Sustainability/Doi Tung Development Project

Chatrudee Theparat

After 36 years of operating the Doi Tung Development Project, the Mae Fah Luang Foundation has come up with new ideas to create sustainability development models.

Climate change crisis and social disparity have brought challenges to the foundation. It has to think more and learn how to adjust its role to the changing world of sustainability. Then, it decided to emphasize in 4 areas, including quality of life development, social business (Doi Tung brand), nature-based solutions or a management to protect and restore the ecosystem sustainably (using nature to solve natural problems), and sustainability.

Operating nature-based solutions and being sustainability advisor are a new role of the foundation.

ML Dispanadda Diskul, chief executive officer of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage, said the 36 years of operating Doi Tung Development Project has widened the operation more experience in creative ways of development, especially an alternative development model and eventually to become known globally.

In fact, on the negative side, climate change has sent an impact on the operation, but on the plus side, it has offered opportunity to the foundation as well, especially playing a new role as a sustainability consult.

“There are good words being said that we must ‘avoid the unmanageable and manage the unavoidable’ which means that we must avoid what we cannot manage and manage what we cannot avoid. This is the theme of our work in the future,” said ML Dispanadda.

Regarding nature-based solutions, the foundation helps to manage carbon credits to 25 companies covering 258,816 rai. This year, the foundation plans to increase more management among 150,000-300,000 rai of community forests in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lampang, Lamphun, Nan, Mae Hong Son, and Tak, bringing an increase of carbon credit to 45,000-90,000 tons a year.

He said being sustainability advisor is in line with the global sustainability trend. Currently, the world has prioritized sustainability goals, following the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), reducing net zero greenhouse gas emissions, and the goal of halting the loss and restoring the world’s biodiversity by 2030.

In addition, the international development forum also pointed out the close connection between the blend of improving human quality of life, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and restoring nature.

The year of 2024 was the hottest year on the world record, with the global average temperature between January and September, the weather was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than the pre-industrial revolution.

Doi Tung’s Mae Fah Luang Garden. It’s one of the most popular attractions in the region.

Also, natural disasters have took place to cause severe and widespread impacts. The impacts are even wider, with outcomes like inequality to those at risk further into poverty. Given this, the Doi Tung Model has got more attention from the international forum and private sector, hoping to bring it to help re-manage to solve such issues in organizations

“The foundation works differently from the past in that we brought knowledge to create change and used that area as a learning point. Currently, we have changed to work by collaborating with other organizations in the form of more "engagement". We want more friends to make the journey together.”

According talk to executives of companies after working with, he said the "Mae Fah Luang model" is put into practice and the collective knowledge of the foundation is considered to help train and teach people in various organizations both in Thailand and abroad.

“I think that the attitude towards work has changed. In the past, we did everything ourselves to make people understand the development. But today, we go another way by empowering them to understand, to help teach their people, and we have to do it at every level, from the executive level to the operational level, from the top down and the bottom up, so that the policies and operational levels move forward together, and then it will be successful.”

ML Disnadda said that in the past, the private sector would keep focus on their financial performance as the main factor. But currently, change is seen because the world gives more importance to sustainability by putting more concerns on this factor into business operations.

The relationship between the company's performance and the use of resources is together connected. The question is how well business and society will stay together at the time of the natural disasters to become bigger. Global warming is for example to give more big impact on people lives and business operation at the same time.

He said the role of sustainability advisor covers different areas including climate change management, carbon footprint, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, garbage management, and the latest new opportunity on bio-diversity management.