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Haze Pollution in Chiang Mai, Thailand: A Road to Resilience
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7th International Conference on Building Resilience; Using scientific knowledge to inform policy 7th Conference on Building Resilience; scientific knowledge to inform policy andInternational practice in disaster risk reduction, ICBR2017, 27Using – 29 November 2017, Bangkok, Thailand and practice in disaster risk reduction, ICBR2017, 27 – 29 November 2017, Bangkok, Thailand
Haze Pollution in Chiang Mai, Thailand: A Road to Resilience Haze Pollution in Chiang Mai, Thailand: A Road to Resilience Liwa Pardthaisongaa*, Phaothai Sin-ampolaa, Chanida Suwanprasitaa, Arisara a Liwa Pardthaisong *, Phaothai Sin-ampol , Chanida Suwanprasit , Arisara Charoenpanyanet Charoenpanyaneta a a
Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai Univesity, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai Univesity, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
Abstract Abstract Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand, and a popular tourist destination with around 7 million tourists per year. It Chiang the second largest city700 in Thailand, a popular touristEighty destination with tourists year. It situated Mai in theis Northern region, about kilometersand north of Bangkok. per cent of around the area7ismillion mountains and per 70 per cent situated in is theforest Northern about 700and kilometers of Bangkok. Eighty perstructure cent of the area is mountains and 70 not per only cent of the land area. region, The topography the rapidnorth and diverse socio-economic of the province have affected of theuse land is forest The topography and also the rapid and diverse structure thebeen province have only land change andarea. economic activities but the quality of its socio-economic environment. Chiang Maiofhas facing the affected problemnot of haze land use change economic activities but alsothe thedry quality of from its environment. Mai the hasexposure been facing problem ofofhaze pollution over theand past decade, particular during season February toChiang May. With andthe vulnerability the pollution the past decade, particular the dryChiang season Mai fromtremendously. February to May. the exposure and vulnerability of the area, this over problem occurred annually andduring has affected ThisWith research aims to investigate the building area, this problem annually andsectors has affected Chiang Mai tremendously. This research aims to during investigate the 10 building resilience of Chiangoccurred Mai through various (academic, government, private, and local communities) the past years, resilience of Chiang Mai The through variousand sectors (academic, government, private, local communities) during the past between 2007 and 2016. perception coping strategies of the villagers andand communities in the most affected areas10areyears, also between 2007 and 2016. The collected perception coping of with the villagers and government, communitiesprivate, in the most affected also examined. Primary data were byand focus groupstrategies interviews people from academic, andareas civilare society examined. data with were400 collected by focus interviews people from government, private, andHot civil society sectors, andPrimary interviews villagers from group the most affectedwith areas in San Pa Tong, Doi Lo, Chomacademic, Thong, and Districts. sectors, and interviews with progress 400 villagers from theofmost affected areas in San Mai Pa Tong, Doi over Lo, Chom Thong, andfrom Hot Districts. Results show the interesting in resilience the population of Chiang province the past 10 years, response Results showmitigation, the interesting in resilience of thesustainability. population ofItChiang Maithat province over past 10 has years, from response to recovery, and progress preparation for long term indicates the road to the resilience faced with many to recovery, particularly mitigation, and preparation for long term It the indicates thatlack the road to resiliencetohas faced with many difficulties, at the community/village levelsustainability. where most of villagers the opportunity participate with the difficulties, higher levels.particularly at the community/village level where most of the villagers lack the opportunity to participate with the higher levels. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. © 2017 2018 The Published Elsevier Ltd. © The Authors. Authors. Published by by Ltd. committee of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience. Peer-review under responsibility of Elsevier the scientific Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience. Keywords: Haze pollution; Resilience; Chiang Mai Keywords: Haze pollution; Resilience; Chiang Mai
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +6-681-992-5737; fax: +6-653-892-210. * Corresponding Tel.: +6-681-992-5737; fax: +6-653-892-210. E-mail address:author. [email protected] E-mail address: [email protected] 1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1877-7058 2017responsibility The Authors. of Published by Elsevier Ltd. of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience. Peer-review©under the scientific committee Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience.
1877-7058 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience 10.1016/j.proeng.2018.01.012
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1. Introduction Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand, situated in the North of the country, about 700 kilometers north of Bangkok. Eighty per cent of the province is mountains and 70 per cent is forest area. With its topography, climate and long cultural history, it has become a popular tourist destination for many decades. In 2015, there were 7.4 million tourists visited Chiang Mai in which 35 per cent of them was foreign tourists [1]. The number of tourists visiting Chiang Mai has increased every year with the average rate of 13.6 per cent per year between 2009 and 2015. With the population of 1.7 million, most of the population live in the Chiang Mai basin, surrounded by high mountains which lay along the East and West (Fig. 1). During the dry season, from February to May, Chiang Mai has been facing haze pollution which has becoming more severe and increasing every year during the last decade. Even under the Thailand standard where Particulate Matter 10 (PM10) 24 hours average level should not exceed 120 µg/m3 [2], there were many days during this period that PM10 had reached 200 or over. It should be noted that the PM10 level by international standard is much lower. For instance, the 24 hours average level of the European Commission is 50 µg/m3 [3]. There are several factors that caused haze pollution in Chiang Mai, from increased urbanization and vehicles to burning dry leaves and more importantly, the increasing forest fire and open burning on corn farms which has expanded rapidly due to the demand of corn for animal feed. This problem has affected Chiang Mai tremendously, not only economic and tourism sectors, but the health of its population, both short and long term. This paper aims to study the building resilience of Chiang Mai due to the reoccurrence of haze pollution by investigating through the coping mechanisms of various sectors: academic, government, private, and local communities during the past ten years.
