KON BAN PA (PEOPLE-HOME-FOREST): PARTICIPATION DEVELOPMENT MODEL IN KHOK YAI COMMUNITY FOREST SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC WAPI PATHUM DISTRICT

Abstract

This research aims to 1) study the level of participation and factors influencing participation in community forest management, 2) create a model, and 3) validate the model of sustainable community forest management participation in the Khok Yai community forest in Wapi Pathum District, Maha Sarakham Province. This is a quantitative and qualitative research study. The sample in Phase 1 consisted of 500 people living around the Khok Yai community forest, using a sample size criterion of 20 times the number of variables (25 observable variables). The target group in Phase 2 consisted of 25 individuals involved in the management of the Khok Yai community forest, and the target group in Phase 3 consisted of 5 experts in community forest management selected through purposive sampling. Data collection tools included questionnaires and interviews. The collected data was then analyzed according to the research objectives.

The study found that 1) the overall level of participation in the sustainable management of the Khok Yai community forest was high in all aspects (=4.29, S.D=0.35), and the factors that significantly influenced participation in the sustainable management of the Khok Yai community forest at the .05 statistical significance level were factors contributing to community strength, factors related to sustainable community forest management, factors related to the sustainability of the community forest, and factors related to participation in sustainable community forest management. These four factors collectively explained the variance in participation in the sustainable management of the Khok Yai community forest. The model accurately predicted 99.80% of the data (R² = 0.998) and showed good fit with the empirical data (2 = 136.846, 2 /df = 1.095, p-value = .221, GFI = 0.970, AGFI = 0.959, TLI = 0.956, RMR = 0.006, RMSEA = 0.014). 2) The participatory model for sustainable management of the Khok Yai community forest comprised factors related to sustainable community forest management, community forest sustainability, and participatory management. 3) The suitability of the participatory model for sustainable management of the Khok Yai community forest was confirmed to be at the highest level, with interquartile consistency values less than 1.5 for all approaches.