Unearthing the Yadana Natural Gas Pipeline: Environmental Conflict in a Thai Context

Abstract

A history of poor public participation in Thai environmental decision making has led to a series of environmental conflicts in the country. The rising number of environmental conflicts in Thailand also points to a shortage of knowledge and skills to managing environmental conflict efficiently. The Yadana natural gas pipeline project used in this research was a case in point. The aim of this study was to investigate the Yadana environmental conflict so as to understand its characteristics. It examined the Yadana movements via the roles and involvement of stakeholders, while particular attention was paid to the social (Thai) context which would have affected the Yadana conflict management. Apart from a review of secondary sources and documents, 112 informants identified by stakeholder analysis and a snowball technique participated in this research through one-on-one, in-depth interviews. Analysis revealed that there was a correlation between a lack of public participation in the decision making process and the occurrence of the Yadana controversy. The Yadana conflict showed that environmental conflicts contained a number of key characteristics and understanding them was crucial for its management. The management of the Yadana project also pointed to the crucial roles played by the existing social contexts embedded in Thai society such as patronage relationships and paternalistic bureaucracy. These findings indicate that the Yadana conflict represented a structural problem for Thai environmental decision making processes, which might not be easily resolved by the Western-originated conflict resolution techniques, but which required the reconceptualisation of a public participation process that matched particular Thai contexts. It is also concluded that environmental conflict could be a constructive phenomenon, while it may not be possible to manage environmental conflict completely. The research proposes a conflict adjustment concept as an alternative approach in response to the challenge of environmental conflict and the shortcoming of public participation in Thai environmental management.