Thailand: Thai Land Development Department Promotes Sustainable Land Use

While planning for my SOIL Fund trip, I got in contact with Dr. Samran Sambatpanit, Past President of the World Association of Soil and Water Conservation (WASWAC or WASWC).  Dr. Sambatpanit has a reputation as a sort of godfather of erosion and sediment control in Southeast Asia.  Since he is based in Bangkok, I inquired if he could recommend places in Thailand to visit to observe serious erosion and sedimentation problems and/or erosion and sediment control projects.  Dr. Sambatpanit advised me to make contact with Chinapatana Sukvibool when I attended the Debris Flow Workshop in China.  Mr. Sukvibool (Deputy President of WASWAC and Director of the Soil & Water Conservation Research and Development Division of the Thai Land Development Department) would be attending the workshop with Winai Wangpimool of the Thai Department of Water Resources.




Chinapatana Sukvibool in Khao Yai National Park

Chinapatana Sukvibool (hearafter referred to by his nickname “Chinapat” – pronounced “CHEE-na-pot”) was interested in learning of my upcoming visit to Thailand following the China Debris Flow Workshop.  He graciously offered to take me on a tour of some areas north and east of Bangkok which he thought would be of interest to me.  Chinapat was able to secure permission from the Director of the Land Development Department for our proposed trip.  So on Wednesday, 22 August, I met Chinapat and our driver for a three-day trip.    

 

This vetiver plant
displayed in the Soil Museum
has 6-foot-long fibrous roots.

Actually, before we set out on the trip, Chinapat took me on a tour of one of the more unusual museums I’ve ever seen:  the Land Development Department’s Soil Museum.  I know soil sounds like a rather “dry” focus for a museum, but it actually featured very informative and visually pleasing displays of soils from all over Thailand including soil profiles of the 240+ soil series in the country.  There were educational displays describing the physical characteristics of soils as well as the organisms and organic matter which make up the biological content of soil.  I was interested in displays concerning soils which are poor for agriculture, erosion problems, types of bedrock in Thailand which provide parent material for the development of soil, and types of insect mounds.  I learned that Thailand’s first soil survey was initiated in 1935 by an American soil scientist, Dr. R.L. Pendleton.  I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that the present Thai king (Bhumibol Adulyadej) has taken an active role in protecting Thailand’s soil resources.  


 

Driving north and east from Bangkok on modern expressways, we left the flat coastal plain and entered hilly terrain and low forested mountains.  Our first stop was the Khao Yai National Park which sits on a 1000-meter-high (over 3000 feet) lava plateau surrounded by lowlands.  The park is 2166km² (833 miles²) in area and receives nearly 2000mm (80 inches) of rain per year.  The generous rainfall supports three types of evergreen forest and a mixed deciduous forest. 

The Khao Yai Forest is covered by thin soils over volcanic bedrock.

The soils hold little moisture and are easily eroded where the gradient is steep.

Nevertheless, they support a lush deciduous and bamboo forests.

Khao Yai National Park is home to abundant wildlife.

The Haew Suwat Waterfall (20 meters high) is located in an area of the park
where a resistant volcanic bedrock ledge overlies weakly consolidated rock fragments.

From the park, we travelled north to the town of Pak Chong where we had cheap but comfortable accommodations for the night.  Along the way, I saw some of the effects of acquisition of farmland by wealthy urban Thais.  The following photos illustrate the consequences.


Why isn’t contour plowing used here to conserve topsoil? Chinapat speculated

that the farmer may be growing crops for an absentee landlord and

doesn’t care about erosion.  After all, it takes less time to plow straight furrows.

 

Thais from the cities are buying up farmland to build vacation homes.

One might argue that this gated, faux-Italian community is attractive

but it has permanently removed land from agricultural production.

The following morning, we drove a short distance to the Development Department’s Center for Research and Technology.  A focus of the Center is to teach sufficiency and sustainability to farmers.  For example, the staff tries to get farmers to adopt agroforestry with mixed crops.  Thus, instead of relying on a single crop such as bananas or sugarcane, farmers create a partial canopy by planting scattered trees which provide fruit or are valuable for their wood.  Below the canopy, they grow shade-tolerant crops, and in the open areas, crops which require lots of sunshine are cultivated.  In this way, they produce a variety of food for their own consumption and are less vulnerable to crop failures or crashing prices for one monoculture crop.  Crop rotation is also stressed to prevent soil depletion and reduce dependence on chemical fertilizers.

