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The Sustainable Communities Challenge in Southeast Asia. John Fien and Linda Brennan. RMIT University Australia and RMIT University Vietnam. Author note.
SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE

The Sustainable Communities Challenge in Southeast Asia

John Fien and Linda Brennan RMIT University Australia and RMIT University Vietnam

Author note Professor John Fien, Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University Australia; Professor Linda Brennan, Centre of Commerce & Management, RMIT University Vietnam Correspondence concerning this chapter should be addressed to Professor John Fien, Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University Australia. Email: [email protected]

This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE The Sustainable Communities Challenge in Southeast Asia Background For thousands of years human societies have proved that living sustainably — as healthy and happy individuals, within caring and stable families and communities, and in harmony with the natural world — is possible. This long-term sustainability of economic and cultural systems is the result of indigenous and other local systems of socialization and learning that established a human and natural ecology at one with each other. Unfortunately, local knowledge and wisdom have been undermined by the experience of colonisation, industrialisation and globalisation. By and large, local priorities and systems of social ecology have been supplanted by the somewhat narrow view that the environment and culture are valuable only in so far as they are economically productive. The consequent disregard for the land and culture has meant that knowledge, values and skills for living sustainability have been underplayed in contemporary ways of living. The wider Asia-Pacific region covers a quarter of the world’s total land area and extends from Mongolia in the north to Tonga in the south, Japan in the east to Afghanistan in the west. It contains nearly forty countries, of which seven are in South Asia, five in North-East Asia, fifteen in the Pacific and Oceania, and eleven in Southeast Asia: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Viet Nam. The case studies in this book are drawn from these eleven but the lessons, when appropriately contextualized, are of relevance across the wider region because the socio-economic forces that are driving unsustainable development and the human capacity to live a better life, and to learn and change, are the same worldwide.

This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE Factor Population (000s) Population growth rate Arable land proportion

Government

Primary source of external income GDP growth rate (2012) GDP per capita (PPP) ($USD) Literacy levels Proportion of popn in tertiary ed Proportion with access to sanitation Quality of air and pollution (CO2 omissions per capita) Rate of deforestation

Brunei 406 1.70% 2.80%

Sultanate

Myanmar 61,000 1.07% 14.92%

Parliamentary government

Cambodia 14,953 1.69% 20.44%

Indonesia 249,000 1.03% 11.03%

Multiparty democracy with constitutional monarchy

Republic

Laos 6,587 1.66% 4.01%

Malaysia 29,180 1.54% 5.46%

Philippines 103,775 1.90% 19.00%

Singapore 5,354 1.99% 1.47%

Timor Leste 1,444 2.50% 8.20%

Thailand 67,091 0.54% 27.54%

Republi c

Constitutio nal monarchy

Socialist republic

Agriculture , industry, garments & textiles 5.10%

Republic

Republic

Natural resource extraction , forestry, 8.30%

Federation of constitutiona l sultanates Natural resource extraction, forestry, textiles, appliance manufacturin g, chemical, palm oil 4.40%

