Living River Siam - Thai Baan Research

Thai Baan Research

In response, Living River Siam developed Ngan Wijai Thai Baan (งานวิจัยไทบ้าน), or "research by Thai villagers". This sort of research is meant to circumvent the traditional approach to anthropological study by allowing villagers to investigate and document, with their own language and on their own terms, every aspect of their life on the river. The only function of the overseeing organization is to compile the villagers' data and publish it for others to read. Living River Siam refers to this in English as "Thai Baan research".

The Mun River research documented the spawning grounds, migration patterns, habitats, and preferred baits of 137 species of fish. Originally, there were 265 species in the river; 220 of these disappeared when the river was dammed, and only 92 reappeared when the sluice gates were opened, meaning that the diversity of the Mun ecosystem had already been severely reduced by the dam. There were 104 species that migrated between the Mekong and Mun rivers, meaning the dam endangered the Mekong's ecosystem as well. Thai villagers took photos of all of the fish and counted the number of fish caught before and after the opening of the gates. Over 200 villagers volunteered for the study, and divided themselves up into groups to survey the sub-ecosystems of rapids, channels, eddies, small waterfalls, drinking wells, don islands, bok hin pools, khum pools, wang pools, huu holes, lhum hin stone pockets, kon shallows, kan underwater rapids, and luang fishing grounds.

The use of small and large fish in the local economy was analyzed. Researchers found that while the less common large fish are sold for profit, the diet of Pak Mun villagers consisted mostly of small fish which can be caught in both the wet and dry seasons. Small fish are eaten, sold for money, and traded with the hill peoples for rice.

The villages documented changes in their towns as a result of the opening of the sluice gates. Fishermen who had been forced to leave for the city returned to their homes, the increase in fish caused a boom in the rural economy, in fishing and tourism. Villagers were able to hold religious ceremonies in important riverside spaces.