Climate Change, Trees and Livelihood: A Case Study on the Carbon Footprint of a Karen Community in Northern Thailand

Global climate change is increasingly affecting the agricultural sector of Thailand in various ways, manifested by worsening drought, floods, and irregular rainfall. All these are additional risks to livelihood activities, resources, food security, and thus may lead to an increase of poverty.

Thailand ratified the UNFCCC on 28 December 1994 and ratified the Kyoto Protocol on 28 August 2002. The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Plan (ON REP) has been designated as the national focal point on climate change under the UNFCCC.

The Thai government designated the ONREP to draft a national master plan on climate change in the form of a ten-year work plan starting from 2010 to 2019 with the following three strategies:

Creating the ability to cope and adapt to the effects of climate change
Promoting involvement of all sectors in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sinks based on sustainable development
Integrated management of climate change