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In Phitsanulok province, about 400 km from Bangkok, the community of Wang Som Sa village has restored a local variety of orange, Som Sa, after which the village is also named. The orange variety is called “sa” because the fruit tastes tangy.
This bitter orange is the center of the community’s bioeconomy efforts to recover their surrounding ecosystems and provide a better livelihood for their communities.
The efforts of Wang Som Sa village show the successful integration of the three bioeconomy concepts of biotechnology, bioresources, and bioecology.
Around 2014, the Wang Som Sa community, led by Ms. Pha-ern Phongseechompoo, brought traditional plant varieties back into the village. Their efforts over the years have resulted in the expansion of around 300 trees of local varieties from only one tree in 2014.
Figure 1 Bitter orange tree or Som Sa. In Thai, “sa” means tangy or zesty and is often used to describe naughty children. From each Som Sa tree, the community members pick the fruits and leaves from the smaller branches to extract the juice that forms the key ingredient for many bioeconomy products.
The community has previous experience producing cosmetics using coconut-based products supervised by Thailand’s Biodiversity-Based Economy Development (BEDO). BEDO’s mission is to promote and assist the value chain process for sustainable biodiversity-based economic development. Through biodiversity resource utilization, they create added value in manufacturing and service sectors while encouraging the conservation of biodiversity and preservation of local knowledge.
BEDO helps to ensure the community follows health and quality standards in bioproducts. After making the first coconut-based bioproduct, the community began to start making products from their Som Sa trees. They started with using the juice of the leaves to treat skin ailments and nourish the skin. BEDO did quality testing and then agreed to support the community with training and to identify markets for their products.
Figure 2 Ms. Pha-ern Phongseechompoo, the leader of the community bioeconomy enterprise, has been the main force to rally the community members to get interested in producing bioproducts. The community collaborates with government agencies, the private sector, financial institutions, and many local organizations in Phitsanulok province.
The community knows that producing a few bioproducts is not enough, they want to make the venture both profitable and sustainable in the long term. Their next step is to convince more members of the community to get involved in the bioeconomy efforts.
They say three things have helped them to expand support in the community: (1) They communicated how the enterprise could help improve people’s lives and livelihoods. (2) They created a transparent benefit-sharing mechanism where the gains reach the workers and also contribute to better resource management. (3) They partnered with BEDO and the Ministry of Industry to provide them with knowledge and the technology needed to develop their product and to access markets.
Their success has not come without struggles. Convincing the community members and gaining their trust was a big challenge. They built trust by working collaboratively across the community, and always putting the community first in their business model. They provided information about the enterprise’s potential benefits, raised awareness of the importance of protecting biodiversity, and also built their capacities through partnerships with state officials, academia, and other organizations.
Figure 3 Ms. Saranporn Kirdkoh (left) and Dr. Chanai Noysang (right), lecturers from Naresuan University and Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, are closely involved in supporting the community with information and capacity building for their bioeconomy efforts.
Our success involves the fact that we do the entire cycle from top to bottom. At the top, we grow the raw materials, with support from the provincial agriculture office. We gather advice about how to grow Som Sa trees in the off-season. Then we make bio-products by ourselves. Our production facility ensures that the community will earn income from this venture. We intend to be a role model for the communities visiting and learning from us. When they look at our entire management model, they can reflect on it and try to apply it to their own community’s context.
Pa-ern Pongseechompoo, President of the Community Enterprise Group for the Development of Bio-Resource Products for the Ban Wang Som Sa Community Economy.
The community bioeconomy initiative is helping to revive their environment while and providing cash income and livelihood options. Their efforts are a showcase for the importance of collective efforts ranging across the local community to supportive regulatory agencies, with inputs from practitioners, to further the community’s transformation toward a green economy.
The SEI initiative on Governing Bioeconomy Pathways is collaborating with BEDO in order to show the linkages to concrete advances in the bioeconomy by showcasing their work and the SEI team traveled to Phitsanulok for a workshop and a study visit to the village. The SEI team conducts interdisciplinary studies across different countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America in order to bridge the knowledge gap as to how the principles of bioeconomy can—and are—being translated into policy and practice around the world, and to illustrate the institutions and governance mechanisms needed to implement bioeconomy pathways at different scales from local to global.
Initiative / This initiative aims to guide decision-makers towards more cohesive and constructive governance of bioeconomy pathways, with a focus on the Global South.
Initiative / This initiative aims to guide decision-makers towards more cohesive and constructive governance of bioeconomy pathways, with a focus on the Global South.
Past event / The workshop will allow stakeholders to co-create scenarios and pathways for bioeconomy in Southeast Asia.
Past event / This webinar will explore the development, policies, and pathways of bioeconomy in the region.
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