ysa gLOBAL 2006
& the sun academy
Go Green
& Save Environment
Facts and Details of His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej by Jeffrey Hays
1. KING BHUMIBOL'S DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
1.1 King Bhumibol has been praised for lifelong support of village development. He has personally launched more than 4,000 development and social welfare projects, according to a tally from the Thai government, in areas such as irrigation, agronomy, forestry, fishing and health. He introduced improved strains of rice, stocked streams with fish, established irrigation projects. He used to frequently helicopters around the country doing things like promoting dam and irrigation projects and encouraging Golden Triangle farmers to switch from opium to kidney beans. His rural development projects are credited with weaning highland off opium amd helping to stop the expansion of the Communist movement in Thailand.
1.2 The king’s royal development projects have included alternative fuel factories and milk-pasteurizing plants and other projects relating to agriculture, the environment, health, job training, social welfare, communications and water management. He has set up rice banks to tackle food shortages and established research and development centers that have taught farmers how to use new strains of rice, new agricultural technology and new irrigation methods. The Royal Cattle Buffalo Bank, a sort of cooperative for water buffalo, has given poor farmers with no livestock of their own access to buffalo as plough animals and sources of milk.Among his projects for urbanites is a program to teach police how to deliver children to help women in labor stuck in traffic.
1.4 Private projects of the King and Queen include the crop substitution project in the North, aimed at stopping opium cultivation, deforestation and the slash and burn cultivation method traditionally used by the hill tribe s. His Majesty has given them advice and assistance on the planting of cool climate fruits and flowers for a better income. Projects under royal patronage are ones operated by the private sector using its own financial, technical and human resources and based on His Majesty's advice and guidelines. They include the Thai Encyclopedia for Youth Project, the Dictionary Project and the Din Daeng Cooperative Village Development Project.
1.5 In order to facilitate the implementation of the Royal Development Projects, His Majesty initiated the establishment of six Royal Development Study Centres, in various regions of the country to serve as the place for conducting study, research and experimentation. The Centres are also intended to serve as "living natural museums" where interested people can come to observe and gain knowledge about “real life” issues. The Six Centres are located in Chiang Mai in the North, Chachoengsao, Phetchaburi and Chanthaburi in the Central Plains, Sakon Nakhon in the Northeast and Narathiwat in the South..
2. Principles of Royally Initiated Projects
For more than 60 years, His Majesty the King has initiated projects aimed at raising the standards of rural life and helping farmers to be self-reliant. The projects are classified into various categories, such as agriculture, water resources, the environment, occupational promotion, public health, public welfare, and communications. To achieve their aim, each of them is based on major principles suggested by His Majesty.
2.2 The second principle is that the project should be carried out step by step in accordance with necessity and cost-effectiveness. His Majesty intends to assist people as necessary and appropriately, so that they can become self-reliant. He has stressed the need to build a foundation for people to have enough to live on. Once the foundation is established firmly, further economic development should be carried out in the next step. The king believes that if rapid economic development is emphasized with no regard to the situation of the country and the real conditions of the people, it is to lead to imbalances and difficulties in many areas. It is the king’s firm belief that if people can be assisted to stand on their own feet and be self-supporting, they will be able to build up a higher level of development.
2.5 The fifth principle is that the country should focus on natural resource development and conservation. The development of the country in the past emphasized economic growth, resulting in the overuse and misuse of natural resources. If no action is taken, natural resources will deteriorate further. His Majesty believes that the rehabilitation of natural resources would help in agricultural development.
2.6 The sixth principle involves the enhancement of environmental quality. His Majesty attaches great importance to the solving of environmental problems, as seen from many royally in.
3.King Bhumibol’s Effort to Stop Opium Growing Among Thailand's Hill Tribes
3.1 The Royal Project is an initiative of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej to help develop highlands in northern Thailand on a sustainable basis. It has gained recognition worldwide for its success in eradicating opium poppies and improving the well-being of the people. The Royal Project involves the growing of a wide variety of cash crops, especially temperate plants, to replace opium cultivation, improve the living conditions of hill tribe people, and eliminate the slash-and-burn technique of clearing land. It began operations in 1969 and has now expanded significantly, with more than 100,000 people benefiting from it.