Fig. 1. Chiang Mai province and the study sites.
2. Material and methods This study uses both secondary and primary data. Secondary data were collected from literature reviews from books, papers, journals, research reports, theses, articles, newspaper and websites. Primary data were collected from focus group discussion with representatives from government and private sectors as well as interviews with villages’ key contacts and 400 villagers from the communities that have the 10 years average highest PM10 levels. Methodology
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for PM10 estimation over Chiang Mai district was carried out by integrating ground station based PM10 and Kheatkanya’s model [4] using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. To assess ground level PM10, representative of weekly Aerosol product MOD04 from MODIS product during 2007-2016 in February, March, April and May were used for calculating Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT). PM10 values were converted to AOT using Kheatkanya’s model. PM10 = 130.304 - (79.574 * AOT) - (152.794 * (AOT) ^ 2) + (250.036 * (AOT) ^ 3)
[4]
Four districts with the 10 years average highest PM10 value were chosen. These are the districts of San Pa Tong, Doi Lo, Chom Thong and Hot (Fig. 1). In each of these district, the sub-district which has the highest PM10 value were selected as study sites. 3. Results 3.1. The roles of the academic sector This section focuses on research findings and outputs related to air and haze pollution in Chiang Mai. Such findings reflected the increasing awareness of air and haze pollution among academic scholars and researchers over the past decade. At the very beginning, or around mid-2000s, there were a research project on air pollution and levels of PM10, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs and other elements [5, 6] as well as the projects related to air quality surveillance modelling [7]. In the late 2000s, the increasing severity of haze pollution and impact on the health of the population was examined. There were the study on the relationship between pollutant levels and lung capacity in asthma patients and the economic lost evaluation of illness from asthma [8] as well as the relationship between PM10 and PM2.5 and lung cells [9]. The initiative research project on Chiang Mai air pollution surveillance was established in 2008, mainly to support research data/findings to policy makers. In addition, the effectiveness of PM2.5 mask prevention was examined [10]. There was also the development of mathematics modelling for forecasting haze pollution and its application on forest fire season [11], and a project to strengthen the communities in solving haze pollution [12]. In the early 2010s, research on air pollution and impact on health of the community has been carried out in some districts of Chiang Mai province to evaluate PM10 and analyse PAHs and Levoglucosan as well as Metabolites of PAHs from urinalysis [13]. Several research on the impact of air pollution and lung cancer have also been carried out [14, 15,16]. There was an investigation of PAHs and elements in PM10 and PM2.5 by different types of dusts [17], and problems of law enforcement on open burning [18]. Moreover, database on burning areas from different level spatial data has been carried out for surveillance and prevention of open burning [19]. In mid-2010s, the impact of forest fire on forest and air quality was examined [20] as well as the management of forest fire and haze from multilateral participatory management [21]. In addition, the management of biomass from animal feed corn was examined [22]. Recently, the ‘Haze Free Thailand’ Project has been established in 2016 by 7 research universities in Thailand under the name of ‘Research University Network for Climate Change & Disaster Management (RUNCCDM)’, led by Chiang Mai University and supported by the National Research Council of Thailand. This project aims to solve the country’s haze pollution problems and its impact for sustainable resource and economic development. It can be seen that most of the research projects during the past decade have been carried out by scientists and health scientists and, more recently, social scientists. Most of the research have been done within the specific field of interests. However, the recent occurrence of multidisciplinary research projects have shown the importance of using holistic approach in order to understand and fight with haze pollution and its impact on land, population and environment. 3.2. The roles of the government sector Thai government has initiated and focused on haze and forest fire management to reduce forest fire, open burning
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and haze pollution since 2006 under the missions in promoting understanding, awareness and effective administrative and informative system in fire prevention of Master Plan of National Fire Safety Development (2006-2019) [23], and environmental and natural resources management goal of the 10th National Economic and Social Development Plan [24]. The main strategy of haze and forest fire management is divided into two parts: the first part is forest fire and open burning management which focuses on fire problems in the forest, farming areas due to agricultural waste, and garbage open burning in the community in three durations – before, during and after fire disasters. The resolution is driven by public relations, the participation of citizens, the motivation for burning reduction, strong regulatory practices, and the establishment of Emergency Operation Center (EOC) in fire season; the second part is haze management which covers the prevention of forest fire and open burning, the collaboration and application of scientific and technological knowledge for research, the preparedness with related stakeholders, the implementation of national emergency plan and risk monitoring systems for detecting fire and burning as causes of haze pollution as well as the endorsement of ASEAN haze pollution agreement. Top-down approach from the central government is a traditional practice among related stakeholders through Operational Center for Forest Fire and Haze Prevention and Correction in national, regional, provincial and community levels. Basically, haze management duration has been determined in two stages. The first stage (between 2006 and 2010) focused on controlling all burning types in a 6-month peak season (from October to March each year) which was assessed by air quality index. In the second stage (between 2011 and 2019), the operational plan in forest fire, open burning and haze pollution has attempted to prevent haze before a fire season by burning control, management of agricultural waste, and crop changes as well as responding to a 3-month critical duration (from February to April) by strong patrol of burning and fire extinguishing. However, it was found that budget allocation and actions for fire forecasting and early warning systems by using technology, post-disaster