Electronic equipment, textiles, coconut oil, fruit, petroleum 4.80%

Machinery, banking, shipping and transport 2.10%

Oil, coffee, sandalw ood 10.00%

Textiles & footwear, fishery products, rice, rubber, 5.60%

Socialist republic

Vietnam 91,520 1.05% 20.14%

Natural resource extraction 2.70%

Agriculture, gems 6.20%

Textiles, forestry 6.50%

Natural resource extraction, forestry, textiles, appliance manufacturin g 6.00%

$50,000 92.00%

$1,400 89.90%

$2,400 73.60%

$5,000 90.40%

$3,000 73.00%

$16,900 88.70%

$4,300 92.60%

$60,900 92.50%

$9,500 58.60%

$10,000 92.60%

$3,500 94.00%

20.00%

15.00%

14.00%

23.00%

18.00%

40.00%

28.00%

n/a

17.00%

48.00%

22.00%

Not available

0.81

29.00%

52.00%

53.00%

96.00%

76.00%

100.00%

50.00%

96.00%

75.00%

0.2

4.2

23.6 -0.47

0.3 -0.95

0.4 -1.22

1.8 -0.71

0.3 -0.49

7.6 -0.42

0.8 0.73

6.39 0

-1.44

0.08

1.65 1.08

Table 1. Environment overview

This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE The wider Asia-Pacific region is home to more than sixty per cent of the world’s population but over 40% of the region’s population is concentrated into five countries: China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and Indonesia in Southeast Asia. The economy and the livelihoods of most people in the region are predominantly rural but urbanisation has been so rapid in recent years that the region also contains fifteen of the twenty-five cities in the world with over 10 million people – and thirteen of fifteen most polluted cities in the world. Indeed, the movement of people from the countryside to cities is a particularly important challenge across the growing Asian economies, where rapid urbanization is the key driver for economic growth and poverty alleviation. With the periurban areas of these cities rapidly expanding, Asia is now home to almost half of all urbanites on Earth and its urban population is more than three times that of Europe, the world region with the second largest urban population (Asian Development Bank 2012: xxxvii).

Asia-Pacific is a region of great cultural, economic and environmental diversity. This is reflected in the description of the region in UNESCO’s 50th anniversary commemoration publication on the region which described it in the following way: From the world’s highest city, Lhasa ... to the world deepest lake...; from the highest mountain to the deepest seas; from the driest deserts to the dampest forests; the Asia-Pacific region covers an outstanding array of geography and culture.

The region is one of sharp contrasts. It has two of the world’s most populous countries, China and India, and some of the world’s smallest countries, Nauru in the Pacific and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. It has one of the world’s This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE richest countries, Japan, and [some of] the world’s poorest, Cambodia and Bangladesh.

With over 700 languages in Papua New Guinea alone, the region’s ethnic and linguistic diversity is greater than anywhere else in the world. Great cultures have left legacies such as the Great Wall of China - 2350 kilometres long - ... and the legendary temples of Borobudur in Indonesia. A wealth of religions crisscross the region, ranging from Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism, to other faiths such as Confucianism, Jainism and Taoism. (UNESCO-PROAP, 1996)

The countries of Southeast Asia are a microcosm of both this geographic and cultural, social and economic diversity – and sadly too, of deteriorating socio-ecological conditions.

The state of the planet and the lives of the people who call it home have been exhaustively documented by such bodies as the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Program, the World Bank, the World Resources Institute, and the World Wide Fund for Nature. A synthesis of these reports was recently prepared by the Stockholm Environment Institute, whose researchers identified nine planetary boundaries, which they argue delineate a safe living or operating space for humanity. According to their analysis, three boundaries - climate change, disruption of global cycles and, most notably, loss of biodiversity, have already been crossed.

This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE This is not news to people in Asia, where state of the environment reports paint a generally bleak picture of a descending spiral of unsustainable development. WWF-ADB report, Ecological Footprint and Investment in Natural Capital in Asia and the Pacific (2012), reported that: In the past two decades, the state of ecosystems in Asia and the Pacific has been declining. Conversion of primary forests to agricultural land or monoculture plantations has resulted in a marked decrease in so called “old growth” forests that are more biologically diverse. Old growth forests and other types of ecosystems provide essential services such as carbon storage and clean water. Extensive coastal development and unsustainable exploitation of marine resources have resulted in the destruction of many major coastal habitats, including corals, mangroves, seagrasses, wetlands and salt marshes. Freshwater ecosystems have been converted for agricultural use and polluted with agricultural and urban waste, and their natural flow has been disrupted by water storage for agriculture, domestic use and hydropower. This has resulted in lower agricultural yields, declining freshwater fish stocks, and reduced access to clean drinking water. (pp. 10,12)

