Thailand: From salt to solar

Thailand: From salt to solar

If this year's severe drought returns next dry season, Uncle Wai Rodtayoy
and other salt farmers in tambon Koek Kharm of Samut Sakhon, known as the
country's largest sea-salt-farming area, will see mounting debts.

The price of salt this year bottomed at 450 baht per cart while to stay
afloat, farmers need at least 1,500 baht per cart. Usually, drought means
low production for other agricultural products. Not for the sea salt
farming. Two consecutive years of scorching drought have led to the
overproduction of sea salt -- known as klua sin thao -- and brought down the
price.

Unfavourable climate is just one of the problems, for Uncle Wai has
something bigger to worry about: salt farming is facing the threat of
extinction. As is the case in many provincial areas, young people in his
district prefer to find work in offices, or sell online products -- in short
anything less labour-intensive and that makes more money.

What makes him angry, Uncle Wai says, is that the government during the last
few decades has not acknowledged the importance of salt farming, unlike in
the past. In fact, over 70 rai of land he owns is a part of a larger plot
donated to farmers by King Rama VIII. Governments now tend to champion
salt-mining projects in the Northeast, despite objections from rice farmers
in that region, while conservationists have raised concerns over pollution
and the spread of salinity.

"For authorities, there are only rice farmers, rubber farmers and sugarcane
farmers," says Uncle Wai. "Salt farmers like us are forgotten. We rarely
receive subsidies."

The decline of salt farming can be observed along major roads that run
parallel to coastal zones such as Sukhumvit Road (towards Chon Buri) and
Rama II to the southern provinces. Not long ago, a drive towards the seaside
towns such as Hua Hin and Pattaya yielded a sightseeing opportunity of large
salt farms dotted with windmills and rows of mini-pyramids made of sparkling
white crystals.

These exotic scenes have recently been replaced with real
estate-developments, factories and community malls, as Rama II has expanded
into a superhighway, and peripheral towns have grown. Salt farmers have
started selling their land. Those who wish to remain need to switch to other
professions such as shrimp farming, a risky investment that also creates
water pollution. Another popular way of making money among salt farmers is
to sell soil to construction companies.

Yet farmers still love the profession and want to protect their farmland. A
few years ago, a manufacturer in tambon Koek Kharm wanted to open a factory
in the community, but had to roll back after fierce protests from villagers
and salt farmers.

Recently, a new development project has made headway in the area of Samut
Songkhram province. This time several salt farmers, including Uncle Wai,
embraced it with open arms -- though it entails another kind of problem.

The project is solar energy. In a move that has begun to change the
landscape of the salt farms, several solar energy companies have started
leasing empty land to put up rows of solar panels to produce electricity and
sell it to the state.

Uncle Wai last year decided to lease 42 of his 70 rai to a company to lay
solar cell panels. The project does not require environmental-impact
assessment, or EIA, because it falls under an NCPO order issued early this
year exempting any renewable energy project of less than 10Mw from
environmental study.

The transformation from salt farms to solar farms sounds like a graceful
metamorphosis but it has caused worry among conservationists and
birdwatchers, because the salt farms and coastal zones in the community were
listed as wetlands of national significance over a decade ago by the Office
of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (Onrep).

A few years ago, the town-planning division of the Interior Department was
about to propose the area as a conservation zone. Yet the junta government
shot it down early this year to allow industrial projects to move in.

Two months ago, conservationists and birdwatchers from the Bird Conservation
Society of Thailand (BCST) started a campaign against the solar project and
has tried to derail the construction of a solar-cell panel on Uncle Wai's
property. These opponents have petitioned the Natural Resources and
Environmental Policy and Planning and Energy Ministry. They have asked the
office to intervene on the project and lodge a complaint accusing the
company of skipping certain regulations in order to finish the construction
of solar panels.

"We are not romantic conservationists who try to freeze time and refuse
change. We do not oppose solar energy at all," said Dr Boripat Siriaroonrat,
chair of BCST. "What we fight against is unsustainable development.

"The gist of the problem is not solar-versus-bird, but the lack of zoning
policy, transparency and clear conservation direction."

Four hundred rai of land in this community is known as the core area where
shorebirds, including endangered spoon-billed sandpipers, visit annually as
they migrate from the north of China to India. Apart from salt farming, the
community has conducted a birdwatching festival for 18 years. From November
until March, birdwatchers have visited the wetlands and come to find food in
salt farms.

In the old days, migrating shorebirds had plenty of coastline and salt farms
to share. Now the largest place where those shorebirds can land is Koek
Kharm and mangrove forest within the Laem Pak Bia Royal Initiative Project
in Phetchaburi province.

Birdwatchers worry that the reflection from huge array of solar panels on
Uncle Wai's property will drive the birds away. And there are many farmers
who want to lease land for other solar farm projects.

A recent development this month is that the Energy Ministry decided the
project could not be built, and if Uncle Wai really wants to go on, he has
to prove that his farm does not fit the wetland category.

"I did not do anything wrong. Am I giving my land for a coal-fired power
plant? This is a clean-energy project and I think our community villagers
can have the choice of leasing our land to create electricity to sell to
Bangkok and keeping the remaining land for farming," Uncle Wai said. Without
a proper solution to provide salt farmers with opportunity, Uncle Wai
suggested they will sell their land, or at least sell soil to contractors.
"Birds will not find a place to live here anyway."

Respected biologist and expert on shoreline bird conservation, Assoc Prof
Philip D. Round of Mahidol University's Faculty of Science, said conflicts
would not have erupted if the authorities and Onrep demarcated the area as
wetlands right from the start. In his opinion, coastal wetland like that in
Koek Kharm is too rare and too vital for biodiversity conservation at a
global level to be sacrificed for any reason.

"Instead of debating between solar panels and salt farms, what the
government should do is find a way to help these salt farmers continue their
profession," said Asst Prof Round.

"The government should find a way to create real sustainable development by
helping salt farmers flourish. This way, ecology and shorebirds can coexist
in harmony."

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Ref:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/social-and-lifestyle/1085568/from-salt-
to-solar

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com