review with participation from stakeholders, and alternative burning reduction mechanism have been rarely observed. This process has also applied to Chiang Mai haze management, particularly in a critical season, by single-command approach. The governor is taking as a main commander to administrate and control all related provincial organizations by categorizing into three parts, as followed: • Coordination section: the provincial office of natural resources and environment is acting as a secretary of the committee by coordinating all related provincial stakeholders, in academic and practical sections, and working with the provincial office of disaster prevention and mitigation in collaborating with local organizations. • Academic section: the regional environmental office (Region 1) is an informative support unit for decision making in either critical session or annual forecasting by using air quality statistics and geospatial technology (via data and information from Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Public Organization) or GISTDA). Besides, this section is responsible for organizing a brainstorming forum for sharing and exchanging lessons from various sectors and creating a resolution. • Practical section: the military forces and fire control units under the administration of forest and plant conservation research office 16 (Chiang Mai) are taking main responsibilities in this section. It is also supported by the local organizations (municipalities, sub-district administrative organizations, and village headmen). This section is working with communities in managing, controlling, inspecting and resolving forest fire and haze problems in a critical season. In addition, this section collaborates with local citizens in organizing prevention and recovery activities to alleviate forest fire and haze pollution. Currently, pre- and post-critical management usually emphasize on a participatory approach in accordance with the role of each related stakeholder as assigned in the second stage of the national plan (2011-2019) without the direct control of the governor. However, role of each organization in each period is different due to national driving mechanisms. Before the national plan was deployed, the government, including Chiang Mai haze management, tended to focus only on strong fire and burning control in a critical season but the action was intermittent. Although the
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establishment of early warning system, war room and trend analysis in haze and forest fire has initiated in the first era of national plan implementation (2008-2013), command-and-control approach has still been operated with less concern in pre- and post-critical management. Haze and fire management has been transformed gradually since 2014 by reducing time duration of command-and control practice within a critical duration, together with promoting annual management due to the second national plan with community participation in top-down approach such as the cooperation in doing firebreaks and early burning in forest and agricultural areas. 3.3. The roles of the private sector The increasing impact from haze pollution on tourism, socio-economic, and health in Chiang Mai has raised the serious concern and awareness among the population: local people and tourists; Thai and foreigners; farmers and nonfarmers; and people in urban and rural areas. It has caused the conflicts between different groups of people within the province. The media’s attention on the increasing open burning to burn agricultural waste and deforestation to open new agricultural land, mostly for growing corn, by contract farming with the big private company has been widely debated. It was not until mid-2000s that people in Chiang Mai have started several groups through social media such as ‘Silent Gen Y’, ‘Raks Mae Ping’, ‘Keaw Suay Hom’ in order to increase the awareness about haze pollution and to force the government organizations to do something about it. During that time, the Chiang Mai Governor has signed the MOU with that big private company in order to initiate problem solving in three districts of Chiang Mai. Moreover, the Governor and Chiang Mai Provincial Adminstrative Organization have started to integrate and corporate problem solving mechanisms with all sectors. However, the problems still reoccur. In 2016, several groups have sent out public letter to complain and asking the government to improve the information on haze pollution such as to adopt the WHO PM10 and PM2.5 standard levels, to increase the number of air quality stations and share the real information, and to set up the warning system when the air quality is increasing to the standard level and distribute free mask that can actually protect people from PM10 and PM2.5. 3.4. Perception and awareness of the local communities in haze problem The interviews were conducted from 400 villagers from the 4 study sites (100 villagers in each site). The population group had been divided into 2 groups by occupation: farmers and non-farmers, based on the assumption that these two groups may have different perception and awareness in haze pollution. General characteristics of the samples include being late-adulthood (x̄ = 53 years) with primary education or below, earning different income between farm and non-farm people (x̄ = 3,892 Baht/month for farmers, x̄ = 6,534 Baht/month for non-farmers). It is interesting to note that 9 out of 10 of the samples earn monthly income below 10,000 Baht (equal to USD286). Generally, most people have concerned haze pollution as a problem, especially in the last 5 years and defined that forest burning (60 per cent) and waste burning (50 per cent) are the main causes of haze in Chiang Mai. However, only a few of them identified urban and industrial activities, as well as climate change as root causes of haze pollution. They also received news and knowledge about fire and haze via various channels namely community announcement (63 per cent), television programs (51 per cent) and radio programs (31 per cent). According to their experiences, haze has mostly damaged a respiratory system (79 per cent) as well as affected the health of vulnerable people (patients, elderly people and children). Although haze pollution becomes one of major environmental problems in Chiang Mai, the threshold and pathways of adaptation among groups is quite different. Only 66 percent of affected population attempted to reduce and adapt themselves from haze. Those people have participated in haze management in two different ways, mostly by a passive strategy, including: • Follow ‘stop burning’ rule in a critical session and self-protection: it is a main mitigation strategy of both farmers and non-farmers. However, non-farmers tended to conform the regulation more slightly than farmers (84 per cent, and 74 per cent, respectively). Besides, they attempted to reduce health problems by using mask, avoiding low air quality areas, and going to the health center and hospital.
