The Urak Lawoi and the Complexity of Sustainable Resource Use: The Political Ecology of Change in the Adang Archipelago, Andaman Sea, Thailand

PhD University of Hawaii at Manoa 2002Includes bibliographical references (leaves 334–350).This dissertation examines changes in resource use and culture in the Adang Archipelago. The archipelago has been a home of the Urak Lawoi, a group of sea people who were semi-nomadic in their subsistence practice of food foraging, and became a part of Tarutao Marine National Park in 1974. With the status of a national marine park, increasing contacts with outsiders, integration into market economy, and modernization, the local ways of coastal and marine resource use have changed rapidly. The resource user groups in the Adang Archipelago include the Urak Lawoi, taukay, large-scale commercial fishers, governmental officers, and tourists. The relationships among them are based on highly unequal power relations with the Urak Lawoi being the one with the least power but the most affected by the ways the other groups use or manage the local resources. Despite the park status, the resource uses are becoming more competitive and conflicting. Powerful global forces linked to world market economies and mainstream modernization result in situations that are not favorable for the sustainability of the healthy ecosystems and the local culture. The problems of the resource degradation and cultural disintegration are difficult to solve and sustainable development of the Adang Archipelago is very difficult to realize because 1) low impact development alternatives require resources that are currently non-existent. 2) political structures and conflicting resource interests hinder the effective execution of the park concept, collaborative management, and empowerment of the local people, and 3) global forces are uncontrolled and unsolved by local solutions, such as the local park and people