Urban air pollution anxieties, forest conservation, and farmland expropriation: State territorialization in the uplands and highlands of northern Thailand

The burning of agricultural residue during the dry season in rural northern Thailand has been identified as an important source of air pollution at the heart of an ongoing haze crisis particularly felt in the region’s urban areas. Public outcry in Chiang Mai over poor air quality pressured the government into developing fire management and prevention efforts in areas with high numbers of open-air fires, such as Mae Chaem district. Nevertheless, the haze situation deteriorated, prompting the 2014–2019 military-led government to develop a pilot fire-reduction project known as the Mae Chaem Model, whose original design to mitigate and prevent fires in the district evolved into a series of sustainable development objectives. Given optimistic discourses surrounding the project’s novel and participatory nature, this paper offers a critical analysis of initial project results. The project claims to offer prized benefits such as tenure security in exchange for the collaboration of villagers in the project. Interviews with villagers and other stakeholders reveal a series of concerns regarding 1) the production of land use history maps for 2002, 2011 and 2016, and 2) substantial expropriation of farmland and other severe land use restrictions. Our calculations suggest that, under a likely scenario, an average of 66% of farmland would be expropriated in the process (88% in one community). In accordance with villagers interviewed in two villages of Mae Chaem district, we are concerned about the capacity of local villagers to sufficiently intensify their production or otherwise limit the negative impact of such drastic land use restrictions on their livelihood. The paper also outlines other problems related to the temporary and revocable nature of the benefits offered and the rather dubious claims of coercion-free ‘participation’.