat Province Concerning Suitable and Sustainable Mangrove Forest Conservation

Abstract

     The objectives of this research were to determine the mangrove forest conservation knowledge of fishermen at Ban Laem, Tha Sala District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, their opinions on reforestation in the mangrove forest and their participation, including their problems and recommendations. The data were collected by interviewing 210 fishermen and statistically analyzed for descriptive statistics. The results indicated that 51.4 percent of studied fishermen were male with an average age of 50.33 years; all of them were Muslim. Most of them had a primary education level and their major occupation was fishing with an average annual income of 62,806.52 baht. A few of them were members of social groups, but most of them received information about mangrove forest conservation from their neighbors and radio programs. In addition, they relied on the community leaders for fishing and forest conservation information. It was also revealed that the respondents had good knowledge on mangrove forest conservation, but their positive opinion of and participation in mangrove forest conservation were at the moderate level.