The social and economic costs of environmental degradation in the region are very high, with the descending spiral of environmental decline and lost social and economic opportunities reflected in the diverse patterns of living conditions, health and well-being. Despite being home to some of the world’s largest and fastest growing economies, the region is also one of great poverty. The acute impacts of the 1997 and 2008 economic crises in the region are evidence of the precarious nature of the last three decades of development efforts. Thus, the region is home to over two-thirds of the world’s poor and This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE an equal percentage lack basic literacy. Population numbers have doubled over the past forty years and are still on the increase, and the environmental and social effects of such numbers taking their toll. By 2040, the population of the Asia-Pacific region is expected to have more than doubled to four billion people for whom food requirements will have doubled and the need for water and sanitation quadrupled. The consumption of energy and manufactured goods will increase fivefold, while pollution may increase up to tenfold (Asian Development Bank 2012). The situation in Southeast Asia is particularly acute, with major problems of biodiversity loss in forest and wetland systems, the over-fishing of river and marine systems, air and water pollution, disrupted river flows brought about by big dams and hydroelectric projects, and the increasing intensity and frequency of floods, typhoons, and heat stress from climate change (ASEAN 2002, 28). Summing up the interrelatedness of these issues, the Asian Development Bank notes that: •

Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to the impact of climate change because of its long coastlines and tropical climate.



Despite being one of the world’s fastest growing regions, it faces the challenges of poverty - with the poor the most vulnerable to climate change impacts.



Agriculture provides nearly half of all employment but the increasing demand for food and other crops has intensified agricultural production and competition for land and water resources, generating considerable environmental pressure.



Much of the region’s growth is dependent on natural resources, particularly forestry, mining and fishing, which puts considerable pressure on the environment and ecosystems.

This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE • Urbanization rates in Southeast Asia are among the fastest in the world and mostly in coastal areas—with about 80% of the population living within 100 kilometres of the coast—leading to an over-concentration of economic activity and livelihoods in coastal megacities, where they are most prone to coastal typhoons and flooding. (Asian Development Bank 2009)

Such extensive problems are the result of the changed patterns of economic activities in the region, especially the widening and intensifying of commercialisation of agriculture, forestry and fishing, rapid urbanisation and the movement of low-cost, highly polluting manufacturing plants into the region from OECD countries. The resultant demographic and cultural changes - coupled with less than ideal governance and policy frameworks - have led to a lack of capacity to use natural resources sustainably. Given the scale of these problems and their roots in economic modernization, it is not surprising that improving environmental quality and redressing poverty are often seen as technical problems to be managed by professional economists, engineers, planners and other experts. However, when the forces of unsustainable development are catalysed by the same experts, it is similarly not surprising that scientific and economic expertise is not the whole answer to the problem. Thus, there have been numerous calls for a democratisation of the process of working towards local sustainability through a wide range of community development, education and capacity building programs. For example, Clover, Jayme, Follen and Hall (2012) argue that “The production and distribution of ecological knowledge and the learning of new skills and methods … [are now] crucial to the survival of the planet” (p.7). The participatory, community-based approaches they recommend reflect the root causes of environmental decline in This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE unsustainable social, economic and political priorities and that these root causes can only be effectively addressed through social and cultural change. Accordingly, they have identified eight features of effective community sustainability projects, such as those represented in this book, generally meet: 1. They address the root causes of problems not their outward manifestations or symptoms. 2. They make links between environmental issues and social concerns. 3. They often recognise the power of nature as a setting for learning and action and for stimulating deep appreciations of home and place. 4. They begin from people’s experiences, feelings and contexts. 5. They draw on people’s own potential to find solutions to their own problems. 6. They emphasise an analysis of power relations. 7. They promote skills in taking concrete actions. 8. They encourage reflection and personal and collective evaluation. (Clover, Jayme, Follen and Hall, 2012, p. 2)

The case studies in this book illustrate the many different ways in these principles are being applied in Southeast Asia. To clarify and give life to these principles, the next section of this chapter provides a brief case study of the experiences of the residents of a Tambon Administrative Organisation (TAO), or local government district council, in Thailand in applying these principles to some of the problems they face as a community.1 The case study focuses on a two-day workshop in which community members identified these problems and then developed agreed action plans for addressing them. Another, and longer term, aim of the workshop was to enhance the processes of local 1

The case study is summarised from a report by one of the authors (Fien et al 2002).

