Reconsidering Environmentality: Coexistence of Direct and Indirect Power in Conservation by Coffee Production in Chiang Rai, Thailand

This article aims to discuss the politics of environmental conservation with a focus on promoting coffee growing in the border highlands in Thailand. By promoting coffee production in these areas, environmental consciousness is created, and a conservation ideology is instilled in the minds of the people. This paper highlights the coexistence between indirect and direct controlling power in natural resource conservation through coffee production. In turn, the concept of multiple environmentalities can be applied to explain this coexistence between indirect and direct power. In this confluence of multiple environmentalities, direct and indirect power interact alongside Thai royal hegemony which is a crucial actor in conservation through coffee production. This paper also aims to present traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) as “truth environmentality” – a fourth notion of multiple environmentality, which is not static but has been developed and modified in the process of the conservation project.