People Participation in Mangrove Forest Conservation of Kho Than Sub-district Community, Tha Chang District, Surat Thani Province

Abstract

The objectives of the study were to determine the socio-economic condition, general information, participation level and factors affecting people participation in mangrove forest conservation, of Kho Than sub-district community, Tha Chang district, Surat Thani province. Data was collected by using the designed questionnaires interview 258 respondents. The data were ananlyzed and representing in term of the statistical values namely frequency, percentage, mean, minimum, maximum and testing the setting hypothesis by employing t-test and F-test with the given significance level of 0.05.

            The results indicated that the most (53.49 %) of respondents were male with an average age of 45.24 years and had graduated at the primary school. Most respondents (72.09 %) had been born in the present area and their average resettled period was 36.84 years. The average number of household member was 4.60. Agriculture was their main occupation (42.64 %) as well as their subsidiary occupation (74.03 %) Their average size of land holding was 14.10 rais and utilized mangrove forest (50 %). Their average annual households total income, income from magrove forest utilization and expenditure were 244,798.45, 27,044.57 and 151,298.45 baht, respectively. Most respondents (68.60 %) were social group member and received information about mangrove forest conservation (98.45 %). Most of them (77.91 %) had never attended any training couse about mangrove forest conservation, However they had knowledge and participation in mangrove forest conservation at a high and moderate level, respectively. Factors affecting the participation in mangrove forest conservation were age, educational level, resettlement period, number of household members, subsidiary occupation, income from mangrove forest utilization and mangrove forest conservation information received. Hence, the related agencies should arrange relevant training courses to provide the knowledge and to encourage the targeted group to be conscious of mangrove forest conservation in order to raise their awareness of mangrove forest values.