3.2 The program began in the late 1960s, when His Majesty stayed at the royal palace in Chiang Mai Province, and visited and talked to hill tribe villagers living in the mountainous area about their needs. He asked them about their source of income. They said that their income came from growing opium and peaches, with the the income from opium and peaches being about the same. At that time, tribal people living on highlands had become a problem to the government, partly because of their destructive slash-and-burn technique of clearing land, as well as opium production.
3.3 In a speech at Chiang Mai University in 1969, His Majesty said that he intended to help hill tribe people grow useful crops that would give higher income than growing opium, so that they would switch from opium cultivation to other crops. The project would also support the government’s policy of banning opium cultivation and trade. He pointed out that the traditional farming method of cutting down and burning the forest conducted by hill tribe villagers would lead to forest destruction and deterioration of soil quality. That was how the Royal Project was launched. His Serene Highness Prince Bhisatej Rajani was assigned by His Majesty to carry out his initiative for the establishment of the project..
3.4 Originally, the project was called the Royal-sponsored Hilltribe Project. Later, it was changed to the Royal Hilltribe Development Project and then the Royal Northern Project. Now, it is called the Royal Project. The Royal Project was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding in 1988. In the same year, it also received the Thai Export Award 1988 for its outstanding activities to promote Thai exports of fresh vegetables and fruit and canned fruit. The Royal Project won an award from the Drug Advisory Program of the Colombo Plan in Sri Lanka in December 2003 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Drug Advisory Program.
3.5 King Bhumibol founded the Royal Project in part to make ethnic minorities in northern Thailand part of Thai society. In the 1960s he ventured often to northern Thailand, where he established a special relationship with the Hmong, Akha, Lahu and other hill tribes. He often used the medium of pigs to communicate with the Hmong. Pigs are the centerpiece of many Hmong ceremonies. In addition to helping farmers find replacements for opium, the King has helped hill tribes to build irrigation dams, increase crop yields and cover denuded hills to prevent soil erosion.
3.6 The Thai King told an interviewer that once a man came to him to complain that his wife had left him for another man after he paid two pigs and some money for her. After deliberating with the two parties involved the king reached into his wallet and paid the man compensation, something which made both parties happy. "The only trouble was I gave the money. So the woman belonged to me," the king said. He solved this problem by "bestowing" the woman to his cousin Prince Bhisatej Rajani, an important advisor for the king in the northern highlands.
3.7 From it humble start, the Royal Project has expanded significantly. Royal Project farmers now grow more than 300 crops, thanks to their training in the methods of growing new crops. The Royal Project helps them collect, distribute, and sell highland produce, while improving their quality of life through education, health care, and environmental preservation.
3.8 The dowager queen, Princess Srinagarindra Borom, who died in July 1995, is revered by hill tribes for the work she did to improve their lives.
4. King Bhumibol’s “Super Sandwich” Rainmaking Technology
4.1 The European Patent Office has issued a patent for royal rainmaking technology to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The patent was presented to His Majesty on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his accession to the throne. The king’s Royal Rainmaking Textbook — which explains the steps of the rainmaking process—and the royal rainmaking project and won a Gold Medal with Mention at Brussels Eureka 2001. Officials from Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Sri Lanka have all traveled to Thailand to receive training in the science of rainmaking to benefit farmers in their own countries..
4.2 In the early 1960s, His Majesty the King became interested in attempting to make rain to alleviate drought in various parts of Thailand. He said at the time: “Weather modification is a very useful tool to combat weather change.” After the initial research stage, the first practical experiment took place over a mountain barrier at Khao Yai National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima Province in July 1969. His Majesty learned that a key factor in rainmaking was to “target” a site, much like naval artillery does. Using His Majesty’s technique to bracket clouds from aircraft flying above and below the cloud to target both warm and cool air simultaneously proved to be the most assured method of creating rain. He named the technique the “Super Sandwich” and got a patent for it.
4.3 On the 50th anniversary of His Majesty’s accession to the throne, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) presented King Bhumibol an award in recognition of his strong support for meteorological and operational hydrology. The WMO was impressed to learn that His Majesty follows the weather events very closely and imparts his knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of weather phenomena to the nation. He realizes that high-quality weather and flood forecasts and warnings will help protect the environment and lessen impacts of natural disasters. In 2002 the Thai Cabinet officially named the king as the Father of Royal Rainmaking and designated November 14 as “Father of Royal Rainmaking Day.” November 14 was chosen because His Majesty started the royal rainmaking project on 14 November 1955.