If you read my post on the East Bali Poverty Project, you may remember that the Desa Ban community in Bali is using vetiver grass to hold the soil in place where cultivation takes place on steep hillsides.  The Thai Development Department is also encouraging the use of vetiver.  They have experimented with a number of varieties some of which do better in highland climates and others that are more suited to lowlands.  The beauty of vetiver is not only its long fibrous roots which greatly reduce soil erosion.  This tropical grass cannot spread to areas where it is not wanted because it is sterile.  It only reproduces from cuttings which must be planted by hand.

 

Employees at the Center for Research and Technology
bundling vetiver cuttings to distribute to farmers.

From Pak Chong, we headed south through an area of forested mountains and locally known as the “Switzerland of Thailand.”  Chinapat had our driver stop at a roadside stand so he could buy locally-produced orchids to take home.  Continuing southwest on Highway 304, we stopped for lunch at Kabin Buri before reaching the Khao Hin Sorn Royal Development Study Center in Chachoengsao Province.

Earlier, I mentioned the Thai king’s interest in protecting the country’s soil resources.  In the late 1970s, a wealthy landowner donated some badly eroded and denuded land in northern Chachoengsao Province to the king hoping he could improve it by building a palace there.  Instead, the king saw an opportunity to show Thais how degraded lands could be restored with careful management.  The landowner agreed and the Royal Development Study Center was born.  The original 42 hectare (ha) site (105 acres) has since been expanded to 302ha (755 acres).  The Land Development Department became the coordinating agency enlisting the help of other governmental and academic institutions in building a model farm that demonstrated how conservation of soil, water, and vegetation can restore soil productivity.  Nine reservoirs have been constructed to impound and distribute water from the adjacent river.  Earthen dikes slow runoff and crops and trees are planted in rows along the contour.  Vetiver grass is used to hold soil and retain moisture.  Compost and organic matter replace chemical fertilizers.

 

Terrace protected by vetiver at the Royal Development Study Center

The Center has developed a new farming system which fits well with Thailand’s tropical climate.  The system proportions farm land as follows:  30% of the farm is surface water, 30% consists of rice paddy fields, 30% is for appropriate dry land farming, and 10% is residential.  Even the surface water is productive as the Center has developed a program using ponds to rear fish and frogs for human consumption.  The Center also works with other innovative farming practices and crops such as hydroponics (placing plant roots in water with added mineral nutrients but using no soil) and ornamental plants (such as those orchids Chinapat purchased earlier along the highway).  
  

Idyllic landscape at the Royal Development Study Center.

Thai farmers visit the Study Center to learn sustainable farming techniques.  The Center provides them with cuttings or seed for indigenous plants/crops to take home.  The Center’s philosophy is to transfer technology which is based on simplicity.  In this way, no investment in heavy machinery is required, and farmers can more easily become economically successful using techniques that are compatible with the natural environment instead of selling out to large agribusiness concerns or second home developers.   The Center’s practices have been extended to 15 adjacent villages and hopefully will continue to influence an ever-expanding area of rural Thailand. 

School groups visit the Center to learn about sustainable agriculture.

Leaving the Study Center, we continued southwest, then turned south on Highway 3138 to Rayang on the coast east of Bangkok.  This is an area of sugar cane and cassava cultivation as well as large industrial plants.  I realized I hadn’t seen a traffic cop during our entire trip and our lead-footed driver hadn’t either.  However, his speed had slowed somewhat since our first day out when I saw the speedometer on our Toyota Hilux pickup approaching 140 (86mph).  I complained to Chinapat who got the driver to slow down.  Ever since my brush with death at the hands of a crazy driver in West Africa in 1990, I’ve become very intolerant of the excesses of drivers in developing countries.

