Associate Professor Dr. Prapart Pintobtang is the Director of Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute (CUSRI). He is a passionate organic farmer and his farm is part of a unique area not far from Bangkok where farmers share the art of agriculture in the spirit of “the commons movement”. In 2014 Dr. Prapart co-initated a march from Chiang Mai to Bangkok to promote land reform. He was arrested and kept in detention briefly.
In response to long-standing land problems in the country, the government passed a resolution to allow communities to farm state land for a period of 30 years. A mechanism was created to issue ‘community title deeds’, and oversee the practice of the farming communities. However, farmers who have long struggled over land rights are skeptical of this measure, as opposed to their own version of community title deeds.
During his tenure as Director of CUSRI, Ajarn Prapart guided various international conferences and he initiated research in Thailand on sustainable agriculture and Agenda 2030.
One of his publications, together with colleagues, is Final report “community rights situation to natural resources management in global circumstances, 2004-2005”, Thailand Research Fund, 2006.
CURLS 2019 participants will visit his farm during the ‘Ecology & Theatre’ module at Chulalongkorn University.
