Lessons learnt of Thai women environmental leaders

Abstract

© 2015, Thai Society of Higher Eduation Institutes on Environment. All rights reserved. During the past few decades, Thai women have learned how to extent their roles from a care taker of children and a household to natural resources and environmental protection and management in local and inter-regional communities. Due to the application of National Economic and Social Development Plans, rapid resource exploitation has brought in natural resource and environmental degradation all over the country threatening communal security. For this reason, there have been a number of emerging environmental leaders who want to correct directions of national development, especially Thai woman environmental leaders who are taking a successful role of environmental guardian in their communities. This research attempts to explore why they took leadership role in environment, how they work so successful as an environmental guardian, and what their next move is. During early 2013 till mid-2014, there are 28 Thai woman leaders who received the award of Thai Environmental Conservation Mother from the Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol University between 2004 and 2012. They were in-depth interviewed and collected data were preceded by content analysis. Their lessons learnt show that most leaders saved their communities’ environment and natural resources from the intervention of new development activities. Most of them had their parents as a good role model in environmental management who provide knowledge of morals and environmental ethics as a good basic of leadership while some shared their husband’s responsibility in the same matter. Significantly, teamwork is their working style with the assistance of public participation to hold teamwork and collaboration of the community. Almost all leaders had systematic working with talents of patience, gentleness and sensitivity. The working network also broadens their new information and knowledge between practitioners. In the same time, more than half of the leaders can prepare their successors from the younger generation who can continue environmental conservation of the community, while the rest cannot do it. This situation pushes some leaders find alternative succession process.