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• Voluntary participation: this is a proactive adaptation strategy to participate and manage haze pollution at a community level. Many activities were arranged to prevent fire and haze including doing firebreaks, early burning and fire extinguishing in a critical period, which is mostly done by the agriculturalist and low-income groups. Other campaigns are public relations and meeting with related stakeholders to resolve haze problems, which is mostly actualized by the non-farm group. State and community organizations are main sponsors. Different types of participation to mitigation and adaptation represent a close relationship with attitudes towards haze pollution trends during the past decade. Results outstandingly indicated that haze problems in the viewpoint of farmers and low-income groups, who actively participated as a volunteer in haze prevention with a community and state authority, are gradually eliminated. On the contrary, many non-farm and high-income people thought that whether or not haze problems may be reduced, remain unchanged or intensified is upon the state regulation in burning control. Thus, their opinion were diversified and have higher percentage in the intensification of haze problems in the past ten years (Table 1). However, attitude towards the capacity of state management among farm and non-farm groups is quite similar – good (56 per cent and 48 percent, respectively) and neutral (23 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively). This was because of the strong regulation and prevention as well as frequent public relations to the civil society. However, some of them realized that the state has not been working efficiently enough in haze management because it is only an offhand strategy in a critical duration rather than apply long-term management in dealing with haze. In addition, the regulation is still unclear in terms of penalty in several areas and communities. Table 1. Opinions on trend of haze pollution in a previous decade, by occupation. Trend of haze pollution
Farm
Non-farm
Total
Number
%
Number
%
Number
%
Extremely intensified
10
5.95
17
8.13
27
7.16
Intensified
35
20.83
52
24.88
87
23.08
Unchanged
33
19.64
42
20.10
75
19.89
Reduced
56
33.33
54
25.84
110
29.18
Extremely reduced
16
9.52
20
9.57
36
9.55
Fluctuated
18
10.71
24
11.48
42
11.14
Total
168
100.00
209
100.00
377
100.00
Expected policy and ways of management to state authority consists of three perspectives. Firstly, state should encourage strong regulation and application in burning control. In terms of farmers, they want to see the application of this method (19 per cent) after the implementation of behavioural transformation and the promotion of non-burning agriculture strategies for burning reduction (42 per cent). In addition, non-farm group indicated that strong regulation (32 per cent) must enforce in couple with effective forest and waste burning management (27 per cent). Secondly, continuous public relations for strong knowledge and awareness to haze problems are also needed, particularly in nonfarm group (24 per cent), compared to farm group (13 per cent). Finally, organizational and resources management in building more efficiency in haze alleviation is also important. This method will accomplish by area-based management as well as budget and resource increase for prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response stages. In this perspective, farmers paid more attention than non-farmers. According to the information, farmers’ and non-farmers’ opinions in expected policy and management in the future are partly divergent. Whilst farmers prefer gradual adjustment for haze pollution in order to protect their livelihood, non-farmers attempt to promote clear and regulative mode of burning control and haze management.
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4. Discussion Along the decade, the enthusiasm of haze and fire management in following the framework of disaster risk management has been observed. Many government organizations have taken various roles to mobilize their resources for wide-ranging management (natural resources and environment, health, livelihood and local administration), particularly in pre-critical and critical sessions, particularly in last five years. This advantage has been mostly driven by top-down regulation in fire and burning control. Yet, it did not totally accomplish even though the state has strongly encouraged as a national issue. Several weaknesses were found in accordance with stakeholders’ opinions including: • Lack of spatial and temporal analysis: state management in the past aimed to set a stereotype in defining root causes of forest fire and haze in general despite each area has various topographic features and human activities that can induce fire and haze at different levels. Moreover, knowledge about the relationship of climatic events and forest fire was scarcely studied. Pre-sessional management is thus not effective enough to control fire in each year. • Ineffective early warning system: the government sectors usually alert just in a very short range due to the situations so that resources and budget allocation are not appropriate and not flexible along with changing situations in each year by burning areas, human behaviors and weather characteristics. The shortage of resources and budget in haze management was found in several years although the academic sector has attempted to exemplify this issue. • Top-down approach for policy formulation: As the state has preferred to control burning by strong regulation with some actions in public relations and awareness building, but it is only one-way communication with vulnerable knowledge in fire and haze resolution according to the first two problems mentioned earlier. Further, the brainstorming and integration of local wisdom and academic knowledge, private and civil society standpoint through public hearing for adjusting and launching policies is very limited and imbalanced. • No post-disaster review with collaboration: According to the last problem, post-disaster review is a very important stage to define and adjust previous policies for better haze and fire resolution in the future. However, this action has just been driven in recent years by the cooperation of academic sector and local community with limited support from the government despite it is a main organization in policy formulation. Building resilience in dealing with haze pollution is not a responsibility of academic sector as such. In terms of impact on the population, the attitude towards fire and haze management among farm and non-farm population, or lower-income and higher-income groups, adaptation practices and the expectation to future policy formation should be compromised by the differences of livelihood existing. In addition, an association with proactive collaborative management through widespread public relations and social learning between farm and non-farm groups as well as government, academic sector, and civil society should be exercised with the integration of wide-ranging disciplines to promote haze management resilience under the ‘build back better’ mechanism. In the meantime, the government sector and agro-industrial entrepreneurs could act as main leaders in area-based post-disaster haze management by receiving more voices and feedbacks from the bottom about their behaviours and livelihoods in a public forum in order to review and codify some actual lessons in real situations of each community. The construction of valid and up-to-date technical information and innovation in fire and haze reduction should be also motivated through the partnership between higher education institutions (HEIs) and industrial sectors as representatives of the civil society, with a remarkable support from the government either state or provincial level. These mentioned processes may be able to adjust and enable effective prevention and mitigation to haze pollution as well as respond properly with feasible plans, optimum resource mobilization and budget allocation in the near future.
