Abstract:
The objectives of this research were to 1) study community and local wisdom for environmental and natural resources conservation in Samchai district Kalasin province, 2) study the guidelines to construct a local wisdom center for environmental and natural resources conservation in Samchai district, 3) construct and develop a local wisdom center for environmental and natural resources conservation, 4) compare the knowledge, awareness, and skill of environmental and natural resources conservation of people after they use the local wisdom center classified by personal factor. This study used a research and development method involving 4 phases. Phase 1: Study community and local wisdom. Key informants involved were consisted of 64 people who used local wisdom for environmental and natural resources in Samchai district by purposive sampling. It included sub-district headmen, village headmen, head of sub-district administration organizations, school administrators, hospital administrators, heads of village health volunteer and community wisdom. The instrument used was sub-structured interviews. The results were analyzed by content analysis. Phase 2: Study guidelines to construct the local wisdom center. Key informants involved were knowledgeable and experienced individuals. They included 68 people who were school administrators, health promotion hospital administrators, local wisdom village health volunteer and community wisdom people. The instrument used was sub-structured. The results were analyzed by content analysis. Phase 3: Construct and develop local wisdom center. Key informants were 24 professionals from learning centers and professional of applied local wisdom. The instruments used were a question for focus group discussions. The results were analyzed by content analysis, mean, and standard deviation. Phase 4: Study the results of Local wisdom center Samples were 100 volunteers who learned at local wisdom centers. The instrument used were 1) a local wisdom knowledge test with a significance reliability of 0.73, discrimination ranging from 0.70 to 0.77 and difficulty ranging from 0.25 to 0.77, 2) a local wisdom awareness test with a significance reliability of 0.74 3) a local wisdom skill test with a significance reliability of 0.74. The results were analyzed by percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test and F-test.The research findings were as follows: 1)Community and local wisdom for environmental and natural resources conservation. Samchai district, Kalasin province was 4 sub-districts 47 villages. It was an highland and mountain of forest. People there led simple lives following original customs and local ways, carrying out agriculture and using forest as a food source. They developed local wisdom to mix customs with environmental and natural resources conservation as conserve the soil, water, and forest. Environmental and natural resources conservation had 12 customs 14 rules. It was a dominant feature to pressure their youth to learn and apply this knowledge in their lives. 2)The guiding to construct local wisdom center was done by collecting information on local wisdom from elders, and local wisdom rooted in community culture. The local wisdom on how to conserve the soil, water, and forests was collected in a useful book on local wisdom and instructional media for people to use conveniently. Important factors for this center consisted of the learning the basics about soil, water, forests and the environment in all the learning activities. 3)The principles of the local wisdom center applied local wisdom for the conservation of environmental and natural resources. It was constructed by using 4 base lessons: (1) Samchai as their home base was the learning base of the Samchai community culture to conserve environmental and natural resources, (2) soil conservation local wisdom was based on learning how to recover the soil, (3) water conservation local wisdom was based on learning how to solve water problems for agriculture, (4) forest conservation local wisdom was based on involving its conservation with grandfather spirits, and forest ordination. All learning bases had informational signposts, handbooks, instructional media, and learning activities. The quality of the local wisdom was very good level. ( = 4.62, S.D. = 0.53). 4)After using local wisdom center, people of different gender, age and education level did not have differing levels of knowledge awareness or skills related to environmental and natural resources conservation.