Abstract:
To investigate the levels of the local peoples participation in cultural environment conservation and factors affecting the locals participation as well as to offer suggestion to the involvement of local people in cultural environment conservation. Quantitative and qualitative methods are applied to conduct this research. As for quantitative methods, questionnaires are sent out and collected from 316 local householders as representative samples. Statistical data, which are frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum value, and a multiple regression analysis and hierarchical method, are applied to analyze the result of the study. As for qualitative methods, in-depth interview with thirteen key informants are employed and content analysis is used to present data. The result of the study is that the participation of the whole local people who engage in cultural environment conservation is in a high level. Most the high participation level is in monitoring and evaluation process, while the average level of participation is in brainstorming and planning process. The study of factors affecting the locals participation reveals that faith, belief, time spent in community, level of education, awareness about cultural environment, and access to information are the main factors that influence the participation of local people in cultural environment conservation, with 0.05 statistical significance. The suggestion of the study is that local people should participate in designing local curriculum, training young local guide, establishing cultural learning center and organizing the conservation of Sri Song Rak network.