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Procedia Engineering 212 (2018) 85–92
7th International Conference on Building Resilience; Using scientific knowledge to inform policy 7th Conference on Building Resilience; scientific knowledge to inform policy andInternational practice in disaster risk reduction, ICBR2017, 27Using – 29 November 2017, Bangkok, Thailand and practice in disaster risk reduction, ICBR2017, 27 – 29 November 2017, Bangkok, Thailand
Haze Pollution in Chiang Mai, Thailand: A Road to Resilience Haze Pollution in Chiang Mai, Thailand: A Road to Resilience Liwa Pardthaisongaa*, Phaothai Sin-ampolaa, Chanida Suwanprasitaa, Arisara a Liwa Pardthaisong *, Phaothai Sin-ampol , Chanida Suwanprasit , Arisara Charoenpanyanet Charoenpanyaneta a a
Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai Univesity, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai Univesity, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
Abstract Abstract Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand, and a popular tourist destination with around 7 million tourists per year. It Chiang the second largest city700 in Thailand, a popular touristEighty destination with tourists year. It situated Mai in theis Northern region, about kilometersand north of Bangkok. per cent of around the area7ismillion mountains and per 70 per cent situated in is theforest Northern about 700and kilometers of Bangkok. Eighty perstructure cent of the area is mountains and 70 not per only cent of the land area. region, The topography the rapidnorth and diverse socio-economic of the province have affected of theuse land is forest The topography and also the rapid and diverse structure thebeen province have only land change andarea. economic activities but the quality of its socio-economic environment. Chiang Maiofhas facing the affected problemnot of haze land use change economic activities but alsothe thedry quality of from its environment. Mai the hasexposure been facing problem ofofhaze pollution over theand past decade, particular during season February toChiang May. With andthe vulnerability the pollution the past decade, particular the dryChiang season Mai fromtremendously. February to May. the exposure and vulnerability of the area, this over problem occurred annually andduring has affected ThisWith research aims to investigate the building area, this problem annually andsectors has affected Chiang Mai tremendously. This research aims to during investigate the 10 building resilience of Chiangoccurred Mai through various (academic, government, private, and local communities) the past years, resilience of Chiang Mai The through variousand sectors (academic, government, private, local communities) during the past between 2007 and 2016. perception coping strategies of the villagers andand communities in the most affected areas10areyears, also between 2007 and 2016. The collected perception coping of with the villagers and government, communitiesprivate, in the most affected also examined. Primary data were byand focus groupstrategies interviews people from academic, andareas civilare society examined. data with were400 collected by focus interviews people from government, private, andHot civil society sectors, andPrimary interviews villagers from group the most affectedwith areas in San Pa Tong, Doi Lo, Chomacademic, Thong, and Districts. sectors, and interviews with progress 400 villagers from theofmost affected areas in San Mai Pa Tong, Doi over Lo, Chom Thong, andfrom Hot Districts. Results show the interesting in resilience the population of Chiang province the past 10 years, response Results showmitigation, the interesting in resilience of thesustainability. population ofItChiang Maithat province over past 10 has years, from response to recovery, and progress preparation for long term indicates the road to the resilience faced with many to recovery, particularly mitigation, and preparation for long term It the indicates thatlack the road to resiliencetohas faced with many difficulties, at the community/village levelsustainability. where most of villagers the opportunity participate with the difficulties, higher levels.particularly at the community/village level where most of the villagers lack the opportunity to participate with the higher levels. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. © 2017 2018 The Published Elsevier Ltd. © The Authors. Authors. Published by by Ltd. committee of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience. Peer-review under responsibility of Elsevier the scientific Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience. Keywords: Haze pollution; Resilience; Chiang Mai Keywords: Haze pollution; Resilience; Chiang Mai
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +6-681-992-5737; fax: +6-653-892-210. * Corresponding Tel.: +6-681-992-5737; fax: +6-653-892-210. E-mail address:author. [email protected] E-mail address: [email protected] 1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1877-7058 2017responsibility The Authors. of Published by Elsevier Ltd. of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience. Peer-review©under the scientific committee Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience.
1877-7058 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience 10.1016/j.proeng.2018.01.012
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1. Introduction Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand, situated in the North of the country, about 700 kilometers north of Bangkok. Eighty per cent of the province is mountains and 70 per cent is forest area. With its topography, climate and long cultural history, it has become a popular tourist destination for many decades. In 2015, there were 7.4 million tourists visited Chiang Mai in which 35 per cent of them was foreign tourists [1]. The number of tourists visiting Chiang Mai has increased every year with the average rate of 13.6 per cent per year between 2009 and 2015. With the population of 1.7 million, most of the population live in the Chiang Mai basin, surrounded by high mountains which lay along the East and West (Fig. 1). During the dry season, from February to May, Chiang Mai has been facing haze pollution which has becoming more severe and increasing every year during the last decade. Even under the Thailand standard where Particulate Matter 10 (PM10) 24 hours average level should not exceed 120 µg/m3 [2], there were many days during this period that PM10 had reached 200 or over. It should be noted that the PM10 level by international standard is much lower. For instance, the 24 hours average level of the European Commission is 50 µg/m3 [3]. There are several factors that caused haze pollution in Chiang Mai, from increased urbanization and vehicles to burning dry leaves and more importantly, the increasing forest fire and open burning on corn farms which has expanded rapidly due to the demand of corn for animal feed. This problem has affected Chiang Mai tremendously, not only economic and tourism sectors, but the health of its population, both short and long term. This paper aims to study the building resilience of Chiang Mai due to the reoccurrence of haze pollution by investigating through the coping mechanisms of various sectors: academic, government, private, and local communities during the past ten years.
