A Systems Perspective on Forest Governance Failure in Thailand

This paper’s purpose is to diagnose Thailand’sgovernance system for forests which helps to identify thepotential interventions for making the system more effective.The paper combines an extensive review of formal and informalliterature with information from interviews conducted with keyforestry stakeholders in Thailand. This is reflective of the‘engaged’ philosophy underpinning this research, in contrast to aresearch approach in which the expert (drawing ondocumentation or a limited set of stakeholders) is the voice thatdefines and analyses the problem.This paper considers examples of forest governancearrangements from various countries facing comparablechallenges to Thailand as well as legal doctrine, popular mediaand formal literature. This purposeful synthesis seeks tocomprehensively understand the system under examination

Behavioural strategies to support climate change resilience

Environmental taxation reform is often intended to provide a strong incentive for adopting sustainable behaviours that can assist in achieving climate change resilience, such as Pigouvian taxes on energy use and other price mechanisms (Martin and Werren 2009, p. I). Arguably, these are often the 'first best' instrument to support climate change resilience. Yet such 'first best' instruments are often abandoned, with governments demonstrating a limited appetite for these mechanisms in the light of high political transaction costs (Martin and Werren 2009). A failure to implement the recommendations of the recent Henry Review of Australia's taxation system (which also incorporated prior proposals for a carbon emissions trading scheme) provides a clear illustration of how the political economy can frustrate a policy package. This has left Australia with no specific economic mechanisms to deal with climate change since implementation of the preferred carbon pricing scheme has also been delayed. In the absence of a credible market-based instrument focused upon climate change, the 'first best' instrument choice seems not to be immediately available

Using behavioural tools to support economic instruments for climate change resilience

"In my next life I'm going to be a psychologist. If I can make myself work harder at uni than I did last time, I'll become an academic and start a new branch of the discipline called PPP - public policy psychology." - Ross Gittins, 'Psychologists needed to help implement policies', The Sydney Morning Herald, October 4 2010. • Where credible market based instruments are absent or fail, what else can we do to support climate change resilience

Feasible Reforms for Thailand's Forest Governance System

This thesis aims to propose feasible reform directions for forest governance in Thailand that will provide greater social and environmental benefits from forestry and help overcome identified forest governance deficiencies. A review of the literature on forest governance suggests that 'good' governance plays a key role in ensuring sustainable natural forest management. Thailand has laws and institutions that, arguably, ought to ensure sustainable use of forest resources. Unfortunately, these forest governance actions to safeguard Thailand's forests have not achieved the expected result of reducing the destruction of forests, nor have they ensured social equity in the use of forest resources. This thesis draws on academic literature, legal sources and informal media - such as newspaper articles - and blends these with the 'voices' of directly involved stakeholders to diagnose the issues and arrive at a view about where reform is needed for the forest governance system in Thailand. The research is, therefore, underpinned by an engaged policy research methodology. Such a philosophy equally values the contribution of experts and of stakeholders in helping to define the issues and possible solutions to problems within a system and enables the development of a reform program that is more likely to deal with the full suit of relevant issues