This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE governance in the TAO by developing knowledge and skills for local environmental protection. The case study is presented in three sections. An analysis of the local and national contexts that influence life in the community is provided in the first. This is followed by a description of the workshop processes and outcomes. The final section analyses how the principles of sustainable community problem-solving that were used in the workshop contributed to its success. Participatory Community Problem-Solving in Rural Thailand A TAO is a local government district of ten to fifteen thousand people in rural Thailand. A TAO usually contains six to twelve muban or villages and the farm and forest lands between them. The TAO is a relatively new level of governance in Thailand and, until their formation in 1994, all administrative decisions were made at the national and provincial level. Thus, the establishment of TAOs is a reflection of the increasing democratisation of Thai society. This is not only a timely development for political rights; it is also timely in terms of environmental and health issues. The breakdown in traditional muban leadership that has followed economic modernization, together with the increased mobility of the population, has also caused a breakdown of the traditional systems of mutual obligation and community work through which appropriate strategies for hygiene, waste management, flood control and water and food security were ensured. The resultant demand for an enhanced approach to local governance and environmental management was made all the more urgent by the increases in traffic, industrial pollution, waste levels and demand for water brought by modernization over recent decades. These issues are faced by all TAOs in some form or another. This case study took place in La-Ngu TAO in the far southwest of peninsula Thailand on the Andaman Sea. In close proximity to the Malaysian border, over 80 per cent of the population is Muslim. The people live on small holdings, little more than a few hectares in size, growing kitchen This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE supplies of vegetables, fruit, herbs, spices and eggs, and cash crops of fruit, coconuts, palm and/or rubber. A large number also make a living by fishing from 2-3 person open boats. However, fish stocks are being so badly depleted by commercial drift net trawlers, mostly owned by families and companies in Bangkok, that three protest blockades of local ports have been mounted in the region in the previous year. National and provincial governments have provided a social infrastructure of telecommunications and major and minor roads. Indeed, mobile phones, motorcycles and small pick-up trucks abound. Clinics and schools are provided for all at minimal cost, and there are district hospitals and a provincial university in the city of Hat Yai, which is two hours distance by road. A rainforest and marine national park, called Mu Ko Phetra, is located within the borders of the TAO. This is controlled by the National Royal Ministry of Forests which officially also owns much of the surrounding land on which the fishing and farming families live. As a result, land title is often insecure and the possibility of being dispossessed for an expansion of the national park or sale of local land to an agribusiness or industrial concern is a strong disincentive to sustainable agriculture and participation in local governance. It was a recognition of problems such as these that led the La-Ngu TAO to establish a participatory planning process. This followed attendance at a regional training course on environmental management by a small number of TAO representatives. This course was organised by the Faculty of Environmental Science at Prince of Songkla University. Many participants at this course requested the assistance of university staff to initiate environmental management projects in their TAOs. The La-Ngu workshop was the result of one of these requests. The workshop was facilitated by university staff and held over two days in an open-sided traditional-style meeting place built on stilts above the waters on the shore of This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE the national park. Just over fifty people from the TAO attended, including elected representatives from each muban, teachers, religious leaders, and some headquarters staff of the forest fire service. About a quarter were women. A wide range of participatory techniques were used, including group discussion, brain storming, nominal group technique, flip chart summaries, problem-solving and a visit to a nearby waste dumping site (when it emerged that this was one of the issues of greatest concern). The workshop progressed through a number of phases: •

short, but formal introductory speeches;



personal and muban introductions;



brainstorming a list of problems in the TAO - with ‘problem’ being defined as ‘something that could be changed to make life better’;



identification of concrete examples of these problems - where? how serious?;



categorization of problems into three groups: physical problems, social context problems, and problems that exist because of a breakdown of management or enforcement systems;



clarification and prioritization of problems in these three groups (see Table 2);



small group and plenary discussion of the top one or two problems in each group;



selection of one problem for detailed analysis, and development of possible solutions;



discussion and evaluation of proposed solutions; and



making an action plan to address the problem.

