Building Bridges with Micro Economies

Story :             Liz Smailes   
Images :          courtesy of Michael Mann

Arriving by boat from America in the late 1950s with his parents, Michael Mann followed in his father’s footsteps 25 years later. From playing with ethnic tribal children in his preschool days to studying business and agronomy in America, today he is an international consultant for rural community development programs- even in Italy!

The first Arabica coffee trees were planted in Thailand’s northern provinces in the late 1960s / early 70’s under His Majesty the King of Thailand’s & the United Nations’ original opium eradication/crop substitution program for Thailand’s northern Hill Tribe communities. Michael Mann’s father was one of the advising figures behind the initiative. The inspiration to continue his work lives on in Michael, helping resource-deprived villagers through various projects under the Integrated Tribal Development Program (ITDP). Michael started the program in 1990.

“My parents came over here in 1959 supported by the American Baptist churches to work with ethnic hill tribes in the areas of development. My father’s background was agriculture, agronomy, working with plants and integrating this with community structures.” Arriving in Thailand at that time, the 1960s and 1970s saw Thailand at the height of its opium production, farmed solely by hill tribes as an income to live.

“Maybe a small percentage of that crop was for medicinal purposes themselves as they didn’t have access to medication. At the same time Burma and Laos were both producing more and more as Thailand backed out of that particular business, but that is where the Golden Triangle owes its name. Actually, it is a sad fact that this is most likely the reason Thailand is on the global map today and brought tourism here,” explained Michael.

Indeed, the Opium War Museum in Chiang Rai has won many prizes, most recently an award from the TAT at the Tourism awards 2006. Ask anyone who has been there and they will tell you to allocate a full day for visiting. But eradicating the crop was of no help to the problem unless an alternative was offered. “People in development knew this, so the UN came in and at that time not many foreigners were here, certainly not with a development background. Initially my father agreed to the posting for 5 years, and it continued to 25 years because when you solve one problem, the trees are cleared and another one stares you right in the face. During that time opium was eradicated by 190 Tons (From 200 Tons down to 10 Tons)

“My father would always take me along on the trips. I can remember walking to villages with him, playing with the village kids and adapting and learning the culture with him. Since he had this knowledge working with the coffee plants before, he was able to draw on that and start introducing this to Thailand, making it grow well, finding markets and slowing eradicate opium crops. Why Coffee? There were other options, strawberries, potatoes, cabbages lots of other crops, but coffee is probably the 2nd most traded crop worldwide after oil, there was a market opportunity at the time and it is a crop that is easy to grow; you can keep it for many years without replenishing the plants annually. What we are doing now is growing organic taking environmental issues into account.”

After working on projects with his father, Michael had been able to identify the weak areas of knowledge necessary if tribes were ever going to escape poverty and become self sustainable. As a result, he geared all his overseas education to those weak areas. “I was at university for nine years, studying and waiting for doors to open. I obtained a double major in areas of agronomy, minors in business and plant pathology and then followed it up with a master’s degree.” Currently Michael is completing a doctorate in rural and community development at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.

“I was invited to work with a different tribal group to my father, who began with the Karen people, whereas my start was with the Lahu tribe and a drinking water / irrigation project. The streams were drying up and they had no access to waters other than to walk hours to a stream. They needed new drinking water sources and for crop irrigation, the other need was in the area of micro enterprises using agriculture. During my first 5 years here I was just working with Lahu people, but the same need was applied to other tribes, and that is when it began to mushroom - it just never ends” laughed Mike with such a glint of bewilderment and adventure in his eye, it is easy to admire and sense his commitment and dedication.

“We have always believed that in order for this to be successful, they needed to contribute something financially and manually to gain ownership. At the beginning it was maybe 10%, they would also contribute the labour and after a few years the neighbours began to see the benefits; we were bombarded with requests. We have villages now contributing 40 - 70 % because they see the benefits in the long run - water for family garden and herbs, crops, cooking, bathing, building with cement. A lot of the teachers come from the city or lowlands, and are not used to that environment, but when water is available then they are more apt to stay longer (20 days /month) and that benefits the community enormously. When you see the smiles and children playing under the water as the tap opens for the first time, your heart just melts! It makes such a difference to so many lives.”

The Integrated Tribal Development Program (ITDP) implements and oversees water, agriculture and sanitation projects in the remotest areas in Northern Thailand. Michael and his staff are highly trained professionals working with various organizations, not any particular one in the development areas. Out of one solution, another problem area arises. “With the water systems in place, the villagers no longer need four hours to bring water in the home. But everything is done the natural way - and this led to hygiene issues of bare feet walking in the house where outside disease and dirt spread. They were eating off the floor where the same feet had been walking etc. and many had not been out of the village so they had not experienced what hygiene can do. It was quite a learning curve of what was actually possible with a water source and tap for every 5 houses.”

Water, then produced the need for micro-enterprises enabling them to get out of poverty, not just providing an income, but also opportunities for a community, building bridges to have an education, medical treatment, arable representatives in decision making bodies - even just a national status. “We see all these other needs, you can’t give water and then leave because it is all part of helping getting out of development. At the same time I knew I wasn’t going to be around for ever, and as part of local ownership transfer to them I pulled myself out and a tribal member was chosen for the management position along with 4 -5 local staff. Now we have various micro economies with project managers.”

Mike holds a full time consultancy role to assist ways in which to address each new problem as it arises and help maintain stability on the accomplished work. However, Mike and I laughed over our cappuccinos at the idea of the coffee farmers now being in a “teenager stage”, doing everything they have been told not to do, but as difficult as it is for parents to sit back and watch, the teenager sometime has to learn through mistakes.

At present the Thai Tribal Arabica Coffee Cooperative is a full-pledge member of Fair-trade Labelling Organization (FLO) International.  The coffee is sold domestically under Lanna brand and Lanna Café shop in Chiang Mai.  The green beans are being exported to Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, and the United States.  Starbucks, for example, is one committed buyer.  Their product, Muan Jai blend (Wholehearted happiness) using the coffee cooperative’s green beans, is marketed and is popular with Starbucks customers here in Thailand as well as some countries in the Asia Pacific.  However, while the cooperative offers its member farmer’s additional support via education grants for children, medical insurance, pension schemes etc., the immediate pay is not as high as some of the coffee brokers are offering when dealing directly with them. It is an attractive short term wealth, but the brokers don’t really seem to understand or appreciate the full scale of damage they are doing to the farmers long term well being.

Mike’s reputation of implementing practical agriculture, economic, and social activities has transcended across the borders and he finds himself wearing “all kinds of different hats.” Recently he has been called to South America and even Italy to offer advice, “While I love doing this and I am flattered to be asked, my heart lies with the hill tribe people of Thailand. When tackling a new country you can’t just take a blue print and make it work elsewhere, however wherever I go now I look to first learning about the culture and history before offering advice, and it is always with the hope that by constantly learning new things, I can bring back more knowledge home with me to help the communities here.”

Tropical Living: December 2006, Volume 6 Issue 7

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