A Sustainable livelihood approach in a world heritage area: Ayutthaya, Thailand

Poverty reduction is a global issue. To address this problem, many development agencies have promoted an analysis approach known as the ‘Sustainable Livelihood Approach’. It is a way to enhance understanding of the livelihoods of poor people. Tourism is often seen as a form of development that might yield sustainable livelihood. Cultural and heritage tourism can provide significant revenue to local people but it can also have a negative impact on the heritage. The UNESCO World Heritage programme recognizes globally significant heritage and such recognition results in an increase of tourism to the heritage site. Thailand’s ‘Historic City of Ayutthaya’ is a UNESCO listed Cultural World Heritage site. Conflicts between the preservation of its ancient monuments, their increased use by tourists and the local vendors has increased public awareness of the site. The site is also an urban area which is in close proximity to a special industrial development zone. This has caused labour immigration, urban development and constructions, some of which have invaded the Historic City of Ayutthaya. This has caused rumours that the city may lose its World Heritage status due to the impacts on its heritage value. This has offered an opportunity to explore the potential impact on the livelihood of its local community. The Sustainable Livelihood Approach was used to frame the research. The methodology component of this approach is ‘Sustainable Livelihood Framework’ that helps in understanding the complexities of poverty and draws out the major factors that affect people’s livelihoods and the relationships between these factors. To collect primary data of five main factors (livelihood capitals, vulnerability, transforming structures and processes, livelihood strategies and livelihood outcomes), semi-structured interviews and observations are used as data collection methods in two main parts: 1) people’s livelihood and 2) the policy and administration concerning people’s livelihood. Content analysis was employed to analyse the primary data. To examine sustainability of livelihoods, primary data of five main factors relating to livelihoods are interpreted through: 1) resilience in the face of external shocks and stresses; 2) dependence on external support; 3) maintenance of long-term productivity of natural resources; and 4) whether the livelihoods undermine the livelihoods of others. The major findings in this research were that 1) for the Sustainable Livelihood Framework to be used in an area, it should include cultural capital in the framework; the Historic City of Ayutthaya has various cultural contexts which can convert to cultural capital that may sustain livelihoods and determine people’s livelihood strategies; and 2) people’s livelihood in the Historic City of Ayutthaya is found to be unsustainable. Using self-reliance (independence of external support) as a measure of a sustainable livelihood is inappropriated in the urban context because urban areas depend on external cash income and external natural resources. Substantive findings included that people in the Historic City of Ayutthaya have less dependence on the World Heritage status of the site than might be the case elsewhere