People Participation in Forest Fire Protection for a Forest Development and Swamp Ecosystem under the Royal Pakpanang Watershed Project, Suanluang Subdistrict, Chaloem Phra Kiat District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province

Abstract

               The objectives of the research were to determine the socio-economic aspects of the people involved in forest fire prevention in the Tambon Suanluang Chaloem Phra Kiat District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province and to study the socio-economic factors relating to their participation in forest fire prevention. Data were collected by employing the designed questionnaire to interview the head in each of 366 households residing in the study area. The statistical values used for describing the data and testing the hypotheses were percentage, mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, and the t-test and F-test at the 0.05 statistical significance level, using a statistical software package.

            The results of the study revealed that most respondents residing in the study area were male aged more than 40-50 years (32.79%). They had mostly completed their formal education at the primary school level. Agriculture was their main occupation providing 5,000-10,000 baht of their monthly income (48.91%). The respondents mostly had no social position. They also got benefits from the forest. They received forest fire news about 51.64 percent from television. They mostly had no training on forest fire. Their knowledge of forest fire was at the middle level. They had a high level of participation in forest fire prevention activity. In addition, factors significantly affecting the effectiveness of the people in forest fire prevention in the study area were age, religion, marital status, educational level, status in the household, number of family members, minor career, former hometown, resettled period, household expenditure, benefits from the forest, receiving forest fire news and training on forest.

Keywords:  people participation, forest fire protection, swamp forest, Pakpanang watershed