On August 12th, the day that commemorates Her Majesty the Queen of Thailand’s birthday, refugees, with support from TBBC and partners, planted 4,500 bamboo and other tree seedlings in and around Nupo Refugee Camp, in Umphang District of Tak Province.

This activity was made possible by the local wildlife sanctuary and the Department of Forestry in Bangkok granting permission to do so.

The day started with an official opening that included the Camp Commander, representatives from local administration and district authorities, representatives from the local wildlife sanctuary, camp committee members, the Sueb foundation, our main project partner the Regional Community Forestry Training Centre (RECOFTC) and TBBC.

Earlier this year, TBBC initiated a partnership with RECOFTC to jointly implement a pilot project in Nupo and Mae Ra Ma Luang Refugee Camps. The project aims to strengthen refugee and local Thai community cooperation in natural resource management and explores sustainable and environmentally sensitive livelihood opportunities for both refugees and Thai villagers using a community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) model. This model is a community-driven approach that focuses on sustainable biodiversity and ecosystem management. CBNRM fosters the management of natural resources and helps to identify sustainable livelihood activities within specific natural environments. Such community capacity ensures that resources will be there for use by communities generation after generation and as a result lowers the potential of conflict with neighbouring villages that also rely on these resources. These management skills will also be useful for refugees when they return to Burma and start to re-establish their livelihoods there.

Stakeholder networks have been established in pilot areas, bringing together refugees, Thai villagers, local authorities, the Thai Department of Forestry, the Royal Thai Project, Sueb Foundation and CCSDPT organisations. The main focus is on increasing understanding and strengthening relationships between these actors through various capacity building activities. Activities include a socio-economic survey, climate change and participatory ecosystem assessment and participatory training for sustainable natural resource management.

Refugees and Thai communities join together in this capacity building process in order to be able to establish effective community-based structures and develop ideas and plans for shared and mutually beneficial activities. Such community driven plans will be finalized through consultations with other stakeholders including CCSDPT organisations, including TBBC. Their focus might be in the field of livelihoods, environmental conservation and reforestation including bamboo and tree planting, watershed management, or others. TBBC will consider support of these activities based on its existing expertise in agriculture, income generation, or tree and bamboo planting.

Cooperation with RECOFTC is also part of TBBC longer term strategies to secure enough shelter material for camps and to lower dependency on external suppliers. Besides planting more than 20,000 bamboo and other tree seedlings inside and outside of nine refugee camps along the Thailand Burma border during the last six months, TBBC is also actively exploring various opportunities for increased durability of shelter materials through experimental processes such as the treatment of bamboo with smoke and/or water.