This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE Table 2 Groupings and rankings of major problems in La-Ngu TAO after using the nominal group technique Problem Category Problem Points Physical Problems 1. Waste 23 2. Water supply for drinking, using and agriculture 14 3. Landscape and air pollution 11 4. Transportation, road 8 5. Encroachment of public properties 6 6. Flood 4 7. Coastal erosion/corrosion 3 Total 69 Social/Surrounding 1. Drugs 32 Problems 2. Disco operation among the local leaders 15 3. Rights for using land 11 4. Lack of taking care of the culture 7 5. Lack of act by religious rule 3 Total 68 Management 1. Lack of environmental awareness education 17 Problems 2. Religious conflict 15 3. Forest damage 14 4. Environmental health 13 5. Data base information error 4 6. Noise pollution 3 7. Agricultural price decrease 1 Total 67 The major problems that were identified included: a recent increase in drug taking, waste management, security of water supplies for drinking and agricultural purposes, and a lack of education for environmental awareness. The problem that the workshop participants chose to address in detail was waste management, especially in relation to a rubbish tip that was so ill-managed that toxins from domestic, hospital and industrial waste were infiltrating the water table and making their way from there into canals and the river upon which the TAO depends. Of particular concern was the fact that the tip was for rubbish from a neighbouring TAO. The outcome of the workshop was the beginning of a TAO-agreed plan for rehabilitating the site, seeking a provincial grant to buy back the site, regular water quality testing, and so on.

This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE The relative success of the workshop - as seen in the enthusiastic participation, the spirit of cooperation and good will, and the fact that so much was achieved in only two days - was a reflection of the practice of a number of principles of sustainable community development. These relate to aspects of: (i) the preparation for the workshop, (ii) the holistic view of environment that was taken, (iii) the setting, (iv) the facilitation style, (v) the experiential learning model that was followed, (vi) respect for local knowledge, and (vii) the action orientation. Preparation for the workshop: The workshop arose from needs in the TAO community and was actively sought by them. Thus, it was not imposed by local leaders, a higher level of government, the university staff, or the project staff, all factors that would have undermined local ownership and responsibility for the workshop outcomes and the participatory process itself. The university staff involved adopted the view that they were facilitators of a process. Their preparation consisted of negotiating the process with TAO leaders, familiarising themselves with local issues, and preparing flip charts and writing materials to support the group work. A holistic view of environment: The wide ranging membership or multi-sectoral nature of the workshop group meant that a diverse range of social, economic, cultural, political and biophysical issues was discussed. This ensured that an holistic view of environment and sustainability (although the word was rarely used) was taken. Indeed, such holism is characteristic of Thai Buddhist and Muslim society. Thus, issues of environment and health, nutrition, local culture, family livelihoods, economic changes, and human rights and political reforms were seen as inextricably related. This view of the environment meant that root causes and not just symptoms of problems were analysed and addressed, and the participants could feel empowered by being able to ‘name’ the