5. King Bhumibol's Patents and International Awards
5.1 In 2006, King Bhumibol was recognized as the “Father of Thai Innovation” after the Thai Cabinet endorsed a proposal by the Ministry of Science and Technology. At the same meeting this took place, the Cabinet designated October 5 as “National Innovation Day.” The Ministry of Science and Technology has been entrusted with promoting and supporting efforts to enhance the country’s innovation. The Father of Thai Innovation title was initially suggested as a way to recognize the King’s Klaeng Din Project in the southern border province of Narathiwat to find a solution to the problem of soil acidity. In 2000, the Thai Cabinet approved the proposal by the Office of National Identity Promotion to honor King Bhumibol as the Father of Technology of Thailand and make October 19 “Thailand’s Technology Day.”.
5.2 King Bhumibol is the world's first and only monarch to hold a patent. He hold 19 patents and 20 trademarks, including one granted in 1993 for a waste water aerator named "Chai Pattana." He has been given several patents on rainmaking since 1955, including one for the "sandwich" rainmaking patent in 1999 and another for the "Supersandwich," granted in 2004. He has also patented water diversion and storage technology as well as a method for turning palm oil and other crops into biogas and biofuel. All of his patents are available to the public for free.
5.3 According to the Guinness Book of World Records, King Bhumibol has been awarded more honorary academic degrees than anyone else in the world: a grand total of 136 in 1998! On top of that the King has received more than 30 international awards. His Royal Project was awarded the Tamon Magaysay Award, the Asian equivalent of the Novel Prize, in 1988 and the Columbo Plan Award in 2003. In 2009, the World Intellectual Property Organization awarded the king with the first WIPO Global Leaders Award.
5.4 On May 2006, King Bhumibol was presented with the United Nations’ first Human Development Lifetime Achievement Award, for his efforts to human development to improve the lives of his people in Thailand. The award was presented by Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations and His Majesty the King was the first recipient of this newly-created Award..
6. King Bhumibol and the Environment
6.1 An active environmentalist, King Bhumibol has done his own cost-benefit analysis on the impact of power-generating dams versus coal-fired energy plants. He has also looked carefully into the effects of carbon monoxide pollution in Bangkok and on the Greenhouse Effect on his country as a whole and proposed suggestion on how to improve Bangkok’s traffic situation and air quality.
6.2 King Bhumibol has been deeply involved in water management. The Royal Rainmaking Project is credited with bringing water to drought-hit areas. Other projects include building dikes to store water and prevent flooding; introducing methods to prevent saltwater intrusion; using various kinds of plants to reduce water pollution in Bangkok’s canals; and treating wastewater through the use of aerators.
6.3 To clean up the highly polluted Makasan swamp, the King developed an inexpensive natural filter relying on water hyacinths, which have a great capacity to absorb wastes. After absorbing pollutants the saturated plants are detoxified and used as fuel, compost and material for making baskets and place mats for poor people who live around the swamp. He also introduced paddle-wheel-like devices that aerate the water in the stagnant pools of Bangkok's Bavornnives Temple. Fish have returned to Makasan swamp and turtles once again occupy the pools of Bavornnives Temple.
7. King Bhumibol’s Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy
7.1 As a means of addressing the widening gap between rich and poor, King Bhumibol developed the philosophy of “sufficiency economy.” Not to be confused with “self-sufficiency,” an out-dated idea practiced by the likes of North Korea and Albania, it is based on making sure that the fruits of economic growth are enjoyed by everyone not just the wealthy. Rooted in Buddhist thought and first introduced in a speech in 1974, it mains to achive these goals in a way that is “environmentally friendly and economically sustainable.” “Otherwise the social imbalance will spread and the economic policy will eventually fail,” the King said.
7.2 According to the Thai government: “His Majesty has always stressed the importance of basics, because only when the fundamentals are strong can development be sustainable. His Majesty therefore seeks to help the poor by encouraging them to start from the first step of having enough to eat and to live on” before embarking on more ambitious goals. Hence, His Majesty developed a philosophy of “sufficiency economy” as a way of life for the Thai people. The word “sufficiency” means moderation and mindfulness in all conduct, and incorporates the need for sufficiency protection from internal and external shocks. It can be applied to the entire population – whether at individual, family or community levels. At the national level, the philosophy is consistent with a balanced development strategy.
