Biodiversity toward Food Security of Ethnic Groups in Maekok and Mekong River Basin : Case Study in Chiang Rai Province

Abstract

                  This research aimed to find out the biodiversity of food plants in the community based on the wisdom of the nine ethnic groups, natural resources management of food security, recipes and nutrition value of traditional ethnic food, and strengthen community knowledge in production and consumption of local resources that have Good Hygiene Practice: GHP security standard through Participatory Action Research. Populations of the study were 76. The main tools were survey, in-depth interview, observation, focus group, community forum and workshop with Key informants and leaders in the communities.

                   The results revealed that the biodiversity of food plants: there were 495 species of herbal and food plants within 121 families. Most of them were in EUPHORBIACEAE Families followed by MORACEAE, COMPOSITAE, LEGUMINOSAE-PAPILIONOIDEAE, ZINGIBERACEAE, GRAMINEAE, RUBIACEAE, LEGUMINOSAE-CAESALPINIOIDEAE, LEGUMINOSAE-MIMOSOIDEAE and SOLANACEAE respectively.  It was also found that there were 72 animal species as sources of food which included aquatic animals such as fish, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.

                   Management of food security were done through activities relevant to natural resources management such as setting rules for natural resources protection, and natural conservation activities, such as, forestation, firebreaks providing, forest ordination, and check dam contribution. Factors contributed to the success of these activities were the love and cherish of the community for natural resources, knowledge and understanding of relationship between human and forest, especially the reliance in water and food resources. In addition, some communities have also been financial support from local organizations such as Sub-district Municipality, Department of National park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, and Royal Forest Department, etc.

                For the recipes and nutritional value of traditional ethnic food of Maekok and Mekong River Basin it was found that most important food sources were from the forest community, rivers, creek and the output from agriculture and meat from the market.  According from gathering of ethnic recipes, there were 74 ethnic recipes from each racial group composed of 11 recipes from Lisu, nine recipes from each group of Mien, Akha, Tai Yuan, Thai-Laos, Shan and Thai Lue, eight recipes from Karen and five recipes from Lahu.

                   These recipes were experimented and developed to be standard recipes for three times. The samples of 66 recipes were analyzed for nutritional value based on the principles of nutrition.  The calculation of total energy per one recipe was the analysis of energy, proteins, fats, carbohydrates and dietary fiber pulp, ash, calcium, potassium, iron, beta-carotene, vitamin a, vitamin e, vitamin b1, and vitamin b2, niacin and vitamin c.

                  Regarding to the strengthening the community’s knowledge in production and consumption of local resources that have Good Hygiene Practice: GHP security standard, workshops were arranging in order to analyze food production of each community based on the principle of good hygiene in the food and beverage manufacturing and planning for development.