Fig. 1. Chiang Mai province and the study sites.
2. Material and methods This study uses both secondary and primary data. Secondary data were collected from literature reviews from books, papers, journals, research reports, theses, articles, newspaper and websites. Primary data were collected from focus group discussion with representatives from government and private sectors as well as interviews with villages’ key contacts and 400 villagers from the communities that have the 10 years average highest PM10 levels. Methodology
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for PM10 estimation over Chiang Mai district was carried out by integrating ground station based PM10 and Kheatkanya’s model [4] using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. To assess ground level PM10, representative of weekly Aerosol product MOD04 from MODIS product during 2007-2016 in February, March, April and May were used for calculating Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT). PM10 values were converted to AOT using Kheatkanya’s model. PM10 = 130.304 - (79.574 * AOT) - (152.794 * (AOT) ^ 2) + (250.036 * (AOT) ^ 3)
[4]
Four districts with the 10 years average highest PM10 value were chosen. These are the districts of San Pa Tong, Doi Lo, Chom Thong and Hot (Fig. 1). In each of these district, the sub-district which has the highest PM10 value were selected as study sites. 3. Results 3.1. The roles of the academic sector This section focuses on research findings and outputs related to air and haze pollution in Chiang Mai. Such findings reflected the increasing awareness of air and haze pollution among academic scholars and researchers over the past decade. At the very beginning, or around mid-2000s, there were a research project on air pollution and levels of PM10, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs and other elements [5, 6] as well as the projects related to air quality surveillance modelling [7]. In the late 2000s, the increasing severity of haze pollution and impact on the health of the population was examined. There were the study on the relationship between pollutant levels and lung capacity in asthma patients and the economic lost evaluation of illness from asthma [8] as well as the relationship between PM10 and PM2.5 and lung cells [9]. The initiative research project on Chiang Mai air pollution surveillance was established in 2008, mainly to support research data/findings to policy makers. In addition, the effectiveness of PM2.5 mask prevention was examined [10]. There was also the development of mathematics modelling for forecasting haze pollution and its application on forest fire season [11], and a project to strengthen the communities in solving haze pollution [12]. In the early 2010s, research on air pollution and impact on health of the community has been carried out in some districts of Chiang Mai province to evaluate PM10 and analyse PAHs and Levoglucosan as well as Metabolites of PAHs from urinalysis [13]. Several research on the impact of air pollution and lung cancer have also been carried out [14, 15,16]. There was an investigation of PAHs and elements in PM10 and PM2.5 by different types of dusts [17], and problems of law enforcement on open burning [18]. Moreover, database on burning areas from different level spatial data has been carried out for surveillance and prevention of open burning [19]. In mid-2010s, the impact of forest fire on forest and air quality was examined [20] as well as the management of forest fire and haze from multilateral participatory management [21]. In addition, the management of biomass from animal feed corn was examined [22]. Recently, the ‘Haze Free Thailand’ Project has been established in 2016 by 7 research universities in Thailand under the name of ‘Research University Network for Climate Change & Disaster Management (RUNCCDM)’, led by Chiang Mai University and supported by the National Research Council of Thailand. This project aims to solve the country’s haze pollution problems and its impact for sustainable resource and economic development. It can be seen that most of the research projects during the past decade have been carried out by scientists and health scientists and, more recently, social scientists. Most of the research have been done within the specific field of interests. However, the recent occurrence of multidisciplinary research projects have shown the importance of using holistic approach in order to understand and fight with haze pollution and its impact on land, population and environment. 3.2. The roles of the government sector Thai government has initiated and focused on haze and forest fire management to reduce forest fire, open burning
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and haze pollution since 2006 under the missions in promoting understanding, awareness and effective administrative and informative system in fire prevention of Master Plan of National Fire Safety Development (2006-2019) [23], and environmental and natural resources management goal of the 10th National Economic and Social Development Plan [24]. The main strategy of haze and forest fire management is divided into two parts: the first part is forest fire and open burning management which focuses on fire problems in the forest, farming areas due to agricultural waste, and garbage open burning in the community in three durations – before, during and after fire disasters. The resolution is driven by public relations, the participation of citizens, the motivation for burning reduction, strong regulatory practices, and the establishment of Emergency Operation Center (EOC) in fire season; the second part is haze management which covers the prevention of forest fire and open burning, the collaboration and application of scientific and technological knowledge for research, the preparedness with related stakeholders, the implementation of national emergency plan and risk monitoring systems for detecting fire and burning as causes of haze pollution as well as the endorsement of ASEAN haze pollution agreement. Top-down approach from the central government is a traditional practice among related stakeholders through Operational Center for Forest Fire and Haze Prevention and Correction in national, regional, provincial and community levels. Basically, haze management duration has been determined in two stages. The first stage (between 2006 and 2010) focused on controlling all burning types in a 6-month peak season (from October to March each year) which was assessed by air quality index. In the second stage (between 2011 and 2019), the operational plan in forest fire, open burning and haze pollution has attempted to prevent haze before a fire season by burning control, management of agricultural waste, and crop changes as well as responding to a 3-month critical duration (from February to April) by strong patrol of burning and fire extinguishing. However, it was found that budget allocation and actions for fire forecasting and early warning systems by using technology, post-disaster