7.3 “A practical example of the application of the philosophy is “integrated farming practices according to New Theory”, which promotes step-by-step development. It starts with building a solid foundation at the family level so that people can be self-reliant without taking advantage of others. Then people can come together to undertake group, community, or even community enterprise. The aim is to strengthen the community by reducing the risk from external factors, and build connections. The end result would then be the expansion of the scope of cooperation at the national level. This task is not smooth sailing. A balanced approach combining patience, perservance, diligence, wisdom and prudence is indispensable to cope with critical challenges ahead.”.
7.4 King Bhumibol tried to focus on his “sufficiency economy” during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis when he said Thais should try to live within their means and not try so hard to be an Asian economic “tiger.” In the late the 2000s the idea of “sufficiency economy” became more widely embraced by the Thai government. In 2007, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said at a press conference: “We must put more emphasis on people’s happiness rather than on GDP. We need to aim for a ‘sufficiency economy.’” Some viewed the statement though as more of a symbol of breaking away from the policies of former Prime Minister Thaksin than an affirmation of the king’s policies..
8. King Bhumibol , Sufficiency Economy and Social Integrity
8.1 King Bhumibol has introduced the philosophy of sufficiency economy as a way for Thailand to grow and prosper in balance with human society and the environment, It emphasizes moderation, responsible consumption and resilience and “not overdo” things by being acutely aware of ones own potentials and limits. This approach has been recognized by the United Nations. [Source: Thailand Foreign Office, The Government Public Relations Department.
8.2 Thailand is applying the philosophy of Sufficiency Economy, advocated and developed by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, to national administration and all fields of development. This philosophy has become the country’s new approach to development strategies and policies, which are evident in the 10th National Economic and Social Development Plan, 2007-2011. It has three components: moderation, reasonableness, and a self-immunity system.
8.3 Together with this Sufficiency Economy concept, the vision of the current National Economic and Social Development Plan also seeks to develop Thailand into a “green and happiness” society. Moreover, the Royal Thai Government has placed an emphasis on raising public awareness for leading a life of virtue to attain the goal of a more just, more equitable, and more sustainable society. It believes that promoting this emphasis in accordance with Sufficiency Economy will help build a “caring and sharing society” and lead to well-balanced and sustainable development.
8.4 Based on common sense and rationality, Sufficiency Economy involves social integrity and is applicable to everyone at all levels, from the individual to the community and the national levels. It is important to note that Sufficiency Economy is not something that would isolate Thailand from the outside world, but would better enable the country to cope with challenges arising from globalization and other changes.
8.5 Recognizing the work of His Majesty the King, especially his philosophy of Sufficiency Economy, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) presented the first Human Development Lifetime Achievement Award to His Majesty in May 2006. Later in January 2007, it launched the Thailand Human Development Report 2007, with the theme of “Sufficiency Economy and Human Development,” spreading this philosophy to a wider international audience.
8.6 The philosophy of Sufficiency Economy has been found in most projects initiated by His Majesty the King and it can be applied to all economic fields as well as public affairs. The Government is applying this philosophy to its development process, while many developing countries have sent delegations to study royally initiated projects on alternative development in Thailand, based on this concept. In one of his royal addresses, His Majesty cautioned that it was not important whether or not Thailand became a “tiger” or a newly industrialized economy. The important thing was to have a self-supporting economy. A self-supporting economy means to have enough to survive. In another royal speech on 23 December 1999, His Majesty the King said that the term “Sufficiency Economy” did not exist in textbooks, as it was a new theory. It is a middle-path philosophy to achieving equitable and stable development, which is often referred to as sustainable development. The philosophy points the way for Thailand to achieve contentment through knowledge of itself. His Majesty suggested that Thai people at all levels follow the “Middle Path” as an appropriate model for conduct in every aspect of life. The concepts of Sufficiency Economy and sustainable development are interrelated and will lead to self-reliance. With the focus on this philosophy, Prime Minister Surayud believes that the future of Thailand will be better.