From Rayang, we headed west to Pattaya where we spent the night.  I was not impressed with this city of 100,000 (metropolitan area:  1,000,000+).  Wikipedia describes Pattaya as “a beach resort popular with tourists and expatriates.”  The skinny beach has rock groins perpendicular to the shore to protect what little sand remains after commercial development and a road have destroyed most of the original beach.  Just back from the high tide line are rows of beach loungers and umbrellas.  High rise condo and apartment buildings are in abundance.  According to the billboards, you can get a condo in one of these buildings for less than 3,000,000 baht (US$100,000) which makes the area very attractive to sun-worshiping, Western retirees on limited budgets who don’t mind crowds.  Given Thailand’s reputation as a sex-Mecca, Pattaya also seems to attract scores of English-speaking, middle-aged lager-louts hoping for a good time with attractive young Thai women who, in turn, are searching for economic prosperity. 

    

Beach at Pattaya with high rise towers in the distance.

 

From Pattaya, we returned to Bangkok stopping at another Development Department research center.  That night in Bangkok, Chinapat arranged for us to have dinner with Samran Sambatpanit, the Past President of WASWAC, whom I mentioned earlier.  Although retired, Samran is still very active in WASWAC and with soil and water conservation issues in general.  We agreed that cooperation between WASWAC and the International Erosion Control Association (IECA) would be good for both organizations.  Although IECA and WASWAC are both concerned with erosion and sediment control, they don’t really compete for members because IECA is more focused on applied techniques on large construction projects while WASWAC is more involved with academic research and rural development, particularly sustainable agriculture.  Therefore, the two organizations complement (and have much to learn from) each other.  Samran, Chinapat, and I agreed that we should find ways for the two organizations to cooperate such as joint conferences, reduced IECA membership fees for WASWAC members in developing countries, and promotion of each other’s activities in our respective publications and websites.  It’s a theme I heard repeated from European and Chinese WASWAC members when I attended a WASWAC conference in Serbia the following month. 

 

At the last stop before our return to Bangkok, I saw vetiver

providing protective, moisture-holding circles around young trees.

 

China: Field trip focuses on both nature's destructiveness & beauty

About 30 participants from the 100 or so at the Debris Flow Workshop in Chengdu went on the 4-day field trip following the workshop.  We went took one large tourist bus (complete with aggressive, white-knuckle driver) accompanied by an SUV.  I imagine that more of the Chinese who participated in the workshop didn’t go because of the cost.  For me, the $300 field trip fee was a bargain considering it included meals and lodging. 

Debris flow field trip participants

Our primary objective was to look at debris flows resulting from 2008 earthquake in Szechuan Province (especially along National Highway 213 north of Chengdu) and mitigation measures to protect against future events.

Aaron Guo from Institute was our technical field guide but we also had a bi-lingual Chinese tour guide who doubled as a stand-up comic.  He told us to call him “James”.  As we left Chengdu (population 13 million) on the morning of 12 August, haze and pollution were blocking the sun as usual.  James said if the sun comes out in Chengdu, it’s so unusual that dogs bark at it.  However, he saw a bright side to the lack of sunshine:  the girls have beautiful skin because they are not exposed to the sun.

With Aaron Guo, a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment

and our energetic trip leader.

We headed north from Chengdu on an excellent 4-lane toll road which was built to US or European superhighway standards.  We followed a plain (elevation about 500 meters) east of the mountains in area of small farms with rice and corn crops.  James explained that the collective farms were broken up about 30 years ago and the farmers were given individual plots.

A modern superhighway near Chengdu which I saw

when my plane from Hong Kong was landing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I noted that highway embankments have concrete cribs planted
with shrubs, grasses, or flowers for permanent erosion control.

We drove into mountains to the small city of Qiangping which was rebuilt after a 2010 debris flow covered it to a depth of 2 meters. In the valleys above Qiangping, we saw newly-installed debris flow control works in Wenjia and Zoumaling gullies. In addition to the structures, there are now sensors in the upper parts of the gullies which will set off an alarm if a debris flow event occurs.

New houses and apartments were built for people
who lost their homes in the 2010 debris flow in Quangping.

 

 

New debris flow structures near the bottom of Wenjia Gully.  These structures would provide lines of defense against a really large debris flow event.  However, much of the flow would be diverted higher up on the mountainside to another stream channel which does not itself have debris flow potential.




In Zoumaling gully, Chinese engineers took a composite approach
to debris flow management including diversion check dams
and this large stormwater detention basin created
next to the river above Qiangping.