This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE causes of their concerns, have their often unvoiced suspicions vindicated, and act collectively to find a lasting solution. The setting: One of the key elements of sustainable community development is contact with nature. This is often lost in urban communities where people live at a remove from Earth, and is especially so in the North where common reductionist ways of thinking compartmentalise nature and culture, facts and values, and so on. In La-Ngu TAO, people live close to the land and the sea, both economically and spiritually, and this aspect of their society was a dominant aspect of the workshop due to the setting that was chosen. The workshop was held in a small meeting place set on stilts above the water on the edge of the marine national park. Thus, the meeting was held in a familiar local location. This gave the participants a sense of ownership of the proceedings and the honour of hosting guests from the outside. The design of the meeting place reflected local architectural and building traditions with the roof constructed of woven leaves, only waist-high side walls, and no (glass) windows between the walls and the roof. This enabled the workshop to be held ‘in nature’ with all senses engaged through the view of the sea on three sides and the rainforest on the fourth, the smell and taste of the sea and salty air, the sound of water beneath the floor, and the feel of sea breezes on the skin and the darkening sky and wind-blown rain as early monsoon showers arrived (and drenched flip-charts) providing reminders, as if they were needed, of the cycles of the earth, the sea and the sky. Thai traditions were practised, e.g. all shoes were removed before stepping onto the floor of the meeting place, and the meeting was opened quite formally by a representative from the national government. Muslim traditions were also followed with many women wearing long dresses and head scarves and sitting separately for the men for the formal opening. A two hour lunch break was provided on the first day of the This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE workshop as it was a Friday, and religious duties needed to be observed by many participants. The facilitation style: The facilitators were steeped in the traditions of community development and public participation. Their approach was based on questioning not telling, setting group tasks, facilitating group reporting and debriefing activities, summarising almost every point that was said on flip charts, and relaying questions from participants back to the group before giving their own answers. It was a team effort with three facilitators rotating sessions and moving around groups during group activities. An air of openness to suggestions, procedural flexibility and lots of humour ensured that they had the support and confidence of the participants. An experiential learning model: The sequence of workshop activities was structured to reflect the four phases of the experiential learning cycle (experience, reflection, generalisation and application) at both the macro-level of the two day workshop process and the micro level of individual activities. For example, at the macrolevel, the workshop activities were structured as follows:

• Experience

- Brainstorming issues of concern in the TAO.

