Desi Anwar: When Perseverance Pays Off
I'm standing at the top of the mountain called the Sleeping Lady in the northernmost part of Thailand. Before me is Myanmar: stretches of bare rolling hills with smoke rising up here and there as farmers slash and burn their land. From somewhere down the valley, the sound of an electric saw can be heard, chopping down the few trees left.
Kun Chai, my host who runs the DoiTung Development Project founded by the late mother of the present king through her Mae Fah Luang Foundation, points at a large house in the distance. "The house of a warlord," he explains. "Except he doesn't deal with opium anymore, but synthetic drugs. Even the Myanmarese authorities can't touch these people."
Kun Chai plans to help the Myanmar government tackle poverty and drug trafficking in the area. With the border so close, Myanmar's drug problem is also Thailand's problem.
Behind us, in stark contrast, is the Thai part of the highland that forms part of the Golden Triangle of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, which once upon a time, was the center for drug and arms trafficking: a no-man's area ran by warlords, where the stateless hill tribes earned their meager livelihood by growing poppies for opium.
Now, the area is a lush of forests growing coffee, macadamia and pine trees. An economic forest providing a livelihood for the people living here.
The DoiTung project started over 26 years ago when the princess mother returned to Thailand after years of living in Switzerland. At 87 years of age, she saw what was needed was a complete reforestation of the area long denuded by logging and slash-and-burn farming. While what the people needed was an alternative as well as more sustainable and dignified livelihood for the neglected hill tribes other than growing opium poppies, prostitution and living under the shadow of the warlords.
"The princess mother was the jockey," says Kun Chai, a sprightly 76-year-old with the energy, charm and humor of someone half his age. "I was the horse. The person getting things done. It wasn't easy. The warlords were difficult but they were nothing compared to the government officials."
The first thing the project had to do was give the tribespeople alternative livelihoods. Opium growing was not the issue. Having a source of income for the farmers' next meal was. "No one wants to be bad," says Kun Chai, "it's just that these people lacked opportunities."
The farmers were given a daily wage to plant trees in the area — more than they would earn from growing opium. The trees were important not just for environmental reasons, but also for economic reasons. That's why coffee and macadamia nuts are grown: for their high market value.
Farmers then can rent the trees for a nominal sum to give them a sense of ownership. "When they know that they are responsible for the trees and can earn money from selling the coffee or the nuts, they have an incentive to take care of them," explains Kun Chai. Moreover, the project only accepts high quality coffee cherries from the farmers for which they pay the market price.
Over time, the farmers become entrepreneurs, growing quality coffee and macadamia nuts to a guaranteed market. They are also free to sell and produce their own coffee brand if they wish to. These days, however, DoiTung coffee and macadamia nuts are synonymous with high quality and a great social enterprise story to go with it.
Meanwhile, the area itself, some forty minutes from Chiang Rai, has developed to host huge flower gardens and forests with a variety of trees. The cool weather, the mountain range and the abundance of beautiful flowers neatly laid out in the Royal Gardens, does remind one of Switzerland in the spring time.
There is also a thriving cottage industry producing ceramics, paper, handwoven cotton, silk and bamboo fabrics and handicrafts produced by former sex workers in the area as well as employing old people who would otherwise have no income or dependent on their children.
"The project is here to provide sustainable alternative livelihoods," says Kun Chai. The current young and educated generation which did not experience the grim past of the previous one, is free to pursue their careers elsewhere if they wish to, as Thai citizens. The important thing is that they now, unlike before, have options.
I could not help but be impressed. In a world full of bright ideas, proposals, politics and empty talk, what I see here is the manifestation of years of hard work, commitment, persistence and the actual implementation of a simple but very sound project.
Desi Anwar is a senior anchor at Metro TV. She can be reached at desianwar.com or dailyavocado.net.