review with participation from stakeholders, and alternative burning reduction mechanism have been rarely observed. This process has also applied to Chiang Mai haze management, particularly in a critical season, by single-command approach. The governor is taking as a main commander to administrate and control all related provincial organizations by categorizing into three parts, as followed: • Coordination section: the provincial office of natural resources and environment is acting as a secretary of the committee by coordinating all related provincial stakeholders, in academic and practical sections, and working with the provincial office of disaster prevention and mitigation in collaborating with local organizations. • Academic section: the regional environmental office (Region 1) is an informative support unit for decision making in either critical session or annual forecasting by using air quality statistics and geospatial technology (via data and information from Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Public Organization) or GISTDA). Besides, this section is responsible for organizing a brainstorming forum for sharing and exchanging lessons from various sectors and creating a resolution. • Practical section: the military forces and fire control units under the administration of forest and plant conservation research office 16 (Chiang Mai) are taking main responsibilities in this section. It is also supported by the local organizations (municipalities, sub-district administrative organizations, and village headmen). This section is working with communities in managing, controlling, inspecting and resolving forest fire and haze problems in a critical season. In addition, this section collaborates with local citizens in organizing prevention and recovery activities to alleviate forest fire and haze pollution. Currently, pre- and post-critical management usually emphasize on a participatory approach in accordance with the role of each related stakeholder as assigned in the second stage of the national plan (2011-2019) without the direct control of the governor. However, role of each organization in each period is different due to national driving mechanisms. Before the national plan was deployed, the government, including Chiang Mai haze management, tended to focus only on strong fire and burning control in a critical season but the action was intermittent. Although the
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establishment of early warning system, war room and trend analysis in haze and forest fire has initiated in the first era of national plan implementation (2008-2013), command-and-control approach has still been operated with less concern in pre- and post-critical management. Haze and fire management has been transformed gradually since 2014 by reducing time duration of command-and control practice within a critical duration, together with promoting annual management due to the second national plan with community participation in top-down approach such as the cooperation in doing firebreaks and early burning in forest and agricultural areas. 3.3. The roles of the private sector The increasing impact from haze pollution on tourism, socio-economic, and health in Chiang Mai has raised the serious concern and awareness among the population: local people and tourists; Thai and foreigners; farmers and nonfarmers; and people in urban and rural areas. It has caused the conflicts between different groups of people within the province. The media’s attention on the increasing open burning to burn agricultural waste and deforestation to open new agricultural land, mostly for growing corn, by contract farming with the big private company has been widely debated. It was not until mid-2000s that people in Chiang Mai have started several groups through social media such as ‘Silent Gen Y’, ‘Raks Mae Ping’, ‘Keaw Suay Hom’ in order to increase the awareness about haze pollution and to force the government organizations to do something about it. During that time, the Chiang Mai Governor has signed the MOU with that big private company in order to initiate problem solving in three districts of Chiang Mai. Moreover, the Governor and Chiang Mai Provincial Adminstrative Organization have started to integrate and corporate problem solving mechanisms with all sectors. However, the problems still reoccur. In 2016, several groups have sent out public letter to complain and asking the government to improve the information on haze pollution such as to adopt the WHO PM10 and PM2.5 standard levels, to increase the number of air quality stations and share the real information, and to set up the warning system when the air quality is increasing to the standard level and distribute free mask that can actually protect people from PM10 and PM2.5. 3.4. Perception and awareness of the local communities in haze problem The interviews were conducted from 400 villagers from the 4 study sites (100 villagers in each site). The population group had been divided into 2 groups by occupation: farmers and non-farmers, based on the assumption that these two groups may have different perception and awareness in haze pollution. General characteristics of the samples include being late-adulthood (x̄ = 53 years) with primary education or below, earning different income between farm and non-farm people (x̄ = 3,892 Baht/month for farmers, x̄ = 6,534 Baht/month for non-farmers). It is interesting to note that 9 out of 10 of the samples earn monthly income below 10,000 Baht (equal to USD286). Generally, most people have concerned haze pollution as a problem, especially in the last 5 years and defined that forest burning (60 per cent) and waste burning (50 per cent) are the main causes of haze in Chiang Mai. However, only a few of them identified urban and industrial activities, as well as climate change as root causes of haze pollution. They also received news and knowledge about fire and haze via various channels namely community announcement (63 per cent), television programs (51 per cent) and radio programs (31 per cent). According to their experiences, haze has mostly damaged a respiratory system (79 per cent) as well as affected the health of vulnerable people (patients, elderly people and children). Although haze pollution becomes one of major environmental problems in Chiang Mai, the threshold and pathways of adaptation among groups is quite different. Only 66 percent of affected population attempted to reduce and adapt themselves from haze. Those people have participated in haze management in two different ways, mostly by a passive strategy, including: • Follow ‘stop burning’ rule in a critical session and self-protection: it is a main mitigation strategy of both farmers and non-farmers. However, non-farmers tended to conform the regulation more slightly than farmers (84 per cent, and 74 per cent, respectively). Besides, they attempted to reduce health problems by using mask, avoiding low air quality areas, and going to the health center and hospital.
