Jakkapong Mongkhonkeeree

By creating a supply chain system for agroforestry products completely owned and operated by Thailand’s highland ethnic communities, Jakkapong Mongkhonkeeree is enabling highlanders to be recognized as guardians of the forest and to maintain their cultural heritage as forest inhabitants.

Jakkapong is aggregating a network of highland producers in isolated forests across Northern Thailand, formerly exploited for their access to valuable natural resources, to create a market-based solution to ethnic discrimination in Thailand. Through the Museu Mountain Market, Jakkapong is building a regional supply chain system that is owned and operated by highlanders. In addition to the supply chain, Jakkapong is working with highlanders on developing a brand of sustainable agroforestry products such as organic, forest grown coffee beans, and creating cooperative and retail markets for these producers to capture additional value.

Through his recognition of the economic and environmental viability of the highland geography, Jakkapong is eliminating the threat of eviction for highland communities, whose forests have been declared state property. In 2008 the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation recognized Museu community as a model village for new forestry. Jakkapong aims not only to establish livelihood security for highlanders, but also to encourage the return of young highlanders, thus restoring the family unit and cultural heritage. Jakkapong’s work is establishing a place in society for a new generation of highlanders as guardians of national park land and as equal members of the Thai economy.

Jakkapong’s organization, Museu Mountain Market, is low cost and self-sustaining. The not for profit model includes a monthly membership fee that Jakkapong uses for custodial services. Income and profits belong to individual members. Because the organization is low cost and self-sustaining it will be easily replicable. Jakkapong plans to scale to other regions in the Highlands and throughout Thailand.

Thailand consists of at least one million highlanders from nine different ethnic groups: Karen, Akha, Hmong, Lahu, Lisu, Mien, Khamu, Lua, and Mlabri. Despite having lived in Thailand for centuries, these ethnic minorities are regarded as second-class citizens. Highlanders live in high altitude forests in isolated villages across northern and northwestern Thailand, which are watershed areas for most of the country’s rivers. About four in ten highlanders are not registered as citizens and until recently, they had been excluded from the national census and citizenship registration. Approximately 400,000 highlanders are still registered as aliens, and only granted temporary stay within the boundaries of one rural municipality. To travel to another district, highlanders must request permission from government officials, who often request bribes in exchange.

Even though more highlanders have been granted citizenship in the past decade, most officials and the public still perceive highlanders as foreigners. Public schools often deny enrollment for highlanders, despite official regulations allowing highlanders to obtain public education regardless of citizenship since 1992. For schools that enroll highlanders, the quality of education is often substandard. Moreover, most highland families do not have sufficient funds to send their children to schools, which are located far away from the villages.

Perceived as second-class citizens without access to equal opportunities, most highlanders are exploited in the modern economy. The forests they live in are now declared state property and eviction is a daily threat. The most common way to earn money for highlanders is to grow cash crops, which requires clearing large fields in the forest to earn a meager income of roughly 0.50 baht (US1-2¢) per kilogram of cabbage. Even though the clearing of forest land is illegal, influential businessmen and politicians negotiate with forest officials to turn a blind eye. Other highlanders, particularly young people, leave the village and risk further exploitation in large cities. For example, one in three sex workers in the northern city of Chiang Mai is a highlander.

Government ethnic tourism programs created to improve the livelihood of highland communities have not achieved their purpose. Some villages have been nicknamed “human zoos.” Tourists pay entrance fees while highlanders are forced to perform important rituals as on-call performances for tour groups. In one notorious incident, the Thai government refused to grant permission to travel for highland families who were offered citizenship in New Zealand. The governor claimed that the highlanders were an important part of the local economy and could not be sacrificed. However, a 1997 study of a highland village tour found that middlemen earn 98 percent of the income. Highlanders remain at the bottom rung of the social ladder, without sustainable economic opportunities to improve their livelihood.

Jakkapong believes in creating economic value to restore the importance of the traditional way of life for highlanders. He is transforming the role of highlanders from exploited producers into full economic citizens. Jakkapong’s strategy involves five elements: (i) aggregating a community of highland producers (ii) creating a cooperative for the producers (iii) implementing a clear supply chain (iv) branding agroforestry products and (v) providing entrepreneurial trainings to the highland producers. Jakkapong has first aggregated a network of highland community producers from different ethnic groups within a 400 kilometer radius into a supply chain owned and operated by highlanders themselves. The aggregation has given highlanders strength in numbers. Instead of selling agricultural produce to middlemen, highlanders can now sell their agroforestry products directly to wholesale and retail markets through this supply chain, Taking out the middlemen has allowed the producers to raise the wholesale purchase price of all their crops by several hundred percent. For example, the price of cabbage has increased tenfold from 0.50 baht (US1-2¢) to 5 baht (US16-17¢) per kilogram. Buyers come from major urban markets from north and northwestern Thailand. Jakkapong estimates that the supply chain brings in approximately 100 million baht (US$3.3 million) in gross sales each year, and includes cross-border sales with buyers in Myanmar. The formal organization and collective ownership of the market has also prevented local officials from pressuring villagers for bribes.

Jakkapong’s strategy in expanding the network of highland producers has always been on the basis of equal partnership. He sends experienced highlanders to train highlanders in new locations, teaching them a set of practical skills. For instance, Jakkapong’s team trains highlanders on how to clean and package products for added value. More importantly, Jakkapong’s team teaches highlanders how to speak and bargain with lowland Thais in the central Thai dialect, eliminating the widespread fear that highlanders used to have the ethnic Thai majority.

