A village in Ngao Model Forest has found sustainable livelihood in lac cultivation

Ban Bor Si Liam in Lampang, northern Thailand is known for its lush forests. Home to the lu Mien people, the 100-household village is tucked in the hills of Ngao district. Its forest and residential areas are part of the Ngao Model Forest.

Over the past 10 years, Ban Bor Si Liam has become the centre of a lucrative agroforestry business. The cultivation of lac – a resinous substance produced by tiny scale insects and used in the food, pharmaceuticals, wood finishing, cosmetics, electronics, and sealant and adhesives industries – brings in an annual income of over USD 620,000 (THB 20 million) to the village.

Restoring a depleted landscape

In the early 2000s, the healthy forest areas that today host scores of lac insects were almost entirely depleted. Forest degradation and deforestation had deteriorated Ngao’s key water source, which also supplies water to Chae Hom, its neighboring district. Worawut Chaisuksrisongfa, head of Ban Bor Si Liam, says, “The headwaters in our forests were dry. Our community was on the verge of total collapse.”

He also remembers that wildfires would rage across Ngao during the dry season. As lac insects can only live on trees in a cool environment, wildfire and deforestation meant habitat destruction and guaranteed mortality. To safeguard their sustainable livelihood investment, villagers devised a firefighting system that continues to be used today.

“We have nurtured our forest back to a pristine condition,” says Chaisuksrisongfa. “Without the forest, this community wouldn’t exist. We have to protect it, and everyone knows this.”

To prevent the outbreak of wildfires, firebreaks are installed every February and March. When fires from other areas spread into the vicinity, community members take swift measures to maintain total control over them.

A symbiotic solution

“Lac insects cannot live without the forest and the forest also needs them,” says Chaisuksrisongfa. In Ban Bor Si Liam, lychee trees are used as host trees for lac. “By using perennial trees as host trees, we also increase demand for perennial trees,” he says.

The village currently has 10,000 lychee trees. Chaisuksrisongfa notes that villagers want to grow more perennial trees and expand forest area. “This way, we can improve the quality of our forest.”

As lac cultivation orients the village towards perennial trees, corn and annual crop plants also lose their commercial relevance. The success of lac cultivation has allowed the community to phase out annual crops and slash-and-burn agriculture.

“This has significantly reduced the occurrences of fires, smog, environmental degradation as well as the health impacts of air pollution,” says Chaisuksrisongfa.

An economic pivot

Although the practice of cultivating lac in Ban Bor Si Liam can be traced back up to five decades, its lac business success story is more recent. “Up until the early 2000s, lac cultivation played second fiddle to lychee fruit farming,” says Chaisuksrisongfa.

“We caught lac bugs from the wild. They have always been there in the forests. We could just go and collect them,” he continues.

In the late 1990s, Ban Bor Si Liam experimented with expanding the lac agroforestry business. Although more people turned to lac insects, lychee fruit remained the primary source of income for the community.

The situation began to pivot in 2002 when lychee fruit prices declined. Meanwhile, lac cultivation was steadily rising. In 2016, with lac prices soaring, almost everyone in Ban Bor Si Liam became full-time lac insect farmers. According to Chaisuksrisongfa, around 90 per cent of the community has switched from other types of agriculture to lac farming.

The climate challenge

However, rising global temperatures are affecting lac harvests and prices. As summers in Thailand have swelled into seasons of extreme heat, lac insects, which are already vulnerable to hot weather, have started to succumb to the dry season. “Global warming is killing lac insects. They can only be farmed on colder land, like upland areas,” observes Chaisuksrisongfa .

Situated in the mountains, Ban Bor Si Liam is generally blessed with cool weather. In the past three years, however, the village has been trapped in dangerous heat, which has put their lac insects and the local ecological and economic systems at risk.

“A top priority of the village is enhancing the survivability of the forest landscape,” says Chaisuksrisongfa. “Our community is actively discussing measures like installing a watering system during the dry season to reduce lac mortality.”

Cultivating the next generation

“We want more perennial trees in the forest and more local lac farmers,” he says. “Currently, our lac farmers are aged between 40 and 80. Only a handful of young folks find economic gain and purpose in their hometown.”

As youngsters leave the village in pursuit of careers in other provinces or countries, Ban Bor Si Liam is faced with a dwindling workforce. But Chaisuksrisongfa remains optimistic. He sees lac cultivation with its high profits and relative stability as a potential game changer.

“It once revived the dying forest and local business, and now it has the potential to rejuvenate young people’s interest in returning to their hometown,” he says. “If people who move out to other cities see how easy lac cultivation is, they might come back. They could be here instead of in other places, working and living in their hometown.”

Ban Bor Si Liam is part of the Ngao Model Forest, a member of the Regional Model Forest Network–Asia (RMFN–Asia), for which RECOFTC serves as Secretariat.

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The Regional Model Forest Network–Asia is supported by the Global Leadership Program under the Department of Natural Resources, Government of Canada. RECOFTC is the Secretariat of RMFN–Asia.