ncreasing flood risks in Thailand are leading to new challenges for flood management and subsequently for livelihoods, which are still significantly agricultural. Policy makers prefer building flood protection infrastructure over utilizing non-structural measures like urban planning regulations to mitigate risks. We argue that unplanned urbanization intensifies flood risks and livelihood vulnerability and may even create new poverty patterns in peri-urban areas.

The Thailand Land Titling Project is an outstanding success story of inter-agency cooperation and received the World Bank Award for Excellence in 1997. It was designed as a four-phase project over 20 years and will finish in 2004. The project partners the Royal Thai Government, the Bank, and the government of Australia provided funds and personnel, with the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) supplying technical assistance and training programs to the Department of Lands (Thailand).

The establishment and development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) are a central part of the Thai government’s strategy to expand infrastructure and attract foreign investment. These areas have been designated for development pursuant to special legal and regulatory frameworks. SEZs can play a useful role in a country’s economic development strategy. However, in many instances, their establishment results in the dilution of legal protections for human rights and the environment.

This article presents a chronology of the growth of the concept of Indigeneity in Thailand, analysing the particular ways in which the global Indigenous movement has taken root in the country. In Thailand, transnational support networks and the opening of political associational space played key roles in facilitating the growth of, first, a regional, and later a national Indigenous movement during the 1980s and early 2000s, respectively.