Abstract:
The purposes of this research were : (1) to investigate the need assessments of the sub-district organization committee members in forest conservation at Kiriratnikom district, Surat Thani Province ; (2) to develop the sub-district organization committee participation in forest conservation; and (3) to evaluate and improve their participatory development. The process was divided into 3 stages as follows.
Stage 1 was the stage of investigating the need assessment of participation. It was found to be in the high level. As viewed by separated aspects, it was found that the following aspects were found to be in the high level: the information distribution on the forest conservation activities, the participation in conservation planning, and the conservation practice. However, the aspect of follow-up activities and evaluation of the conservation activities were found to be in the middle level.
Stage 2 was the result from the participatory development. The FSC technique was used to conduct into 8 stages. In the former time, the problems were not actually analyzed, resulting in lack of data base to give the priority, so the strategic conservation was not correlated to the actual community problems, which should be the prompt solution. This meant that the conservation strategy did not respond to the local needs. Nowadays, the development of the conservation strategy correlated to the local needs and actual problems. In addition, in the future development of strategic conservation means was divided into 4 aspects: (1)to develop the locals along with the activity promotion for the internal unity; (2) to develop and promote local goods along with occupation benefiting from the community forest; (3) to develop infrastructure and other public benefits; and (4) to develop environment and tourists attractions located in the forest. The specialist evaluated this means, and the result was found to be suitable with the high level of correlation. The third stage was the stage of evaluation of knowledge of conservation participation. It was found that after the workshop the participants gained the higher knowledge at the significant level of 0.01. The skill they gained was also in the high level, and the attitude toward the participatory development strategy to conserve their forest was found to be in the highest level.