THE KING'S SCIENCE AND LOCAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The changes of the world in terms of economic and social today result in the way Thailand to be challenged with the problems from both inside and outside the country. The following mainstream continuous development of Thailand which is in line with the development of western countries causes the abundant and unfair use of resources; the lost of the sovereignty in managing the country's resources; the abandonment of traditional wisdom and technology; the negligence of rural communities development; the constant degradation of natural resources and the environment; lack of fairness in accessing and using resources; exceed consumption of the capacity of natural resources and the environment including the deterioration of morality of society. These phenomena are inconsistent with the context of the area in terms of thinking systems and the way of life of the community. These are true reflections of severe unbalanced development.

The King's Science for Sustainable Local Development is therefore a guideline for solving and preventing such problems of the changes. Especially, the philosophy of sufficiency economy is applied to create opportunities for local people in Thailand both in employment for the poor and socially disadvantaged to be self-reliant including creating alternatives from production and a variety of services under the principle of sufficiency in the middle way to increase the quality of life of the people in the country at all levels from the individual level family level, community level, branch level, production and national level to adjust the way of life of the Thai people and the direction of the national development and lead to “support and sharing help reduce inequality "to a balanced development in terms of economic, social, and environmental aspects to the stable, prosperous and sustainable local Thai community.