participatory modeling exercise, while ex-post evaluations – as employed in the
case study in the Mae La Ngun sub-catchment – can also help researchers better
understand how stakeholder modeling may or may not lead to sustained conflict
resolution mechanisms in the field of mountain watershed management.
9.3.3 Lessons Learned from Stakeholder Participation
in Environmental Valuation in Thailand
In an environmental valuation study carried out in Thailand and using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) – a novel form of participation – so-called Citizen
Expert Groups (CEGs) were developed and employed to increase the validity of the
survey results (cf. Ahlheim et al. 2010 for details). The specific aim was to test the
potential of participatory techniques in terms of improving CVM mail surveys
(MS), to the extent that they could substitute for conventionally applied but highly
expensive face-to-face (F2F) surveys. Apart from incurring much lower costs,
MShave the advantage that they give respondents more time to think about the
valuation scenario presented to them in the questionnaire and what it is worth to
them in monetary terms. However, survey results may not be representative of the
whole population, since the response rates for MS are usually rather low – often
below 20 %, and responses are systematically biased in the sense that it is mainly
those people with a special interest in the presented scenario that return the
questionnaires, while others often do not.
The approach taken in Thailand was to employ people randomly selected from
the survey population to form an advisory Citizen Expert Group, in which they
would function as experts on how normal citizens behave when confronted with the
task of filling in and returning questionnaires received through the mail. The
specific task of that group was to identify features of the survey design in general,
and the questionnaire in particular, those that might prevent people from being
interested in the survey, from understanding the questions and the scenario and;
thus, from returning the completed questionnaire to the researchers. Consequently,
the citizen experts were meant to become active participants in the research process
itself and function as project partners from the perspective of the population to
which the survey was addressed. This form of active participation can be achieved
by organizing a series of such group meetings, involving experts from the very
beginning of the survey and questionnaire design right up to, ideally, the final
evaluation and interpretation of the results.
In the study CVM survey – an evaluation of improvements in tap water quality in
Mae Rim, a suburb of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and in the downstream area
of the Mae Sa watershed – stakeholder participation was tested empirically to see if
it could significantly improve the CVM mail survey’s results. Two survey waves
were conducted, each containing an MS and an F2F survey, and in which two
parallel groups of citizen experts were employed only in the second wave.
9 Participatory Approaches to Research and Development in the Southeast. . .
341
case study in the Mae La Ngun sub-catchment – can also help researchers better
understand how stakeholder modeling may or may not lead to sustained conflict
resolution mechanisms in the field of mountain watershed management.
9.3.3 Lessons Learned from Stakeholder Participation
in Environmental Valuation in Thailand
In an environmental valuation study carried out in Thailand and using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) – a novel form of participation – so-called Citizen
Expert Groups (CEGs) were developed and employed to increase the validity of the
survey results (cf. Ahlheim et al. 2010 for details). The specific aim was to test the
potential of participatory techniques in terms of improving CVM mail surveys
(MS), to the extent that they could substitute for conventionally applied but highly
expensive face-to-face (F2F) surveys. Apart from incurring much lower costs,
MShave the advantage that they give respondents more time to think about the
valuation scenario presented to them in the questionnaire and what it is worth to
them in monetary terms. However, survey results may not be representative of the
whole population, since the response rates for MS are usually rather low – often
below 20 %, and responses are systematically biased in the sense that it is mainly
those people with a special interest in the presented scenario that return the
questionnaires, while others often do not.
The approach taken in Thailand was to employ people randomly selected from
the survey population to form an advisory Citizen Expert Group, in which they
would function as experts on how normal citizens behave when confronted with the
task of filling in and returning questionnaires received through the mail. The
specific task of that group was to identify features of the survey design in general,
and the questionnaire in particular, those that might prevent people from being
interested in the survey, from understanding the questions and the scenario and;
thus, from returning the completed questionnaire to the researchers. Consequently,
the citizen experts were meant to become active participants in the research process
itself and function as project partners from the perspective of the population to
which the survey was addressed. This form of active participation can be achieved
by organizing a series of such group meetings, involving experts from the very
beginning of the survey and questionnaire design right up to, ideally, the final
evaluation and interpretation of the results.
In the study CVM survey – an evaluation of improvements in tap water quality in
Mae Rim, a suburb of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and in the downstream area
of the Mae Sa watershed – stakeholder participation was tested empirically to see if
it could significantly improve the CVM mail survey’s results. Two survey waves
were conducted, each containing an MS and an F2F survey, and in which two
parallel groups of citizen experts were employed only in the second wave.
9 Participatory Approaches to Research and Development in the Southeast. . .
341