Karen Environmental Stewardship of Natural Resources

Abstract

In northern Thailand, state-driven discourse has often labeled diverse highland minority groups or “hill tribes” as destroyers of the forest, associated with the drug trade, and as non-indigenous migrants. The reality is far more complex. Indigenous groups such as the Karen practice sophisticated traditional ways of environmental stewardship. Specific sites and portions of community lands are set aside and protected from resource usage, including watershed forests, cemetery forests, and forests of spiritual protection where community members’ umbilical cords are ritually deposited. A series of complex and variable taboos regulate hunting activity, including bans on killing certain animals, restrictions and practices that limit waste and overuse. Portions of the landscape that are used for agriculture or resource extraction are carefully stewarded through a cyclical process of asking permission for the temporary use of the land, asking forgiveness for any misuse that may intentionally or unintentionally occur, and offering thanksgiving before ending the stewardship and returning the land to its true non-human owners. These three axes of Karen stewardship – permission, atonement and thanksgiving – comprise a “green circular cycle” that mediates reciprocal relations between human communities and non-human beings, spirits, and the land.