Thailand case study: Highland indigenous communities on self-sufficiency, food security and land tenure during COVID-19

This article is part of a series on the impacts of COVID-19 on indigenous and tribal peoples. The full policy report, “COVID-19 and indigenous and tribal peoples:  the impacts and underlying inequalities” which features 10 case studies, including this one, is available here.

By Marie Joyce Godio, through the help of Sakda Saenmi, Phnom Thano, Suphalak Musuloy, and the Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP)

When Thailand’s nationwide lockdown was imposed on 26 March 2020, the highland communities were less anxious than those in urban areas. The Inter-Mountain Peoples Education and Culture in Thailand Association (IMPECT), [1] an indigenous organisation based in Chiang Mai province that works closely with indigenous communities in northern Thailand, shared how the abundance of food in these communities made them self-sufficient, and even with a surplus for sharing. 

Together with the communities, IMPECT helped coordinate food relief drives to share food supplies outside their villages. They distributed rice, vegetables, dried foods, and fruits grown on their lands to both urban and rural areas, including Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Bangkok. They reached out to those hardest hit by the lockdown, particularly the indigenous people who had lost their jobs and/or were unable to return home from the city. IMPECT and the Indigenous Media Network (IMN) also helped monitor the conditions of the elderly from Hmong, Lisu, Lwua/Lua, and P’gakenyaw communities, among others. 

Many indigenous communities have observed rituals and ceremonies to lessen the anxiety brought on by the crisis. These practices helped ease their initial worries about people returning from the cities, and the increased possibility of the virus spreading. They knew they didn’t have the proper facilities for the mandatory 14-day quarantine for the returnees. But with support from the community leaders and the Village Health Volunteers, they were able to set up their own strict quarantine areas in the fields, orchards and forest. Other communities opted to practise a strict lockdown with a limited number of people allowed to leave and enter their village, such as in the P’gakenyaw community [2] in Ban Mae Jok. 

Further away from Chiang Mai city, Ban Mae Jok is home to about 50 indigenous P’gakenyaw households. It is surrounded by dense, natural forest, and a stream passes through their terraces. The majority of the households have paddy-fields, while a few families practise rotational farming. 

When schools were shut down, Suphalak Musuloy (or Ae Thoo), a Grade 11 student in Chiang Mai city, returned home to Mae Jok. She knew the richness of her village and was not bothered when a padlocked gate was constructed at the village entrance. From March to May, nobody was allowed to leave the village unless it was essential. Suphalak says,

 

“Mae Jok villagers need not worry about food for they can gather abundant food from the forest as well as from far lands. There are different kinds of vegetable, bamboo shoots, mushrooms and fruits, including freshwater fish, shellfish, crabs and shrimps.” 

 

The villagers of Mae Jok applied for land title registration in 2011 for a total area of 1,714 hectares which includes farmlands, conservation areas and community forests. They have yet to hear the results of their application, but records show they have inhabited the area for more than a century. 

[1]

[2] https://imnvoices.com/the-forest-as-community-supermarket-for-karen-indigenous-peoples-in-thailand/