Political Ecology of Rubber and Oil Palm in Northeast Thailand

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25360031
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Area studies
• Research Institution: Konan Women's University
• Principal Investigator: Fujita Wataru 甲南女子大学, 文学部, 准教授 (10411844)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: ゴム / アブラヤシ / タイ / 政治生態学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The expansion of rubber and palm oil cultivation in Northeast Thailand and its impacts to the locals' livelihood and ecological conditions was analyzed in relation to the government's policy and broader socio-economic trends. The results are as follows: 1) the local self-sufficient subsistence and living worlds mainly based on paddy cultivation has been dismantled, and the elements been re-construdted into a fringe part of the network of global rubber industry; and 2) the cash income of the locals has considerably increased that has been making the life style or education standards of the people to be 'middle-class' like. Oil palm is cultivated in limited area which has special conditions of soil and water, and is not like to widely expand in a short term.

Free Research Field

政治生態学、東南アジア地域研究