The guideline development for sustainable livelihood indicators of village marginal mangrove forest in the Satun province, Thailand

Abstract

The study of guideline development for sustainable livelihood indicators of a village's marginal mangrove forest in the Satun province has an aim to understand livelihood systems for guideline development of sustainable livelihood indicators in the community. The three villages, Houtang, Tanamkemtai, and Khokkphayom of the Satun province, were used as a study area. Qualitative methodology was mainly used because the local people had to recall most of the data, which significantly focused on the interrelationship of the parameters involving the roles of sustainable livelihood indicators via key informants, such as the village's senior, headman, and fisherman. The tools for corrected data were applied form rapid rural appraisal (RRA). It found that mangrove forests in the Satun province are recovered forests because of government concession and villagers' deforestation in the past. Almost all villagers are Muslims and can communicate in Pattani Malay, southern local and national languages. At present, villagers are formulating a group for the protection and conservation of mangrove forests, which a government organization supports. Villagers' perceptions about mangrove forests' benefits can be classified as both direct and indirect. The studies' indicators were divided into four dimensions and 17 items: social (four items), natural resource (four items), economic (four items) and productivity (five items). However, this research merely developed indicators of sustainable livelihood in the community around the mangrove forest at the community level without generating a scale or score with which to weigh the indicators. Therefore, it is very significant to carry out further research and to apply the approach in other areas in order to check the completeness of the indicators and to develop suitable weights.