Through Museu Mountain, Jakkapong is developing a highlanders’ brand for sustainably grown and harvested agroforestry products. Beginning with villages located on Museu Mountain, near the aggregating market, Jakkapong has helped highlanders formally establish sustainable agroforestry practices and develop branding for a specialty product, known as Museu Coffee.

When Jakkapong first founded Museu Mountain, he negotiated an agreement between farmers and forestry officials to allow highlanders to grow and harvest products within the forest, under the strict condition that their practices would be chemical-free and sustainable. Jakkapong offered an alternative solution to existing forestry practices of arresting people who live and cultivate on forest preserves. He argued that the most effective form of forest protection is through active but careful use. Forestry officials allowed villagers to grow organic vegetables within 40 tarang wah (0.04 acres) on either side of the mountain creek. Jakkapong and farmers set formal guidelines on how to gather forest products, based on age-old community practices. For example, bamboo shoots can only be gathered for sixty days each year, and only in a way that does not destroy the plant. In 2000, Jakkapong worked with farmers to form a fire watch team, to detect and put out forest fires that might destroy their crop. While organic vegetables supply the regional supply chain, Jakkapong introduced coffee as a specialty product for community branding.

Museu Coffee is now recognized for its quality and unique production method, grown by highlanders on Museu Mountain under the forest cover, which protects coffee beans from dew, thus preventing fungal infections, and eliminating the need for pesticides. Jakkapong has also worked with cooperative members to develop a supply chain for both wholesale and retail. The raw beans now fetch a purchase price four times higher than what highlanders used to earn. Museu Mountain is now a supplier for coffee roasting plants of major brands including Starbucks and Denchai. With Jakkapong’s assistance, the cooperative recently opened the Museu Coffee Shop in three cities in central and eastern Thailand. In 2008, Museu Coffee was awarded Local Product Champion by the Department of Agricultural Promotion. Over a hundred households joined the coffee cooperative, while more highlanders benefit as workers at the milling station, located on state land that was authorized for use by the local government. Jakkapong is using the Museu Coffee branding process as a training program for other highland communities to develop their own brands and specialty products. Highlanders have not only become dignified producers with ownership of their supply chain, but they are also taking on a new role as guardians of state forests.

While Jakkapong plans to extend his work to more highland communities, he has been able to see visible changes in the livelihood of highlanders on Museu Mountain. Jakkapong estimates that they now earn an annual income of no less than 100,000 baht (US$3,333). He also estimates that less than 1 percent of the population on Museu Mountain leaves the community to find work. Jakkapong has seen up to fifty families abandon their plans to clear more forest for cash crop cultivation and return to work in the community. In 2005 the Museu community was awarded the Green Globe, a prestigious national award on environmental protection. Three years later, the Department of National Parks recognized the village as a model village for new forestry. More young people are also being sent to urban schools, and many return home to work in the village and raise their children. With increased access to formal education, young highlanders of different ethnic groups now speak the same Thai dialect. Jakkapong has encouraged this new generation of highlanders, those under 20-years-old, to participate in leadership roles in managing the supply chain.

In addition to restoring financial security and environmental quality, Jakkapong is working to restore the family unit and the cultural heritage of highland communities. He works with village elders and youth to develop musical training activities, as a form of intergenerational education. Jakkapong is also working with highlanders from different ethnic groups across Museu Mountain to develop a seed exchange network, specific to the modern market for cold-weather vegetables.

As a highlander, Jakkapong grew up in an unstable environment of threat and fear. When he was ten-years-old, his village was declared a national forest and overnight, everyone living in the village became encroachers of state property. Plans to evict the community surfaced periodically and Jakkapong later learned that his village was set to be evicted not because of deforestation but because a politician wanted the land to build a resort. For this and many other reasons, Jakkapong lived among highlanders who feared government officials and all lowland Thais.

Jakkapong, however, had the opportunity to leave his village and pursue formal education up to 9th grade, working to pay for his own schooling. The school received highlanders and other economically disadvantaged children from rural areas. While in school Jakkapong learned to speak formal Thai and interact with lowland Thais. In exchange for food and lodging, Jakkapong labored near the local municipality market. It was there that he saw how lowlanders face a challenge of access to clean and safe food. Jakkapong knew his people knew how to produce clean and safe food in the forests, but lacked the resources and power to sell their products to lowlanders without being taken advantage of. This realization helped him to first see the opportunities his people had.

Returning to the village after finishing the 9th grade, Jakkapong invited young friends to destroy opium fields belonging to some of their neighbors; in an attempt to restore the forest and save the village from eviction. In 1996, Jakkapong was arrested by the highway police for selling produce along the highway. Later, his fellow villagers were arrested for clearing forest land to farm. Through each of these experiences, Jakkapong realized that he needed to find a place for villagers to sell near their homes; a market for clean and safe food.

In 1997 Jakkapong built Museu Mountain Market with a not-for-profit model on the same site where a roadside market had been set up by his ancestors in 1978. Today, it is a communal space where highlanders can bring their produce and goods to sell. Jakkapong’s market approach is an innovative method to solve the problem of powerlessness faced by ethnic minorities in Thailand. He believes economic participation will enable highlanders to stand on equal footing and preserve their cultural heritage with dignity. Jakkapong’s work has earned him the respect of villagers across the highland region. He was elected to represent highlanders at meetings with government officials, including the provincial governor. Despite only having a 9th grade education level, Jakkapong has found creative solutions in working with the government, creating sustainably grown agroforestry products, and bringing together a trusted network of ethnic minorities to preserve the highland communities.