Integration of local wisdom diversity in order to manage environmental problems under the climatic change: A case study of Mae Wang watershed, Chiangmai

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) to explore environmental problems related to climate change in the Mae Wang watershed (MWW), 2) to study the diversity of local wisdom used in solving environmental problems and 3) to construct a knowledge that integrated from various local wisdom to serve as a guideline for solving environmental problems amid climate change. The research was conducted based on qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. 88 community representatives including leaders, experts, members of the MWW network, and members of the Mae Wang Local College (MWLC) were collected intensively. The results revealed that the climate in the MWW had changed over the past 20 years. From 2002 to 2022, the temperatures in the MWW tended to increase by 2.66 percent, whereas the rainfall tended to decrease by 0.37 percent. These led to forest fires, droughts, and floods occurrences. However, communities in the MWW had relied heavily on traditional local wisdom to protect natural resources and supplemented with applied local wisdom as well as combined local wisdom across agroecological zones to manage such environmental problems. In particular, the MWW Network and MWLC were the key knowledge integrators that played important roles in integrating the diversity of local wisdom into a set of knowledge. Thus, an appropriate system should be created to facilitate them to carry out their natural resources management as well as environmental problems management smoothly and concretely.