Cost and Benefit of Resettlement
Attributes
Medium: Land
Country: Thailand
Analytical Framework(s): Economic Analysis
Study Date: 2002
Publication Date: 2003
Major Result(s)
| Category | Resource/Environmental Good | THB, million currency units (2002) |
THB, million currency units (2014)1 |
USD, million currency units (2014)2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Case | NPV of status quo3 | -132.21 | -178.43 | -5.42 |
| Base Case | Compromise | 211.42 | 285.33 | 8.67 |
| Base Case | Resettlement | -42.03 | -56.72 | -1.72 |
| Excluding carbon value | Status Quo | -30.46 | -41.11 | -1.25 |
| Excluding carbon value | Compromise | 120.47 | 162.58 | 4.94 |
| Excluding carbon value | Resettlement | -43.60 | -58.84 | -1.79 |
| Deforestation controlled | Status Quo | 2.47 | 3.33 | 0.10 |
| Deforestation controlled | Compromise | 6.20 | 8.37 | 0.25 |
| Deforestation controlled | Resettlement | -26.09 | -35.21 | -1.07 |
About the Inflation Adjustment: Prices in Thailand (THB) changed by 34.96% from 2002 to 2014 (aggregated from annual CPI data), so the study values were multiplied by 1.35 to express them in 2014 prices. The study values could be expressed in any desired year (for example, to 2025) by following the same inflation calculation and being sensitive to directional (forward/backward) aggregations using your own CPI/inflation data.
Study Note: To demonstrate that resettlement of communities is not just an administrative task, this study uses Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to quantify the costs and gains to society under three policy options. The first is the Status Quo, which is to make no additional investments beyond what is currently provided. In the second option, i.e., the Compromise option, additional investments would be allocated to protect and conserve the forest, and a number of restrictions on land and forest use would be imposed on the upstream community in return for recognizing its rights to remain and use forest areas already converted to agriculture. Under the Resettlement option, the upstream community would be resettled outside of the protected area, with additional investments to provide adequate social and economic livelihood for the incumbents.
Study Details
Summary: This study investigates whether farmers living in a village within the boundaries of one of Thailand's most important national parks should continue to live there or be resettled. It analyzes the costs and benefits of several scenarios for the future of the villagers. These include resettlement, "business-as-usual" and a compromise in which the villagers are involved in helping conserve the park. It finds that resettlement is not only unnecessary, but would actually cost more - environmentally and socially - than letting the farmers stay and help manage the park. In light of this, the study describes how the compromise scenario might be made to work and recommends that this approach be considered in other conflict resolution situations in Thailand.
Site Characteristics: The study area is located in the Northern Region, which still has 106 million rai under forest coverage or equivalent to 43% of the total remaining forests of the country. Watershed Classes 1 and 2 expand over 66,000 km 2 , accounting for 47.7% of the total area of the Northern Region. It is classified as being sub-tropical climate with average rainfall of 2,000 mm/year. At least three types of forests can be found namely montane, evergreen and cloud forests. Soils are generally acidic with low nutrient content. Nearly 70% of Chiang Mai is still under forest coverage, some of which are still primarily fertile forests and watershed areas. 15 Chiang Mai has 12 National Parks and three Wild Life Sanctuaries. Some of these have been declared as PAs 16 . The forests of Chiang Mai are among the last remaining areas still rich in biodiversity resources. In the Doi Inthanon National Park, 161 families of vegetation, 158 genus and 127 species have been documented. Altogether 37 species are those that were first found in Doi Inthanon and 31 species can only be found in Doi Inthanon. There are 23 groups of plants, which are of economic value, and 8 species, which are becoming extinct both in Thailand and elsewhere in the world.
Comments: After having gone through the successive steps of Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), the interpretation of the results of the CBA must be made with recognition of the principle of what the tool offers as well as the limitations in application. The limitations can arise from the fact that a number of parameters may be unpredictable while others maybe unknown in the present times, ecosystems can be complex and changes in physical impact can be uncertain as can responses and adaptation of social and economic agents.