After visiting Qiangping, we traveled back to the south and around Chungdu to Dujiangyan (population 2 million) where we spent the night at a hotel.  Half of the city’s homes were destroyed or rendered unlivable by the 2008 earthquake. 

Fortunately, this beautiful pagoda in Dujiangyan
was not affected by the 2008 earthquake.

The next day we travelled back into the mountains visiting the small city of Ying Xiu which was rebuilt after the 2008 earthquake.  The middle school was destroyed by the earthquake killing 43 students and 8 teachers.  The ruins have been turned into a memorial park by the government as a stark reminder of the awesome force of earthquakes.

A collapsed building at the Ying Xiu middle school forms part
of the solemn memorial which is now visited by many Chinese tourists.

As we travelled north up the Mingiang River valley, I got the impression that debris flows in this part of China may be inevitable.  They are not necessarily the result of human activities but result from steep slopes with naturally poor vegetative cover on the dry (southeastern) side of the mountain range.  The slopes above the densely populated valleys are too steep to be developed for human activity.  The debris flows are triggered when intense rainfall saturates the thin mountain soils and rock debris either shortly before or immediately following an earthquake.  So the effects of debris flows in this area can be mitigated but they probably can’t be completely prevented.

The remains of the lower end of the 300,000 cubic meter Gaojia debris flow that blocked

the Minjiang River creating a flash flood when the dam it created was breached.

A new channel has been cut through the flow material on the right.

The Miancu valley debris flow destroyed several chemical plants in 2011.  Fortunately for the workers, the plants were shut down for a holiday when the debris flow occurred.  However, 125 people in the area became sick from the resulting emissions from this and other affected plants.   

The Miancu valley debris flow covered the lower four floors of this factory building.

Travelling further north through Song Pan County, we reached an area inhabited by Tibetan people.  We saw tea houses and fields of barley and potatoes.  In Chuan Zhu Shi (elevation 3000m), we stopped at a store selling yak meat and other yak products.  Later we crossed a 3690 meter (about 11,500ft) mountain pass near the source of Minjiang River.  Now that we were on the wetter side of the divide, we descended through a lush conifer forest to the mountain tourist center of Jiuzhaigou where we spent the night. 




Yakking it up in Szechuan Province:

Yes, I know it was pretty silly but it only cost about a buck

and I figured the yak didn’t have anything better to do.  

The third day of the field trip was taken up by a visit to Jiuzhai Valley National Park where the limestone bedrock forms the setting for a natural fairyland.  The valley and its two upper forks are occupied by a series of waterfalls, travertine terraces, and multicolored lakes.  The park was very crowded with Chinese tourists but I was very impressed by its management.  No private cars were allowed above the lower end of the park.  Instead, low-emission busses provided transport.  The trails, bridges, and boardwalks were aesthetically pleasing and a large crew of trash collectors made sure that no scrap of paper or bottle remained on the ground for more than a few minutes.  Not that they were very busy.  The Chinese people generally seem to be conscientious about not littering their outdoor spaces.



 Nuorilang Waterfall is just one of many gorgeous features
at Jiuzhai Valley National Park.



The trash collection crew at the park even includes a guy in a motorized rubber raft
making sure no errant bottles remain on the bottom of Five-Colored Lake

 

The trip back to Chengdu on the last day of the field trip featured
a many-hair-pinned ride on a narrow highway up to a 4200 meter pass
(about 13,700ft). Fortunately the bus’s brakes worked.

I saw numerous red signs like this on the field trip. They are Communist Party slogans.

UPDATE:  I incorrectly said this sign translates to It is important that the party and the people communicate.  I have since learned that was another sign.  This one correctly translates to:

It is our duty to protect the roads. Anyone who destroys the road should make compensation according to the law.

I’m generally not much for guided tours but given the linguistic and logistical challenges of travelling in China, this tour was the only practical way to see some outstanding examples of Mother Nature’s destructive and creative powers. It also provided some exposure to Chinese culture and infrastructure in places visited by few Western tourists. Furthermore, my colleagues were polite, gracious, and good company. Fortunately, we had none of those chronic-complaining or overly-talkative Americans or Europeans that have spoiled tours for me in the past.

Back in Chengdu at the end of the field trip, we hit atrocious rush hour traffic

which overwhelmed even this wide boulevard.