• Reflecting on Experience

- Clarifying the nature of the problems - Discussing their impacts

• Generalising from Experience

- Categorising and prioritising the problems - Assessing their root causes

• Application

- Agreeing on one key problem to work on - Developing an action plan

This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE Many of the activities that were part of the overall programme were structured to follow these four phases of experiential learning also. An overview of the activity that was used to prioritise the problems illustrates this. The concrete experience was the use of the nominal group technique to develop a consensus view of the most significant problems in the TAO. The reflection phase that followed involved small group and plenary accounts of the concrete ways the participants experienced the major problems and how they felt about the way their individual and family lives were affected. Generalization from these experiences involved mini-lectures (3 - 5 minutes each) and flip-chart summaries by university facilitators in which they outlined the regional, national and, sometimes, global nature and manifestations of the problems. During the application phase of this activity, the facilitators asked questions to explore how the participants felt about learning that their problems are shared by many other communities and that their causes often go beyond local influences. They also discussed what this meant about the type of problems they can address at the local level from their own resources compared to problems that require wider coalitions of action to resolve. This process helped to maintain a focus on action throughout the two days even though action planning was not undertaken until the second afternoon. Respect for local knowledge: The academic expertise of the facilitators allowed them to provide case studies to clarify and exemplify the problems being discussed by the workshop participants and to help place these problems in their regional and national economic and political contexts. As university professors they had access to knowledge that the TAO members, many of whom had only a few years of elementary education, could not have. However, the facilitators were judicious in the timing and depth of the information inputs they provided and always did so only after issues and questions were raised by the group. Thus, while the workshop was an educational one, and the This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE participants seemed to learn many things, it could not be said that they were ‘taught’ these things or that they ‘gained new’ knowledge. Rather, the workshop process showed intense respect for the knowledge that the participants collectively owned and that was endemic to life in the TAO. Thus, instead of knowledge being ‘taught’, the process of knowledge production and distribution in the workshop meant that knowledge was ‘shared’, ‘respected’, ‘collected’, ‘clarified’, ‘contextualized’, ‘extended’, ‘organised’, ‘evaluated’ and ‘applied’. This respect for, and encouragement of, local knowledge provided the foundation for community empowerment. Thus, the opportunity to give voice to tacit, intuitive and experiential knowledge helped build self- and group-esteem, confidence, and a sense that ‘we’ can solve many of our own problems, and that the resources to do so reside in local, but often now neglected, traditions and collective resources. An action orientation: The purpose of the workshop was to develop an action plan to address key local problems. Thus, there was an action orientation at all times. As explained in the earlier account of the nominal group activity, the application phase of the experiential learning cycle that was used in all the workshop activities created a focus on action even before the action planning began. This focus was also supported by the processes of empowerment that resulted from local knowledge. Local skills for problem identification, scoping and clarification were enhanced in the two days of the workshop. However, two days were not sufficient for a detailed action plan to be developed. Instead, only ideas for action were developed. However, being local farmers and fishers, the workshop participants had families, boats and fields to tend to, and being quite poor, even giving two days to the workshop was a significant financial sacrifice. Thus, the workshop ended with a plan for three TAO leaders to meet the university staff the following week in order to obtain technical information on waste This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE management and water testing and to develop strategies for getting provincial government support and resources to close, relocate and rehabilitate the rubbish tip site. This book The participatory workshop in La-Ngu TAO illustrates the value of sustainable community planning as a strategy for building civic capacity for local governance and sustainability in rural Thailand. It is possible that it may be applicable in urban areas of Thailand and in other national settings. And it is only one strategy for facilitating local sustainability. This book provides examples of many more of these. But, in common, all demonstrate a focus on the principles of sustainable community planning used in La-Ngu TAO. Thus, as you read the chapters that follow, please reflect on the ways in which the following principles are used: 1. Addressing the root causes of problems not their outward manifestations or symptoms. 2. Making links between environmental issues and social concerns. 3. Recognizing the power of nature as a setting for learning and action and for stimulating deep appreciations of home and place. 4. Beginning from people’s experiences, feelings and contexts. 5. Drawing on people’s own potential to find solutions to their own problems. 6. Emphasising an analysis of power relations. 7. Promoting skills in taking concrete actions. 8. Encouraging reflection and personal and collective evaluation.

This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.

SEA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CHALLENGE References ASEAN (2002) ASEAN Report to the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Jakarta: ASEAN. Asian Development Bank (ADB) (2009) The Economics of Climate Change in Southeast Asia: A Regional Review. Manila: ADB. Asian Development Bank (ADB) (2012) Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2012. Manila: ADB. Asian Development Bank and World Wide Fund for Nature (2012) Ecological Footprint and Investment in Natural Capital in Asia and the Pacific. Manila: ADB. Clover, D., Jayme, O., Follen, S. & Hall, B. (2012) The Nature of Transformation: Environmental Adult Education, 3rd edition, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam. Fien, J., Chatchai, R., Umaporn, M. & Rapeepun,S. (2002) Participatory planning as environmental adult education for enhancing local governance at the Tambon Administrative Organisation level in Thailand. Journal of Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 1(4), 255-262. Rockström, J. and 29 others. (2009) A safe operating space for humanity. Nature, 461, 472–475. UNESCO-PROAP (1996) Celebrating Diversity, Cultivating Development, Creating Our Future Together: UNESCO in Asia and the Pacific. Bangkok: UNESCO.

This is an author’s pre-publication copy of the book chapter that is cited as Fien, J. & Brennan, L. (2013). The sustainable communities challenge in Southeast Asia. In L. Brennan, L. Parker, T. Watne, J. Fien, H. Duong & M. A. Doan (Eds), Growing Sustainable Communities: A Development Guide for Southeast Asia (pp. 3-17). Tilde University Press.