Restoring water and livelihoods at Panya Forest

Thailand is facing unprecedented cultural and environmental challenges. Where once this kingdom was known globally for its biodiversity and rich cultural diversity, most of its forests have now been felled and industrial farming and western education and the like have nearly wiped out all ancient ways of living with land in one generation. As is true globally, the main motivating factor today is not right livelihood, but money.

Gregory Pettys and Ramphai Noikaew have lived at the Pun Pun ecovillage, a globally recognized center for self sufficiency in Northern Thailand for nearly 20 years. At Pun Pun, they learned how to live well in a place (how to treat water, build from mud, forage, save seed, weave clothes, make medicines, etc.). They learned so well in fact, that money isn’t needed for most of their daily needs. However, due to the modern way of seeing reality, as instructed by western education and pressure from a system no longer rooted in land but in the economy, the villagers around them have, as such, not been impressed by their lifestyle choices, because, well, they don’t make money from what they do. As such, nearly all villagers now farm monoculture farms with dangerous chemicals. Where once this regions was a diverse ecosystem filled with wildlife. Now only a few varieties of fruit trees and corn are grown. Rare is it to spot any wildlife at all. The villagers want money.

With this in mind, Gregory and Ramphai are working to created a new project, one that uses the same land-based understandings as Pun Pun, but does so in ways that also demonstrate that one can earn a decent income from living off land in ways that keep land healthy, water pure, animals safe and cultural memory intact.

The vehicle with which they go about doing this is through the art of restorative agriculture, permaculture and agroforestry (ancestral skills recently lost to modern thinking). They seek to restore land that was depleted from poor management, sustainably growing cacao as a cash crop. They seek to do so using small-scale, cooperative efforts that are inclusive of villagers and demonstrate indigenous methods of reciprocity and models of kinship. They are well situated for this effort as they have over ten years of learning from hill tribes as to how to do this in modern ways. (The Karen community of Hin Lad Nai has been mentoring them about rotational farming and sustainable honey harvesting, eco-friendly, reciprocal economic structures for over a decade.)

As we has learned how to do things simply, with materials grown on site, we have been able to do much already as most of our needs do not require money. The trees have already been planted. The main infrastructures have already been built. Food is growing everywhere. Relations with villagers have already been forged. As anyone who visits us can rightly attest, it is clear what our goals are as the seeds have already been sown. However, some things do require money. Our main monetary need is regarding water. For Panya Forest to function well into the future, we need to forge a proper water system.

We seek assistance in funding our foundational water systems. We need to dig a well. We need to make a pond. We need to erect proper water treatment facilities. This requires a great deal of money, of which we do not have.

We are confident that what Panya Forest if building will be of great service not only to our bioregion here in Thailand, but to the world at large. We already welcome visitors from around the globe, offering courses on appropriate technology, deep ecology, natural building, permaculture and the like. But most who come are already aware of humanities need to live a more “green” lifestyle. Our goal is to appeal to those who are fully invested in wishing to earn money. We believe we can demonstrate that restorative agriculture, coupled with ethical, small scale, co-operative entrepreneurship can offer a livable income.

Our community is primarily made up of families from rural parts of Thailand and refugees from Myanmar. Everyone here is rich in skills and spirit. However, no one here has money. We rely completely on the generosity of those who have been blessed with financial priviledge. Eventually, we are confident that we will build an infrastructure that will ensure financial independence that is the result of right livelihood (i.e. living with land in a sustainable way that ensure the ecosystem we depend on continues to thrive.).

Thank you in advance for your generous support.