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• Voluntary participation: this is a proactive adaptation strategy to participate and manage haze pollution at a community level. Many activities were arranged to prevent fire and haze including doing firebreaks, early burning and fire extinguishing in a critical period, which is mostly done by the agriculturalist and low-income groups. Other campaigns are public relations and meeting with related stakeholders to resolve haze problems, which is mostly actualized by the non-farm group. State and community organizations are main sponsors. Different types of participation to mitigation and adaptation represent a close relationship with attitudes towards haze pollution trends during the past decade. Results outstandingly indicated that haze problems in the viewpoint of farmers and low-income groups, who actively participated as a volunteer in haze prevention with a community and state authority, are gradually eliminated. On the contrary, many non-farm and high-income people thought that whether or not haze problems may be reduced, remain unchanged or intensified is upon the state regulation in burning control. Thus, their opinion were diversified and have higher percentage in the intensification of haze problems in the past ten years (Table 1). However, attitude towards the capacity of state management among farm and non-farm groups is quite similar – good (56 per cent and 48 percent, respectively) and neutral (23 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively). This was because of the strong regulation and prevention as well as frequent public relations to the civil society. However, some of them realized that the state has not been working efficiently enough in haze management because it is only an offhand strategy in a critical duration rather than apply long-term management in dealing with haze. In addition, the regulation is still unclear in terms of penalty in several areas and communities. Table 1. Opinions on trend of haze pollution in a previous decade, by occupation. Trend of haze pollution
Farm
Non-farm
Total
Number
%
Number
%
Number
%
Extremely intensified
10
5.95
17
8.13
27
7.16
Intensified
35
20.83
52
24.88
87
23.08
Unchanged
33
19.64
42
20.10
75
19.89
Reduced
56
33.33
54
25.84
110
29.18
Extremely reduced
16
9.52
20
9.57
36
9.55
Fluctuated
18
10.71
24
11.48
42
11.14
Total
168
100.00
209
100.00
377
100.00
Expected policy and ways of management to state authority consists of three perspectives. Firstly, state should encourage strong regulation and application in burning control. In terms of farmers, they want to see the application of this method (19 per cent) after the implementation of behavioural transformation and the promotion of non-burning agriculture strategies for burning reduction (42 per cent). In addition, non-farm group indicated that strong regulation (32 per cent) must enforce in couple with effective forest and waste burning management (27 per cent). Secondly, continuous public relations for strong knowledge and awareness to haze problems are also needed, particularly in nonfarm group (24 per cent), compared to farm group (13 per cent). Finally, organizational and resources management in building more efficiency in haze alleviation is also important. This method will accomplish by area-based management as well as budget and resource increase for prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response stages. In this perspective, farmers paid more attention than non-farmers. According to the information, farmers’ and non-farmers’ opinions in expected policy and management in the future are partly divergent. Whilst farmers prefer gradual adjustment for haze pollution in order to protect their livelihood, non-farmers attempt to promote clear and regulative mode of burning control and haze management.
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4. Discussion Along the decade, the enthusiasm of haze and fire management in following the framework of disaster risk management has been observed. Many government organizations have taken various roles to mobilize their resources for wide-ranging management (natural resources and environment, health, livelihood and local administration), particularly in pre-critical and critical sessions, particularly in last five years. This advantage has been mostly driven by top-down regulation in fire and burning control. Yet, it did not totally accomplish even though the state has strongly encouraged as a national issue. Several weaknesses were found in accordance with stakeholders’ opinions including: • Lack of spatial and temporal analysis: state management in the past aimed to set a stereotype in defining root causes of forest fire and haze in general despite each area has various topographic features and human activities that can induce fire and haze at different levels. Moreover, knowledge about the relationship of climatic events and forest fire was scarcely studied. Pre-sessional management is thus not effective enough to control fire in each year. • Ineffective early warning system: the government sectors usually alert just in a very short range due to the situations so that resources and budget allocation are not appropriate and not flexible along with changing situations in each year by burning areas, human behaviors and weather characteristics. The shortage of resources and budget in haze management was found in several years although the academic sector has attempted to exemplify this issue. • Top-down approach for policy formulation: As the state has preferred to control burning by strong regulation with some actions in public relations and awareness building, but it is only one-way communication with vulnerable knowledge in fire and haze resolution according to the first two problems mentioned earlier. Further, the brainstorming and integration of local wisdom and academic knowledge, private and civil society standpoint through public hearing for adjusting and launching policies is very limited and imbalanced. • No post-disaster review with collaboration: According to the last problem, post-disaster review is a very important stage to define and adjust previous policies for better haze and fire resolution in the future. However, this action has just been driven in recent years by the cooperation of academic sector and local community with limited support from the government despite it is a main organization in policy formulation. Building resilience in dealing with haze pollution is not a responsibility of academic sector as such. In terms of impact on the population, the attitude towards fire and haze management among farm and non-farm population, or lower-income and higher-income groups, adaptation practices and the expectation to future policy formation should be compromised by the differences of livelihood existing. In addition, an association with proactive collaborative management through widespread public relations and social learning between farm and non-farm groups as well as government, academic sector, and civil society should be exercised with the integration of wide-ranging disciplines to promote haze management resilience under the ‘build back better’ mechanism. In the meantime, the government sector and agro-industrial entrepreneurs could act as main leaders in area-based post-disaster haze management by receiving more voices and feedbacks from the bottom about their behaviours and livelihoods in a public forum in order to review and codify some actual lessons in real situations of each community. The construction of valid and up-to-date technical information and innovation in fire and haze reduction should be also motivated through the partnership between higher education institutions (HEIs) and industrial sectors as representatives of the civil society, with a remarkable support from the government either state or provincial level. These mentioned processes may be able to adjust and enable effective prevention and mitigation to haze pollution as well as respond properly with feasible plans, optimum resource mobilization and budget allocation in the near future.
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