Strengthen Human Development: A Case Study

Abstract

This case study investigates and analyses the potential for positive collaboration between the State and the Narathiwat community, Thailand, to strengthen the human sustainable development through natural resources. As part of this investigation and analyses, existing policies and legislation on natural resources management in Narathiwat are also explored. Suggestions are made for broad, orderly, and sustainable ways to use natural resources, the sharing of responsibility by the State and the community for natural resources management, and interactive planning between different departments of State agencies, community members, and industry in general. The research uses the methodology of quantitative analysis of relevant literature and qualitative responses of participants in focus groups. Methods involved extensive literature searches, and interviews with the aid of closed and open-ended interview schedules. Analysis of raw data were translated into frequency distributions for the various variables focused upon. In these processes, the theories of collaboration, human capital, human asset building, and sustainable development as they might apply to natural resources management in Narathiwat were used to explore and highlight the underlying conceptual significance of the research findings. The results of the case study show that community collaboration with the State was regarded as essential for successful Natural Resource Management (NRM) in Narathiwat, and that proper collaboration in NRM would allow for comprehensive development of the community as service users, as users of natural resources in Narathiwat, and of the community’s living environment. The study recommends ways whereby all phases of the NRM process in the region might be advanced. Recommendations are made consistent with the propagation for humans to be regarded as capital assets, for the widest acceptance in Narathiwat of the potential of sustained development for all concerned, and for all NRM practices to have State-community collaboration as the bedrock for successful and acceptable NRM.